Birthday surprise

A belated thanks to everyone for all the birthday wishes. For those who hoped I was doing something special, let me assure you that I was -- thanks to YuppieNomad and j.fisher, my wonderful travelling buddies.

The first birthday surprise began at the Luang Nam Tha bus station with us realizing that we had set our watches forward instead of back when leaving China.
"Come back at 8:15? But it's 8:30 now."
"It's 6:30 now."
"6:30? Really?"
The upside is it gave us time for breakfast and a visit to the market to pick up some mangosteens and rambutans for the road. We were headed to Luang Prabang.

The second birthday surprise was the relative painlessness of the bus ride. We had heard horror stories of Lao buses and roads. A Brit we met in Kunming told us that he felt like Chinese buses were heaven, compared to Laos. I braced myself for the worst, but it wasn't bad at all. There was the regular picking up and dropping off of passengers at random spots along the way and the cramming in of passengers on little plastic stools in the aisles but we had no livestock this time (see j.fisher's accurate description of bus rides in recent memory), no smoking on the bus and only one little novice monk puking. Not bad at all. Plus, everyone seemed to be in great spirits. The bus driver and his crew were continually laughing and joking -- it really seemed like a party up there -- and bus rides that add 1-2 hours onto the scheduled time no longer faze me much.

The best birthday surprise though was where we headed after the bus ride. The dynamic duo revealed that in honour of my birthday, we were going to stay at a hotel. And a pretty luxurious one at that; fit for a king, you could say. Enter Maison Souvannaphoum, once the official residence of Prince Souvanna Phouma. Let's just say we enjoyed the eating, the comfy beds and the swimming pool enough that we gave in and asked for a late check-out. Thanks, guys! :)