For dinner, Bun took the group to the food court. Just like Chiang Mai, in Luang Prabang (for brevity, will use “LP” for the city from out), “food court” does not mean what you think it means.
(Editor: Wait, is that a clever Mandy Patankin/Wallace Shawn/Andre the Giant/Princess Bride reference you just snuck in there? Writer: Of course! Editor: I approve this message referencing one of the greatest movies of all time!)
While not as big as in Chiang Mai, the LP food court is similar, albeit without live music. It’s a series of food carts forming a rectangle, with small tables in the midde.
The tables were packed. Two things in short supply in SE Asia are napkins and garbage cans. The napkins are necessary to clean up the mess left by the last people to use the table, and the garbage cans would be helpful to throw out the piles of trash they left. More on this in a minute.
The first stand Bun recommended was selling a international favorite – food on a skewer. Carol and I decided to be decisive, and just order from their, as no one was in line, and the food was tasty.
I bought two chicken satays and two shrimp skewers for us to share. Meanwhile, Carol found a trashed table that a group of young people were leaving. Apparently “going green” doesn’t extend to cleaning up your mess. After about five minutes of scrubbing, searching for garbage cans, and fending off attempts to pirate our table and tiny benches, we could relax. Others from the group joined us, and we went from two to around eight or nine.
Meanwhile, Carol got water for us and a beer for me. The couple that own this cart grill the food after its ordered, so we had to wait a bit. It was defiinitely worth the wait. Tasty shrimp (with head and full shell), chicken, and veggies – hard to ask for a better meal. If I could, I would eat all of my dinners in SE Asia at these marvelous food courts.
After that, we still had some time before the hotel shuttle bus was to pick us up. We were on a mission – elephant pants. For maximum chaos, the night market is right next door to the food court. Maybe because it was later in the evening, but the night market was nowhere near as crowded as the previous night when we went through it on our way to dinner.
I found the stall that I had seen the previous evening selling elephant shorts. Judging by the number of tourists wearing elephant pants, they are the number one tourist buy in Laos (also available in Thailand). I didn;’t want elephant pants, I wanted elephant shorts. I want to sit on our stone patio in the summer, sun down, glasses of red wine, gas lanterns on, restaurant lights on, and most importantly, elephant shorts on. And verily, it shall come to pass.
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