A last glimpse of Laos

We ended up returning to lovely Luang Prabang for one more night, and finally took some pictures of the market.  We wished we could just bring everything home, including our favorite sandwich lady.  Every gesture she made was somehow so sweet.  We finally left Laos, making another epic journey to arrive once again in Thailand....three tuk-tuks, two buses, one boat, and 25 hours later.  Needless to say it's taken a day or two to recover.  We are currently in Chiang Mai, in the north of Thailand, laying low in a seedy hotel room.  Next blog entry....the dark side of Thailand and a Big Surprise (no, Mom, not that kind of surprise..).

Some beautiful textiles in the market in Lao. These are silk wall hangings.

This is where we ate dinner in Luang Pra Bang. After sunset, the narrow alleyways turn into gigantic smorgasborgs, you can fill your plate for just less than a dollar. Those things on sticks are legs of chicken or whole fish - they are an additional  dollar. There were tables piled high with whole chickens stuffed with herbs, chicken feet, bbq frogs, and things that looked like bbq intestines (could a person safely eat that?). We mostly stuck to the noodles and the salads and beer.

Pick and point smoothies.

These are handmade blankets done by women from the villages in the area.

Cats!