Luang Prabang: Highlights Reel

Best Experiences: Anna

1. Watching the sunset on the Mekong while Sigur Ros filled my heart with sentiment and frisson during our Sa Sa River Cruise
2. Photographing the fantastical, forested falls at Kuang Si
3. Quenching my thirst with fresh-squeezed sugar cane juice after a hard day of working in the paddies at Living Land Rice Farm

Best Experiences: Aaron

1. Trying to keep pace with Susan the Water Buffalo while steadying a walking (running) plow at Living Land Farm
2. Gawking at my beautiful wife while sitting atop the falls at Carpe Diem
3. Hand-feeding the hungry, slack-jawed buffalo at Laos Buffalo Dairy

Best Meals: Anna

1. Cured eggplant salad at Paste: modernist cuisine worth every penny
2. Shrimp ravioli in a parmesan cream sauce at Carpe Diem: we dined over a freaking waterfall!
3. Muu haeng at Dyen Sabai: finally trying one of my favorite Lao dishes while actually in Laos

Best Meals: Aaron

1. Deservedly pretentious small plates at Paste: modernist cuisine worth some of the pennies
2. Muu haeng at Dyen Sabai
3. Duck laap at Khaiphaen

Blooper Reel

1. At Bouang, when Aaron asked for the check and the server looked as though Aaron had just told him that the food was awful and he was going to burn the place to the ground. Server asked if everything was okay and Aaron said “yeah, it was great.” Server never brought the check, so we’re not sure what he thought Aaron said.
2. At Living Land, when we were learning how to husk rice, our guide told us that, traditionally, women who were unable to sort out rice husks would be unable to find a husband (which we all know to be a fate worse than death). Anna made an earnest and unsuccessful effort. When another woman was asked to try, she said “No, no. I don’t want a husband.”
3. Literally every time Anna went to the toilet something bit her on the butt: mosquitoes, ants, something that left a bruise for some reason. Every. Single. Time.