Luang Prabang, Laos

I arrived, fresh off the boat into Luang Prabang, a beautiful city set in the mountains of northern Laos.

Without a place to stay, I walked the streets for a bit until I found a nice looking hostel and booked a private room for about $10/night. Perfect. Luang Prabang was another city known for its night markets so around sunset I ventured out. I bumped into a bunch of people from the boat as I was walking out and they asked me what I was up to that evening. I mentioned the night markets and then since Luang Prabang wasn't really known to have much nightlife I planned to just take it easy. They balked at that and insisted I come out bowling with them. Bowling?? LOL. Apparently it's the thing to do out there, so I agreed to meet them later on.

Right at the entrance of the main strip where the night market began, a line of stalls, each with various fruit cups piled high caught my eye.

One of each, please!

Pick any cup and they make it into a delicious fruit juice for about $1. Needless to say, this was the start of a beautiful relationship between me and these stalls. Wow. So good!

After I pounded a couple fruit juices I strolled around the night market.

Luang Prabang Night Market

This one had a more local feel to it than the one in Chiang Mai, with lots of interesting crafts and textiles. And snake booze.

Snake Booze

Apparently cobra venom gives it that extra little kick!

I bought a couple cool looking shirts and started making my way back to the hostel. Feeling a little hungry, the smell of fresh noodle soup drew me in. Set up in a little stall on the street corner, this looked like the perfect spot to chow down.

Actually when I rolled up there wasnt a seat to be had, so I had to kind of hover around until someone got up. That's when you know it's a good spot! The ladies were really nice, and tried to discourage me when I ordered it "hot", but I insisted.

Best soup I had had on my entire trip so far. Outstanding! Sweating, and with snot dripping out of my nose from the heat, I ordered a second bowl. The ladies were impressed! There was literally a fire raging in my mouth, so upon finishing the second bowl I promptly excused myself and powerwalked back to the juice stalls. Sweet relief :)

I hurried back to the hostel to meet the group, just as they were cramming into a few tuk tuks on the way to the bowling alley. I hopped in one and we were off. It was obvious that this crew had done some heavy pre-partying, and that I had some catching up to do.

To my surprise it was a really legit little bowling alley! Shortly after we arrived they turned the lights down and music way up. And at $1 each, the beers kept things going until the wee hours. It was an absolute trip. I've been to late night bowling alleys before in the US but this was on a whole other level. Because while in the US there remains a certain level of rules and ettiquite, this was just a free for all. People rolling two and three balls at a time, falling over, one guy even tried to slip and slide down the alley. I kid you not! Crazy Britts.

The next day I hopped on Tinder to see what other solo travelers were out there that I could meet. Which by the way, Tinder is an absolute game-changer for solo travelers - makes it so easy to meet other cool people. I ended up matching with a really nice swiss girl and we became instant friends, sharing stories and cool travel ideas. I told her that I was planning to do a trip to the elephant sanctuary the following day and she signed up as well. It was nice to meet another cool, mature travelling buddy who was around my age, as opposed to all the young crazies I had been hanging out with. That afternoon we decided to check out some of the local waterfalls. Since I had gotten so many cool pictures of waterfalls in Hawaii and Thailand, I decided to leave my camera at home. HUGE mistake. These waterfalls and lagoons were among the coolest I have ever seen! Here's a couple stock photos to give you an idea:

We spent the rest of the afternoon swimming, climbing, and jumping off these things, having an absolute ball. Definitely one of the can't miss things to do in Luang Prabang. Just make sure to bring your camera!

Ughhh I was so bummed about that but oh well. Needless to say we worked up a pretty good appetite that day and so that evening we met up at the night market to see what sort of food we could find. Turns out, there was a little side alley off the main strip which I had completely missed the previous night, where all the food was. And oh man, jackpot! It was basically stall after stall of all you could eat food, for around $2 each! Check it out!

Food bliss.

Gorged, after a pretty action packed day, I decided to make it an early night before the big day at the Elephant Village. I could hardly wait.

 

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