Friendly Binders - Last Day in Laos

We got into Hanoi, Vietnam last night and had a pretty fun night out on the town. We ended up at underground club with a bunch of twenty-something backpackers, and a guy from Estonia. But before we get into that... probably best to catch up on our last few days in Luang Prabang, which actually is directly related to ending up at the secret club in Hanoi. Seriously.

After getting up early to see the Tuk Bat ritual with the monks at 530 am, we were pretty pooped and just chilling at the hotel, blogging, and eating. While hanging in the lobby, Bri started a conversation with an English gentleman named John who happened to be a professor that teaches travel journalism staying at our hotel. He was travelling with his friend Jeff, who is a professor from Australia that teaches about tourism in developing nations. Interesting, and very friendly guys. John invited us to go with them on a boat up to the Pak Ou caves that afternoon, a 2 hour boat ride up the Mekong. We had no plans, so decided to tag along.

Our boat and our driver, Mr Vanhsy

Mr Vanhsy doin his thing

Weird stuff like this up and down the river

Kids playing in the river, it must be that ones birthday

Getting passed by a faster boat

We stopped at a small village where they sell Lao Lao, rice whiskey. Not sure why they have to put snakes and stuff in it too.

Large assortment of Lao Lao

The Pak Ou Caves are not the most spectacular caves themselves, but what makes them cool is the thousands of Buddha statues placed in every nook and cranny. Some of the 2,500 statues and 4,000 wooden buddhas are hundreds of years old, as the King of Luang Prabang visited every year going back to the 17th century and placed a Buddha in the cave, which all remain there today. There was a second cave, which required a creepy old lady to remove an old padlock and give us a flashlight. Bri and I didnt say it until after we came out, but we both had a thought of  cheap horror movie plot where she locked us in. Luckily, she was just creepy and not evil and we didnt get locked in. We came back and had dinner, for the second night in a row, at our favorite restaurant in Laos - Tamarind - that serves fresh, Laos food at an amazing value, $21 for two people! Probably our favorite two meals of the trip. Turned out to be a great day and made new friends with some very cool and well traveled dudes.



The main cave



Lots of statues and Buddhas

Bri coming in the gates, creepy old lady outside... thought she might lock us in

View of the caves from the river

Despite the rain, pretty good sunset and shot with the guy on the boat

Been up since 330 am, cant stop smiling reading all about the AL WEST CHAMPION A'S!!!

More pics from around Luang Prabang... which means more Monks

Classic river shot, with monks

One last spin out with the bikes, view of the Nam Khan river



Sweaty Binder, with monks



Last stroll around town down a cool side street

Sticky rice balls... holy monkeys they are amazing. Chewy on the outside, warm and gooey in the middle. Made at the night market every night, 6 for 50 cents.

So, what does this have to do with an underground club in Hanoi and a dude from Estonia? This post is already getting long, so youll just have to stay tuned for the next post on Hanoi!

On a side note, HOW BOUT DEM OAKLAND ATHLETICS!! I woke up at 330 am to listen, and had to go outside and sit in the dark by the river to steal internet signal from the hotel across the river. Totally worth it!