Day 16 - £1 Cocktails

We started the day fairly lazily with breakfast and more magically appearing fruit at the guest house before venturing into our first day of Luang Prabang proper. We started with the Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre where we learnt about some of the diffident cultural groups in Laos with a focus on their clothing. There was a whole room about beads and a corner, possibly intended for children, where you could try on outfits.

Matt then went for a massage to try and recover from his ex-prisoner massage. I meanwhile sat in a hammock drinking juice. It's so hot in LP (about 34degrees) so I'm a mega sweaty mess and was grateful for an air conditioned lunch. I must find a recipe for Larb (also known as Larp) when I get home. It's a delicious minced chicken dish with lots of fresh herbs.

After a brownie pitstop we went to the UXO Lao centre. UXO stands for Unexploded Ordnance. During the early to mid 20th century Laos was the most heavily bombed country per capita due to its proximity with Vietnam. About a third of the bombs (80million) didn't explode and every day they're found by people, especially children, across Laos causing fatally and injury. It was a very sobering exhibit and extremely sad.

We came back to the guest house for some more trip planning then ventured out to the food part of the market. It's very hectic but we managed to muscle our way to pork dumplings, spring rolls and skewers of BBQ sausage and chicken. The chicken especially was exceptional. We'll be back every night!

We'll also probably be back at Lao Lao Garden most nights. After a detour for happy hour wine we came to LLG on a recommendation of a friend. Local spirit cocktails are 2-4-20k Kip (about £2) and several 'welcome shots' were thrown in. We've made it home pre-local curfew (11.30pm) as we have another cooking class tomorrow (Matt is thrilled) but I'm sure we'll be back there.Read more