Steam, sunset, spring rolls, sleep sack

First things first: I am at an internet cafe in Luang Prabang and it is, as rumored, filled with monks using the internet! There is one in his saffron robe right next to me! Luang Prabang has dozens of monasteries (nearly 100 apparently) so the density of monks is very high, and I heard they frequent the internet cafes, but you just can't imagine the weirdness of it until you are in the moment.

I have arrived from my 2 day wooden boat journey down the Mekong, but let me backtrack my night in the border town. I previously mentioned the Red Cross sauna they were heating up two days ago, and I want to devote this post to the joys and civility of international bathing rituals which we entirely lack in America. The Lao Sauna differs from others in being an extremely heavily steam sauna: you can't even see a foot in front of you, and in my first sauna misadventure I entered, tripped on a bench, then sat down right on top of a Lao woman. Whoops! Nothing is as embarassing as listening to the next five minutes of Lao conversation and only understanding the repeated word farang (white person). I had thought I was the first person into the sauna but apparently whilst writing my last blog post 2 locals beat me into it (one now squashed, one intact).

Anyhow their ritual is 10-20 minutes in fierce steam sauna, then come sit outside on a balcony overlooking the Mekong sunset and drink specially made herbal tea to restore nutrients to your body. Then back to the sauna, back to tea, as many times as you can stand (for me that tops out around 3). You get to wear the most gorgeous woven sarangs whilst you do this, and happily I seem to be the only white person who bothered to research the bathing situation so it's all local (I have already been, right off the boat, to the Red Cross Sauna here in Luang Prabang too).

After my sauna two days ago, I grabbed dinner at one of the dozens of restaurants clinging to an overhang on the banks of the Mekong, and watched a fiercely vivid sunset. They had a phenomenal tom yum salad, my new favorite food - a huge pile of shaved papaya lightly dressed in a fiery hot dressing - sweet and hot and refreshing all at once! And Lao beer is delightfully effervescent and all of like 30 cents.

When I got back to my hotel the power was out, and I cursed myself for picking such a cheap place; but they then explained that the entire town's power was out. Perhaps that was why there were so many random bonfires going in the street? Or perhaps that's just life in a povertous village. I'll never know. When I asked why it was out they said "Comes from Thailand." Kind of hilarious. Not being able to inspect my sheets in the dark for bedbugs (I have not heard any reports while here, but read enough before going on this vacation to feel terrified of the prospect) I unwrapped my sleep sack for the first time, essentially a sewn up sheet, and hit the hay. I wanted to get up early enough not only for my morning yoga but to secure a good seat on the wooden boat, which was going to depart "9 or 12 tomorrow" as though there is no nuance whatsoever between the two.