Luang Prabang turned out to be a complete surprise in its beauty and history. Old French colonial buildings are everywhere and because it is a Unesco site, it will remain much as it is right now.
The people were extremely friendly...we could never leave or return to our hotel without being asked many questions about our day. Always with a smile on their face. I have a great recommendation for a hotel, if anyone is interested.
Vientiane, on the other hand, appears to be more city-like with a completely different attitude. Usually the hotel check in takes quite a long time as they must give you towels to freshen up and a drink to rehydrate you. They sit you down on a couch or chairs and talk to you while copying the passports and signing you in. You are then given a guided tour of your room, explaining how things work etc.
In our present hotel, none of that happened except the sitting down while copying the passports. I think Alice and Jim may have been given the guided tour, but we weren't.
The one thing that is constant in all Asian hotels is the carrying of our luggage. Our bags will be in the back of the van and before we get out, they are gone. Or, our luggage will be beside us while checking out and when we look it is gone! The hotel staff takes care of it almost magically. This luggage disappearing act has one of my travelling companions shaking her head every time.
Today we will do some checking of the countryside and some walking of the city to see more of the old part. While walking yesterday we saw that this city has many very beautiful temples, which I'm sure we will check out. Although there are only so many temples one can look at. It has been stated by almost all of us that we are "templed out".
1 comment:
I would be with Ali on the luggage disappearance.....except I would be shaking my head at Don for not keeping it by our sides!
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