Good People

I spent most of the day with Aki, a Japanese guy I had met on the bus.  In the evening we went to a 'herbal sauna'.  I figured this is the closest I'd get to an onsen in Laos.  We were the only two foreigners at the time we were there.  It was interesting doing the sauna thing with all the locals.  Guys and girls saunas are separate.  Everyone wears a sarang, small ones for the boys and full body for the girls.  Between sauna sessions everyone sits in a communal area and drinks very tasty tea.  The sauna is perfumed with lemon grass and other smells I didn't recognise.


Later that night I met up with Robert and some of his friends, Patrick and Dominica.  We went to a great bar called Utopia.  It was very interesting chatting to them and getting to know them.  On the way home, a little tipsy, I met a group of Vietnamese living in Luang Prabang.  They are all quite young, around 21, own and run a hair salon.  If I wasn't leaving the next day I would have had my hair cut there.