{"id":1458,"date":"2023-01-29T16:53:08","date_gmt":"2023-01-29T16:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.buyuchen.org\/?p=1458"},"modified":"2023-01-29T16:53:08","modified_gmt":"2023-01-29T16:53:08","slug":"sabbatical-week-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.buyuchen.org\/?p=1458","title":{"rendered":"Sabbatical week 9"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Day 1<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Instead of taking the popular Luang Prabang slow boat, I decided to veneer off the beaten track and go north a bit to Luang Namtha to avoid having to backtrack. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Got myself a coffee in the morning (45k) plus a local noodle soup for (30k)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The fresh greens are quite nice. The broth was also packed with flavors<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The bus ride was okay. Super packed even the middle aisle so the Israeli kept bumping into me. The bus ride was 190k plus 30k for the transfer to town
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Rest stop, I didn’t eat there but looks nice however<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Waited for probably 15min for the construction crew to finish<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In no time, we got to town and got to walk around a bit to find some local snacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It’s a bit pricy, 305k total for 3. Not the best thing I’ve eaten since the meat balls aren’t really meaty. Rule of thumb is try not to eat at non established non priced places.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The second round food was much better<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sweet and sour tofu? it’s not my favorite but not bad either. 45k?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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80k for a whole fresh tilapia was definitely the highlight<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Day 2<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Biking day, though first was to gather info around the trekking tour. I also ended up moving to a guesthouse where has a restaurant attached to it for the same price. This was also where the German couple and I were going separate ways, they wanted to spend more time in Thailand whereas I wanted to finish Laos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Got myself two cups of coffee and arranged a bicycle for (50k)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Random silk melon tree at my guest house’s backyard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As usual it’s the journey not the destinations which are worth visiting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Random village scenery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With no time, it’s lunch time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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20k I also ordered a sugarcane juice plus a coconut pudding for 5k each. The stir fried chicken on top were extras <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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After this we went to the temples in town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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View at the local temple<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Nothing bad, I was just not very impressed of anything at this point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Chatted with 2 Germans who’re taking a gap year. Funny how their first impression of Laos is that it’s so cheap, I found it’s quite pricy comparably speaking<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Met up with some Austrians and went to the night market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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10k for some olive like fruit. anyone knows what it is?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The tour I was doing the next day<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Then it’s dinner again after failed to find a more local place (I think in this part people just don’t eat out as often)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The German paid for the meal, I paid for the vodka for 100k. Very nice of him. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Day 3<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Trekking day! First was to go to the local market to shop for some food for the tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Soon we arrived at the park and started trekking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rubber plantation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Soon was lunch, our guide grilled some Tilapia! Absolutely delicious!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cutting some banana tree for washing hands<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Lunch!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We continued trekking a bit more<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We had a bit time to swim and shower<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Time to set up our Bamboo hut for the night!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cooking some bamboo rice<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Jungle kitchen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Meat grilling<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Jungle dinner!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We had great camp fires (was really cold). Though fun to sleep on top of the banana leaves, it was nevertheless freezing even with the double sleep bags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Day 4<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Waking up from the chirping birds and running river <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Breakfast<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Another amazing meal, that egg scramble was nice, so was the tomato soup (no in the pic)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Crossing a river<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Random cow on the trek<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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On the way to the village<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Local village<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Trek mate trying something local<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Natural beehive<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We hiked about 20 kilometers spread in two days. After arriving in town, we invited our guides for BeerLao. After a brief break and shower, we went out for dinner and closed out the night. (100k for dinner with tips, 72k for the beers!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Khao soi Lao? tastes alright. It was my second bowl after the Larb rice.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Day 5<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Waking up a bit under the weather probably from the cold night camping and also the Lau Lau (local rice whiskey) probably wasn’t helping either. Decided to stay in Luang Namtra one more night. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Got a latte while chatted with a German and a Dutch who are here for holidays. Went out for lunch and was excited to finally find some local restaurants and food!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Latte at the hotel 25k<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Local restaurant, inflation is real. Also, the price seems steep which reaffirms that poor countries don’t mean cheap food.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The chicken soup (25k) was quite nice.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Later I walked passed by my a local vendor. One lady there speaks exceptionally good English, who’s helping her cousin with the selling. Both are from Luang Prabang. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I got two sausages for 20k. I still think most likely I’ve paid tourist price, I think 10k is probably I’d pay. Then again, perhaps food is just expensive.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The laundry was 100k, and was definitely the most pricy laundry I have paid so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Day 6<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Luang Prabang here I come. First was to catch a shared taxi (100k) to the train station which was about 30 kilometers from Luang Namtha. For some reasons, the hotel (who booked the tickets for us) thought was a good idea to arrive almost 3 hours before departure time. At least we had some nice chat at the station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Train station with CYN decorations<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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LCR train<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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View from the train<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The train was running about 160km\/h and had one stop before we reached Luang Prabang. Definitive a refresh from the regular Laos transit standard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In almost no time (1:20) we arrived at the Luang Prabang train station which is slightly out of town about 8km to the city. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I got a ride (35k) seems standardized and delivers us directly to our hotels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quickly checked into my hostel (funny how little people spoke English despite being such a tourist hotspot, 110k per night due to fees associated with online booking. Quite steep for a dorm.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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View from my hostel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I was a bit hungry at this point especially after having a big BeerLao in my hostel hoping to catch a conversation with someone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Food was really good. Larb was 55k, soup was 50k. For a total 130k including a rice and smoothie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The quality of available good food and coffee is just much higher in a touristic town. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Went to a local Wat in the city center before catching a coffee break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Downtown<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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I ordered an Americano for 23k. Not the cheapest, but coffee was decent at least.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One of the highlight is this local stupa which sits at the highest point in the city center which overseas the Mekong<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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lol<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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some exercise<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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View on top<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Post sunset<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I sat at the stupa until a bit after sunset before I took a stroll around the night market<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I got back to my hostel and chatted with some French speaking girls (one’s Indian descent but grew up in Mauritius and speaks Chinese, English, French and Hindi was the most fascinating one)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Day 7<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Chill day with a bit of a walk with the French girls<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Free breakfast at the hostel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We decided to take a walk across the neighborhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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path to bamboo bridge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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it’s 10k for the bridge toll. The bamboo bridges have to be rebuilt every 6mo due to the water level goes up during rainy season<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Loads of cute houses around town <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Even an US army jeep<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In no time, it’s lunch time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Local noodle shop<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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First coconut in Laos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Amazing noodles. The tally was 80k including a coconut plus a smoothie. Very scenic spot however<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Locals doing Karaoke <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Then we found this local temple which happened to have the monk washing ceremony<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Getting ready for the monks<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Holy water for the monk bath<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Locals put money in the monks robe?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Walked a bit more at the riverside before heading back to hostel for a break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Local jackfruit tree<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Sunset cruise <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Old quarter at sunset time<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Beer time to chill <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Bamboo bridge at night<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Finally, it’s dinner time!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Luang Prabang stew! real good. 30k<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Stir fried pork. 30k.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It’s just another “meandering” day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Expenses<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Week 9<\/td><\/td><\/td><\/td><\/td><\/tr>
Day<\/td>Food&Drink<\/td>Lodging<\/td>Transportation<\/td>Other (tickets\/tours etc)<\/td><\/tr>
1<\/td>$21.43<\/td>$9.87<\/td>$13.75<\/td>$0.00<\/td><\/tr>
2<\/td>$12.00<\/td>$9.38<\/td>$3.13<\/td>$0.00<\/td><\/tr>
3<\/td>$0.63<\/td>$0.00<\/td>$0.00<\/td>$35.54<\/td><\/tr>
4<\/td>$4.50<\/td>$9.38<\/td>$0.00<\/td>$41.79<\/td><\/tr>
5<\/td>$4.81<\/td>$9.38<\/td>$0.00<\/td>$0.00<\/td><\/tr>
6<\/td>$10.94<\/td>$6.77<\/td>$21.38<\/td>$1.00<\/td><\/tr>
7<\/td>$5.94<\/td>$6.77<\/td>$0.00<\/td>$1.88<\/td><\/tr>
<\/td>$60.24<\/td>$51.54<\/td>$38.25<\/td>$80.20<\/td><\/tr>
<\/td>Total<\/td><\/td>Grand Total:<\/td>$230.22<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>
Quite an inexpensive week<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Day 1 Instead of taking the popular Luang Prabang slow boat, I decided to veneer off the beaten track and go north a bit to Luang Namtha to avoid having to backtrack. Got myself a coffee in the morning (45k) plus a local noodle soup for (30k) In no time, we got to town and… Continue reading Sabbatical week 9<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.buyuchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.buyuchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.buyuchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.buyuchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.buyuchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1458"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.buyuchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1556,"href":"https:\/\/blog.buyuchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1458\/revisions\/1556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.buyuchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.buyuchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.buyuchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}