06 Nov

We got up early to see the monks and to go for a run. Afterwards, Tamara and I went to a cooking school. Jamie Oliver (naked chef) had attended previously. It was a great class. First we went to the market. You could by anything from vegetables, to meat, to rice. All the crazy items were there too: dog head, fried chicken feet, fried insects, and jelled buffalo blood. We then cooked 6 dishes. All were quite good. We bought the cookbook. After school, we went to the royal palace. Before communism, Luang Prabang was a royal city. The palace was amazing. In the evening, we went to the night market. They had lots of clothes and souvenir type items. We were full from the cooking class, so we had a drink with some people from the slow boat (a nice part of the slow boat is you arrive in the town with a whole group of friends).

07 Nov

I got up to watch the monks in the morning. I had talked to a monk the night before and I talked to him that morning. He didn’t speak much English (but he was trying to learn) and I asked questions about their daily life and ages of the monks. In our short conversation I learned they only eat twice a day, they aren’t monks for life (most just for a year or two of religious schooling), and are as young as 12. Plus, the kids are only monks in training and not full monks even though they where the robe, have the shaved head and don’t wear shoes. It may sound ignorant, but I didn’t know. In the afternoon, we flew out of Luang Prabang and went to Krabi in southern Thailand. Laos was much better than expected. Once we arrived in Krabi, the hostel/hotel was not exactly what we thought we had booked. We got a kayak tour for the next day and looked at moving to an island the day after.

08 Nov

The kayaking around the mangrove swamps and limestone spires was fun and beautiful. Lots of small lagoons to explore and even some monkeys to play with. After the kayaking, we went to a fresh water swimming hole. In the evening, we went out to dinner, looked at the town’s shops and packed in preparation for the next day’s transit to Ko Phi Phi.

09 Nov

We got a ride to the ferry that would take us from Ao Nang to Ko Phi Phi via Ralway. The ferry was out in the harbor, so we took a long tail boat out to it. Once onboard, I sat on the sundeck and took in the scenery (and got some rays!) It was very pretty going past the islands and just looking out at the clear blue waters. We arrived in Ko Phi Phi in the early afternoon. It was completely destroyed by the tsunami in 2004 but was almost 100% rebuilt and was nice. I called the travel agent to get them to change the hotel (we hadn’t told them of our transfer to the island). After some haggling, we got a place far superior to the one in Krabi, not far off the beach. It had AC and everything. Conor and I then set up 2 dives for the next day with a company recommended by a former employee I had met during the cooking school in Laos. After hitting the beach and waiting out a thunderstorm, we went out to eat at the Green Papaya restaurant (also recommended by the former dive instructor). It was cheap and amazing. I got so much food (and it was so spicy) I had to get a second order of rice.

10 Nov

Conor and I went Scuba diving today. We went to two spots. They were essentially wall dives. The visibility was good, but not amazing. The corals were very colorful. After the dive we hit the beach. Later we met the dive guide for dinner at Green Papaya. Later we got some beers and watched some fire dancing at a bar on the waterfront. It was quite good.