Luang Prabang AUTHENTIC Alms + Nate's Birthday!

It is our last day in this city. I was pretty disappointed with the first giving of the alms ceremony. So I've woken up at about 5:30 in an attempt to find a more traditional giving of the alms at a further away temple or on some side streets. We'll see. Well, I had forgotten my map.

But I successfully found the faraway temple. So far, no monks in sight. There is no ceremony taking place at that temple. Actually didn't see any monks. They have probably all gone to take part in the tourist parade. I have one more strategy. I'm gonna go set up shop on the back street that runs parallel to the main procession and see if I and find just a little bit of authenticity left.

That was like 10 times better than what we did the other day.

I think. That's all I'm gonna say. And I think we probably won't even put this in the vlog. If it does make it in the vlog and you want to know where I went this figure out a way to send me a private message and I'll let you know. But that is the only way to do the alm ceremony.

Today is Nate's birthday. It's actually tomorrow. But we're celebrating today because tomorrow is travel day over land. So it won't be very fun.

But by the time you watch this, it'll be his real birthday. So I'm going to get him breakfast. He's still asleep because he got up to watch the monks this morning. I don't really know why he wanted to do that again. I stole his wallet and ready to go. This. This was meant to be. I have the exact right change to buy this. We have no more money. Nate's dad always used to get him an apple fritter on his birthday. And so I thought an apple croissant was close enough.

Happy birthday.

I like this for a change.

How's it feel?

I feel lazy.

I like brand new coffee.

I enjoy doing it for once.

Checking out. And is it possible to store our bags? Yes.

Breakfast in bed was a success. Now I'm forcing Nate to get a massage.

I just hate like taking an hour out of the day to sit there. My back has really been hurting.

So you're getting massage right now. Which one do you want to go to?

They're everywhere.

Upstairs. You leaving? Are you coming with?

Yeah, I'll come with for a minute. Just one. I'm just gonna take his picture and then I'm gonna leave it.

What is that?

It's a myth. What is it?

I want you to have lunch with him while I do this. No.

What is it?

Eat the whole thing.

That's good. Okay, this is good.

It's good. One more.

Oh, like, spicy, spicy.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That'S good. Oh, it is good. This is Bam. Some bite seed. Spicy. What is your name?

Noi.

Noi. My name is Noi. I'm Kara.

Kara.

Oh, good. Where are you from? United States.

United States of America. I'm in Japan. How was it?

Great.

How do you feel?

Good.

You look a little tired.

I think almost fell asleep when she was scratching my head.

Aw, that's your favorite.

I want to know which one of us enjoyed ourselves more.

I had a really good time with Noi.

A lunch, became Facebook friends.

She was the sweetest. So, for real, what do you think about the Lao massage?

I think that she had thumbs of steel. It was like, I've never felt thumbs so hard in my life. She would, like, push them into the muscles around my spine. And then, like, once you thought, like, it was like, a normal push down, then she'd, like, push down twice. Like, she would, like, throw her whole back into pushing it down.

It was looking pretty intense when I came up there.

I think I might be sore from it.

What's next, birthday boy?

I'm hungry.

Let's eat.

Wait. What did you do while I had a massage?

I asked those girls what they were eating, and next thing I knew, you were upstairs and I was sitting down having lunch with all these women who didn't speak English.

What a fun experience.

They told me to sit and eat, and they just kept putting food in front of me. I have no idea what it was.

As it is my fake birthday celebration, I get to choose where we go to lunch. And I have chosen the pretzel place that doesn't serve pretzels. Because even though they didn't serve pretzels, the croissant that I got there was, like, the greatest thing I've had in this city. I had a croissant for breakfast, possibly another croissant for lunch. Unless I see something else that looks good, and I'm not above another one for dinner. This is my birthday. I'm doing what I want. Yeah, the massage was kind of forced upon me.

But I'm not mad that you did it. One cheese croissant, please.

I think. Have you ever had those, like, cheese curl chips?

No.

I don't know. A lot better than describing things to me. That was delicious. Now we are going to walk across the bamboo bridge to see what's on the Other side. I think we've done like everything else there is to do in this city except for walk across the bridge. Looks like there is a tourist tax being enforced on the bridge.

This bamboo bridge is here only six months a year. When the rainy season comes, the bridge has to be removed because there's too much water and the current is too Strong. You pay 5,000 kips to help maintain the bridge and also to pay a very small salary for the Lau family that built this bridge.

Makes a little more sense. Yeah.

It'S only like A$50.

That is definitely the most scared I've ever been to look at the camera. The bridge shakes so much. I felt like it was just going to shake off into the water.

This side of the bridge appears to be the truly authentic Laos. Back across the bridge, I think we have officially checked off everything there is to do in the city. Maybe not everything, but all the highlights for sure.

Back to our favorite coffee shop. Kara, why is this our favorite coffee shop?

They roast their own beans from lounge and it's delicious.

One last sandwich.

Sandwiches never look so good.

Seriously. This is like a two dollar foot long subway sandwich. Except it's even better because the bread's better. But they make sure that you still remember you're in Asia because they put chili sauce on it. Here's a little hint and what we're about to do.

Oreos required.

We just get ready for bed in our hotel bathroom. I brush my teeth, I wash my face. And we just got picked up to head to the bus station.

We said we wouldn't do this again and here we are.

Can't believe you talked me into it.

Ready?

Here's your first class VIP.

Bus tickets.

You guessed it.

I know already that I've made a bad decision.

I just don't know how bad. Just couldn't convince myself to pay for the plane tickets. It's like an hour and a half plane ride and it was going to be over $300 for both of us.

So we're taking an overnight bus.

Lighting gets even better.

It is a first class sleeper bus which we've never done before.

So tomorrow morning at like 8 o' clock, we're supposed to arrive in Vientiane, which is the capital city. From there we spend like eight hours in the city and then we board an overnight train from there to Bangkok.

Which we have not booked yet, but we'll get into that tomorrow.

Pretty much a business class of an airplane.

This is home for the night.