Charmed, I'm Sure.

The night we spent in Luang Namtha, Laos wasn't particularly special. They have a lovely little night market there where everyone sets up a food kiosk and you eat at picnicesque tables in the middle and try all the diffferent varieties of skewered meats and the omnipresent "Lao sandwich" (which is just a baguette, one triangle of Laughing Cow cheese and various fillings covered with sweet chili sauce). We met a fun American couple.  Since we never exchanged names with them we called her Jane and him Mr. Jane, because I promise you she was the spitting image of Jane Lynch. She acted and moved just like her. It was borderline creepy.

We left the next morning for Luang Prabang, Laos.  It took almost nine hours by bus, but the scenery was so beautiful I didn't even mind. I was enrapt with the green vistas out my window.

 

Luang Prabang was everything we had hoped it would be. It was the quintessential charming mountainside town. Totally walkable. Street vendors selling mango fruitshakes and banana and nutella crepes at every turn. A constant parade of brightly colored monks. A night market that made me go weak at the knees for all its splendor. You really should visit if you get a chance.

 

We went to the Royal Ballet one night. It was a fun experience, but I'm pretty sure I could have performed in the next show after watching it once. They don't dance, that is to say... they don't move around. If you can turn very slowly in a circle, and you can move your wrists around while you point your fingers... you're a shew-in for the lead. But they did have fun costumes.

We stayed in Luang Prabang for four or five days, I lose track. Near the end of our stay we made an afternoon excursion to one of the most beautiful things I've beheld, the Tad Sae Waterfall. The water looked like cascading pools of glimmering aquamarines. It really had that ethereal blue lagoon quality to it. Joel and I had come in our swim suits fully prepared to dive in to this liquid perfection but one toe's dip into the pools assured me I would be just as happy observing the waters as I would be swimming in them. It was icey cold. I waded out to just above my knees before water-skating spiders corralled me back to the shore.

Joel, however, insisted on going in the waterfall, declaring that the experience wasn't fulfilled without swimming. He then spent the next several hours condescending to me (though chattering teeth) about how much more fun he'd had than me, and how worried he (with the blue lips) was that I would regret not swimming in the waterfall for the rest of my life. (And yes, I did take care of him when he caught a fever and had to stay in bed for two days.)

And for the record, I'm still perfectly content with my decision not to swim.  Water and I have never really been the best of friends. I like to hear the ocean, not swim in it. If I can't touch the bottom of a swimming pool on my tip toes I assume that the depths harbor sharks, so I avoid them (you can laugh, but I know you've thought about it before too). Lakes with murky water should be seen and never swum in. Ferries are a mode of transport I wouldn't wish on my enemies. Speed boats are the only form of nautical travel that I can endorse, so there you go.

If I knew how to make a blogging label for this series I would entitle it "Why We Came." This stop in Luang Prabang landed us just past the one week mark on a 21 day trek through Laos and Thailand, with time to spare for cities we'd never ever heard of before we moved to Shanghai.  This is it. These travel opportunities, these experiences are, in the end, what made us say, "let's do it." Let's give this life a shot. Was it worth giving up central heat, an oven and good Mexican food for a year?  At this point I have to say, definitely.