New Year's and Luang Prabang, Laos

We spent New Year's Eve as usual, which means we were in bed way before one is supposed to enjoy a toast. We missed being with our friends in NH, or VT, but had a nice chat, over a glass of wine, with Sprite, a young Thai man who works at Eagle House. Wine is not part of Thai culture.
The highlight was to unexpectedly get to see hundreds of lit up paper lanterns when they flew over Eagle House, potentially launched by Chinese people. Muffy told us later, that the Thai use these types of lanterns for another big holiday in April, instead.
Craig happened upon one man launching one, and took the close up picture.

We took a cooking class at Eagle House, and anyone reading this, is welcome to invite themselves for dinner! Muffy tells us we can find fresh Kafir lime leaves in Boston, we bought some Chiang Mai curry powder, and the cook book we got, includes a recipe for making more. So we will definitely practice when back home, as our dishes were delicious!

Link to New Year’s and Luang Prabang

Uber is more expensive than cabs, or Song Thaews in Chiang Mai; we suspected this earlier, but confirmed it on the way to the airport. 2/2 drivers here have told us they like working for the company.

We have walked around Luang Prabang, Laos for 2 days, and had hoped to bike today. But despite the bikes being color coordinated, we didn't get far. Craig thought he could use our host's loaner bike, as we only have today, but it can't be adjusted to fit someone much taller than me.. It has one speed, and weighs maybe 35 lbs. Fortunately it started to drizzle, so this was a good excuse to avoid irritating a knee with prior damage. Maybe I should have pedaled, and Craig could have sat on the passenger seat!

Instead we took the ferry across the Mekong, and walked around the quiet, and rural opposite side for an hour or so. Our home for the past few nights has been the spacious upstairs of the building our host runs a non profit from (http://www.givechildrenachoice.org). A HOT shower, with water pressure better than at home - Craig is in heaven! Only thing that annoys him, is that I keep the window shades closed all day, as they have sprayed, and there currently are no mosquitoes in here. We have not gone as far as sleeping with bug dope on, and have until now had window screens.
Amazing to learn the rural villages in Laos did not have primary schools until this organization was established in 2000, a charity by an American who wanted to give back, after surviving a kidnapping when on a business trip somewhere. Our host befriended this guy here in Luang Prabang when he first came here, and is now the point person in Laos working with the various ministries etc.

The food in L.P. is not as good as in Chiang Mai, but we get nice warm baguettes in the morning;  the streets are full of foreigners from all parts of the world; it's a much smaller city than Chiang Mai, and is a World Heritage City due to the preservation of old buildings from the days when the French helped protect Laos from the Chinese.
Tomorrow we take a 'tourist bus' to Nong Khiaw, north of here, then a boat up river to Muang Ngoi, from where we hope to hike for 3 days with a guide.
As I wrote Connie, I need to not think about where we are. There are no trauma centers in Laos, and all health care is very basic. If anything happens, we need to evacuate to Thailand. My one main criteria for a guide, is that s/he needs to speak English.
This is one reason we needed to do this big trip now - the older one gets the scarier it is to take risks.