Farewell, my lovely Luang Prabang

This was my last full day in Laos, and I am saying a sad farewell to Luang Prabang, the most livable city outside the US save Mexico City that I have ever encountered. The combination of cheap luxury, stunning scenic beauty, spicy food, fresh fruits, monks and motorcycling is all any girl could ask for!

I spent the morning motorbiking to the legendary Kouang Xi waterfalls/swimming holes, which I was a bit skeptical about, since I am skeptical about all destinations mentioned in tourist guidebooks, and also not the biggest waterfall person. It's water, and it's falling, folks! But I am SO glad I went, and SO glad I did the slightly uncomfortable clothing combination of motorcycle gear/swimwear. Plus it was my big laundry day ($1 for all your clothes washed in two hours) so I had very limited clean clothes leftover to choose from already. Let's just say I made sure no photos of me in my outfit were taken today.

Much like how no one photo can capture Amsterdam's endless beautiful rows of 1600's townhouses, no one photo can show you the beauty of Kouang Xi's endless crystal blue swimming holes, descending one after the other, waterfall giving way to swimming hole and again a dozen times, with local Lao frolicking nearby on their Sunday picnics. But I was so happy to have my swimwear and readily jumped on in to join the odd mix of monks, local Lao, and tourists enjoying blue pool after blue pool. I'm not clear on where this water comes from, since ever other Lao waterway I have seen is solid brown mud. Perhaps it is communist government-filtered.

My feet still in pain from my four hour jungle hike two days ago, I biked back to town and indulged in an hour long foot massage in the afternoon, which was phenomenal (Eastern-style with a focus on accupressure points, ahhh) and ran me all of $3.50. A sauna, banana milkshake, jumbo BeerLao, and bungalow balcony nap later ($2 total), I returned to "downtown" Luang Prabang for a fancy dinner to celebrate my final night in town.

I had made a reservation at Les 3 Nagas, Lao's most legendary foodie restaurant (it's even been reviewed in the New York Times!). It's quite expensive by Lao standards (by US standards, about equivalent to Olive Garden) - I had 2 generous glasses of wine and a 4 course Lao traditional dinner for $28. The highlight was the starter soup of tofu and Mekong river seaweed, but the overall lesson is that Lao streetfood (which I had been eating all week long) is just as good as Lao gourmet food, and streetfood sets you back a mere $1. But the 3 Nagas service was extremely sweet, and they did write "Mrs. Jynne" in silver paint pen on a banana leaf, bound to tropical flowers, and tied to a candle waiting for me at my table when I arrived, a personal touch I greatly appreciated. Maybe not $27 appreciated. But oh well.

Tomorrow morning I'll enjoy a final morning market and monk's alms, then board my 10:30 AM plane to Cambodia. I can hardy believe that in 24 hours I will be exploring one of the wonders of the ancient world, Angkor Wat. Internet situation in Cambodia is unclear so nobody (mom!) worry if I am MIA for a bit.