Day 12 - Bikes and Massages

Today was our last day in Luang Prabang and it started out early. The conference championships for football were on so my dad and I went to the Aussie bar at 7am to watch it since they had American sports channels. I didn't eat anything while there but I did try a redbull. The redbull here is supposedly different and is much more potent than the redbull in America. It definitely woke me up! Seattle won, and after the game we made our way back to the hostel. We didn't have anything planned today so we decided to rent bicycles. We had heard that there was a golf course not far from town (6km) so we figured we'd give it a shot. There were two problems: 1. We didn't have a map or really any idea how to get there (we were told there were lots of signs and to follow them) and 2. The bikes we had were AWFUL! I'm talking horrendous, not only were they built for a midget and not nearly big enough for me or my dad but they also DIDNT HAVE ANY GEARS! I could've live with the fact the bikes were small, but trying to pedal uphill without being able to change gears was a nightmare! On the plus side the bikes were only 2 dollars to rent for the whole day, I guess you get what you pay for. 

-Me on the bike

So against our better judgement we decided to search for the golf course in hopes of maybe being able to get a round in. We quickly made a wrong turn and got lost. The map we had didn't have any street names just landmarks  and was missing some of the smaller streets, so as we passed the soccer stadium I was able to regain our bearings and get us back on track. We finally got to the road it was supposed to be on and rode for about 15mintues, we saw the golf course! The only problem was we had no clue where the enterance was and tought it may have been on a different road. So we turned around and went back about 2km (this was not a flat ride by any means) we finally made it to this gate that said 'sport club and resort'. This must be it!...wrong, but the guard knew where it was and drew us a map since he couldn't speak English. It turned out we had gone the right way just not far enough! So we rode all the way back and the turn for the course enterance was literally 100 feet from where we turned around just after a turn. We finally make it to the gate of the course and the guard there is incomprehensible, doesn't speak a lick of English. After trying to communicate with him for 15 min, he wasn't letting us past the gate or getting someone who spoke English. We were exhausted and demoralized and had to turn around and ride back to town. 

-View of the course from the road, so close!

The worst part was we saw a few people playing and the course looked empty! Anyway sorry for the long rant!

Once we got back into town we changed since it got much hotter and went to lunch. We stopped at a place on the main strip called The Coconut Restaurant where I had the coconut burger and a banana smoothie. It was delicious, the burger was interesting, it had egg, bacon, pineapple, cheese, lettuce, and tomato. 

-Coconut burger

After lunch we returned the bikes and walked to get a massage. We were recommend a place called the Red Cross massage.  They were busy and told us to come back in an hour so we started walking around. We found a random temple and explored it for a bit. Temples (or Wats as they're called here) in Laos are kind if like churches in America, they're everywhere, but there are a few really big ones that everyone sees. After looking at the temple we see signs for la pistachio pool and figure what the heck lets follow it and check it out. Fast forward 30 minutes later and were walking down this random dirt side street between houses following the signs looking for this pool. 

-One of the many signs

We finally end up finding the pool but there's an enterance fee so we decide to head back since the hour was almost up anyway. 

-Street the pool was on, the enterance is the wooden fence on the left

We finally got to the massage place around 4 and the were as busy. The massage itself was interesting it was only the second one I've ever had. The massuse was a little laotion dude (better than a he-she I guess). It was a little weird at first but felt good and was very relaxing. The best part was it only cost $5 for an hour long massage!!! And all the money they make goes to support the Red Cross, so I'm being charitable at the same time! After the massage we walked back to the hostel and rested until dinner. 

We went out looking for a place to eat and decided we wanted to eat at one of the restaurants along the river. We found a Lao BBQ place (where you cook in the middle of the table) and decided to have it again. It was delicious! The place was packed so we figured it would be good and we weren't let down. 

After dinner we walked through the night market and picked up a few gifts and made our way back to the hostel. We leave tomorrow by bus to Vang Vieng at 930am. It's an 8 hour trip so I'll get some reading in!