Today was mostly a hangout day. We had originally thought today would be the day we leave Luang Prabang but after our first 24 hours here we knew we’d want another day. This evening we questioned if our 4 nights here have been long enough. We’ve loved it so much and had the best time. It is slow and sleepy and chill, yet has plenty to do.

We spent the morning getting things done. After our hotel breakfast we walked over to the train ticket office to buy our return tickets. Getting train tickets is more complicated than it should be so it was a relief to get what we needed. We dropped off laundry at a nearby laundromat and stopped for ice cream at a cafe on the walk home to get Ice Crean Friday out of the way.

We came back to the hotel room and booked plane tickets and then an Airbnb in Thailand. We planned out the day of Millie’s upcoming birthday while she played by herself. An hour later I went and picked up our laundry. It was a very productive morning.

At around noon we took a taxi to the UXO visitor center. UXO stands for “unexploded ordnance” ie. bombs that were dropped by the USA over the course of the Vietnam/Indochina war and didn’t explode. I don’t know what I expected but we left our visit feeling pretty sad. There are still casualties every year, mostly children, from people accidentally detonating unknown bombs in their rural villages. The museum had a video of survivors telling their stories.

I found this factoid hard to comprehend – a plane load of munitions was dropped on Laos every 8 minutes for 9 years straight.

I’m not sure how much sank in for Millie, but we explained everything. Once we were done here we hopped in another taxi and rode 5 minutes over to Ock Pop Tock, a hotel / restaurant / craft center. We were starving and had a late lunch. The cafe was beside the Mekong river and very very beautiful.

We had a leisurely meal and then explored the center. Millie and Nick climbed up into a treehouse.

We learned about the process of making silk, from watching live silk worms, to feeling their freshly made silk, to seeing how thread is made, how it’s dyed using natural materials, and finally, seeing women create textiles on looms.

Sometimes I feel guilty that we pulled Millie out of school for the year, but then we have days like today and I realize it’s for the best.

The sun started setting and she didn’t want to leave, so we went back to the cafe for a drink while we watched the sun go down over the river.

We rode a tuk tuk back to the center of town and got a snack at the night market. We weren’t hungry for dinner after our very late lunch. We each had a coconut pancake, which is something we fell in love with two nights ago. I have no idea what they are made out of, but I assume some sort of pounded rice. They have the texture of very chewy mochi and are salty and sweet with chunks of fresh coconut throughout. A real treat.

We walked back to the hotel through the night market. We couldn’t stop laughing at these little pouches and each chose one to bring home as a souvenir. Laos has potentially been our favorite stop so far, so we figured this was the place to finally get a souvenir.