Farewell to Luang Prabang

This morning we slept in a bit and woke up just in time to catch our free breakfast at our hotel. After breakfast we headed out to climb 320 steps to see That Phu Si and Wat Tham Phu Si which is on top of a hilltop overlooking Luang Prabang. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about Asia so far, is that they REALLY like their stairs here, but just like everywhere else, climbing the steps was worth it.

Upon arriving at the top you see a great panoramic view of Luang Prabang. There are temples, buddhas, and other religious monuments at the top, but to be honest, just seeing the view alone made it worth it.

After we made our way back down the hill, we walked along Mekong River until we finally settled on a restaurant to eat at for lunch. Luang Prabang has a lot of great, and inexpensive restaurants, and many that have a great view overlooking the river.

For lunch we enjoyed our last baguettes, an unexpected deliciousness found in this country, and then headed back to our hostel to get in our communal taxi to the airport for our flight to Hanoi, Vietnam on Laos Airlines. Our flight was only about 1 hour and we had no issues with immigration or our visa, like some others who failed to retrieve their visa papers beforehand.

Once we arrived in Hanoi, we were lucky that our hotel (Little Hanoi Hostel) offered a cheap shuttle service from the airport. It was nice having someone there with your name on a sign as oppose to trying to conquer the crazy taxi people, and countless scams you hear so much about with taxis in Vietnam.

From our drive into the city, you can see right away that Hanoi is pure chaos. MANY motorbikes fly by on the streets in every direction, and on top of that cars also try and make their way through.

Our hostel is nice and more like a hotel than a hostel. We have a private room with our own bathroom and it’s very clean with helpful staff. It also seems to be pretty quiet so far, which considering the chaos of this city, seems like it would be hard to come by.

Upon a recommendation we received from our hotel, we ventured out for dinner at a small local place down the road for a traditional Vietnamese dish called Bun Bo Nam Bo, which was absolutely delicious, and only about $3 US each. At dinner we met an Australian couple that was traveling, and the girl didn’t seem to be having the best time or experience in Hanoi so far. It sounds like it’ll be very different here in comparison to Thailand, and especially Laos. We quickly learned this after venturing out on the streets after dinner and observing the madness that is indescribable in this city. The traffic and motorbikes are so crazy that you just hope they stop as you cross the road. We are hoping after a good night’s sleep we will be better prepared to conquer this place tomorrow!

withlovexo