We Made it to Cambodia - but here is our last week in Laos

Oh hey...just trying to get this blog updated. 

Following our trek, we headed to a more remote place, as I figured we'd want to do some R&R.  The kind host told us of all the things we could do and explore around the area, and we just politely nodded our head, took the map/information, and knew full well that we'd be sitting poolside all day and hoping to do nothing.  We accomplished pretty much that. 

Our accommodation.

We played lots of games.  I have lost my ability to beat her at golf.  

At about this time, we reached our threshold for rice and noodles, and we happily ordered western food off the menu, and didn't even feel guilty.

After two nights in our hillside retreat, we headed back to the heart of Luang Prabang and stayed here for our remaining 4 nights.

Our balcony view.

Night market food... 

LP is a pretty town that was nice to walk around.

We took an evening cooking class here.  We plan to take a cooking class in every country.  

The cooking class was much different than our thai one -- we used open flames, and a lot of pastes were created with the mortar and pestle. 

"I'm not tired" when I said we needed to go home to bed...

My valentine on Valentine's Day.  I also celebrated with a nanaimo bar that I joyfully stumbled upon in Luang Prabang (Canadian owned restaurant.  Yay).

One of the coolest things we did was a half day farm experience -- we learned all 14 steps on growing and harvesting rice.  Let's say, we should all appreciate the rice we eat in our life.

Oh, out of order... but here is our guide showing us how they pick the best rice seeds.

We have cool new knee-high socks.

Our farm crew.

Just another day plowing the field.

Harvesting the rice...

Out of order again -- but here Maeve is transplanting th rice.

Examples of the baskets of rice used by the different tribes -- this is Hmong

this is Khmu

And, this is Laos -- the stick and baskets.  (I think I remembered them correctly)

Manual labor to release the rice

Pretend you saw a picture of us pounding the rice to release them from the husks.  Here Maeve is panning for rice -- separating the rice from the broken off husks.  Now it is ready to cook.

More manual labor -- making sugar cane juice.

Meet our new BFF's -- Eddie and Dave.  They were staying at the same hotel as us and we became fast friends and enjoyed our last days with them.  Maeve keeps asking me when we're going to visit them in Chicago, and is constantly Whatsapp'ing them.  We hope to meet up again with them in a couple of weeks when our plans put us on neighboring islands in Cambodia at the same time.  

So long, Laos.  We loved our time here.  Cambodia, here we come.

Dairy Queen during our layover ... its only 8:45am, but who can pass up a breakfast blizzard?  We can't.

Our first glimpse of Cambodia in Phnom Penh... We just stayed one night before getting on the bus to Kampot.  Kampot is a great town, but oh boy it is hot during the day.  Maeve is especially grateful for the A/C... she's a bit dramatic about it all, however.  Ha.  

That's it for now...