Day 10: Getting tired doing nothing

To stay or not to stay, that has been the question in my mind these past days. I’m liking the pace of life here in Luang Prabang, but the boredom is starting to get to me. There’s really not much you can do in Luang Prabang. Oh, there’s the trekking, but that’s not my thing. There are 30-something Wats around, but they all start to look the same afterwards. This morning, I popped into the travel agent’s office and bought my ticket to Vientiane.

There are two kinds of buses that ply the Luang Prabang-Vientiane route: The VIP express and the Express bus. From what I’ve seen, the only difference between the two is that the VIP is a double decker bus, while the express has night departures. I’ve been dead set on taking the night bus, but I changed my mind at the last minute, and will be taking the morning bus instead, so I can see the scenery. Goodness knows how I’m going to pass 10 hours in the bus though.

This morning, I decided to have breakfast at the nearby Joma cafe. I’ve seen this coffee shop the first time I arrived, and have been snubbing it because it’s your run-of-the-mill cafe with outdoor seating and and air conditioned indoor dining area. After looking at the menu last night, I decided to finally give it a try this morning. Now I’m kicking myself for not trying them out sooner. Aside from hot and cold beverages, they serve different kinds of pastries and sandwiches. Ever since seeing the signs of Happy Herb Pizzas in Siem Reap, I’ve been hankering for pizza, though without the happy herbs. Their pepperoni pizza looks appetizing, so I ordered one for breakfast, to go along with my croissant and cup of hot cocoa.

While the hot cocoa is not something to write about, the pizza was good. It was full flavored, and has lots of toppings. The croissant was fantastic as well. It doesn’t look like the croissant you see back in Manila — this one looks dry (not glossy with oil). I tear of a piece of the croissant and I loved how it’s not as greasy as croissants can be. It’s delightfully flaky and despite its appearance, was quite moist. I love it.

This morning’s breakfast was a huge improvement over last night’s dinner. I decided to try out this one restaurant that boasts of being the longest running restaurant in Luang Prabang. I thought I should splurge, and ordered onion soup and chicken in bread crumbs with cream sauce. The soup came with half a baguette, and sadly, that’s the only good thing about it. It was salty, but doesn’t have any other flavor nor texture. The chicken on the other hand, was just plain weird. Well, the chicken was basically like cordon bleu, but it comes slathered with cream sauce that just doesn’t look nor taste right. The mashed potato that came with it was dry, and the veggies that came with it doesn’t really match the other two, but it was the only thing cooked perfectly.

I’m leaving early tomorrow morning, so this night’s dinner will be my last here in Luang Prabang. Better make the right choice of restaurants this time.