Day 86! I had heard from Lea that there was a jewelry making class in Luang Prabang. And then a number of people after her suggested it too! My friends were already planning on doing it today, so I thought why not join along for the journey! Let’s get into the day!

I woke up nice and early, this time on purpose! Our ring making class was scheduled for 9am and we had to walk to it, so it was a nice 7:30am wake up for my free hostel breakfast.

It was honestly very nice waking up and being one of the only people enjoying breakfast and appreciating the wonderful view of the river.

After eating, I set out down the road to Sam and Mia’s hostel. I met Mia the night before, she’s from England, but I actually ran into her a few times in Vang Vieng too! That’s how she knew Sam.

We went on a 20 minute walk through the quiet morning streets of Luang Prabang. We had some lively conversations on our walk, which was an energizing way to start the day!

We arrived just before our class started at 9am! Fortunately, we were the only students so far (one was running late). But we began our lesson!

It also turned out that there wasn’t a group in the afternoon, so we had plenty of time to perfect our craft today.

The lesson started out with all of us discussing the types of silver ring making, how this place specifically does it, and the step by step process of what we were going to do today!

We then started talking about our jewelry ideas and we quickly began working to turn these ideas into a reality!

The process was very hands on and pretty intense! You start out by melting your 10 grams of silver with a very hot blow torch. Then once it’s ready, you quench the silver in water before hammering it out into a rectangle! It was pretty cool putting some science class to use!

It was crazy seeing the silver turn bright red and how malleable it became when heated up so much!

After pounding away with a hammer, you put the silver through a pressing device that stretches out the material to your desired band thickness and length.

Every now and then the family that ran the business would step in and help or point us in the right direction! It was a nice mixture of being taught, trying (and failing), and then them stepping in to show us how it’s really done! But for the most part, we were doing everything!

Also, with being there so early, we got individual help from all the staff! It was super cool!

They also brought us out some snacks for when we needed a break!

Over the course of around 5 hours, I ended up making three rings!

The first one I attempted was a fungi one that I saw online. I went a little ambitious and had to work on this piece for a couple of hours! It involved a lot of engraving and bending. But I think it turned out a lot better than I expected! It kinda looks like a whales tale, but I’m a fan of it. And for a first piece, it was an exhilarating process!

The second ring I made was a toe ring. At the beginning of the class the teacher that could speak English wrote down all of our names in Laotian. So I engraved my name into this ring!

The last ring I made had one of the coolest processes to it! We actually used a soldering technique that used salt that comes from lakes! It made for a satisfying viewing and ends up turning into a very cool ring with a neat green (of course) gem on top!

This was an insanely cool activity! And for only $60 I think it was really worth the value and our time! Not only did I learn a new skill, but I got three new rings that when someone asks, “where I got them from” I’ll be able to say, “I made them!”

All three of us were pretty ravenous after a long and intense class. So we walked back towards our hostels to enjoy the restaurant I ate at the day before!

I ended up getting the same thing as yesterday, but we also split some fried spring rolls which were even better than the fresh ones!

I then split off from my friends and ran some errands! The big one being pulling out cash and heading back to the tattoo artist to pay him! It was very very kind of him to let me pay the next day so I could meet up with my friends for dinner the night before.

After doing so, I had a quick photo shoot with Kilby as tomorrow I’ll be selling her to another traveler! It’s bittersweet, but I’m ready to move on and I’m glad I can pass along the motorbike to another traveler! Hopefully they’ll experience the same joy I did while motorbiking with this bike!

I then headed back over the sketchy bridge in town to purchase some toothpaste and deodorant because I finally ran out!

The rest of the night turned into a lot of card playing, a lot of chatting with new people, and a lot of eating!

At first, Sam and I started by playing 1v1 Shithead! It was fun but eventually a group of 6 of us started playing with two decks, which was a lot more enjoyable!

We added on Becca and Liv from England, my friend Dan from the US, and Christian, a new acquaintance from LA.

I finished off the night with a free hostel dinner! The hostel puts it on every Thursday and it ended up being an amazing buffet of food.

I stuffed myself silly and it felt like I was at thanksgiving dinner in SE Asia! There was fried rice, spring rolls, chicken with thick rice noodles, tofu and vegetables, thinner rice noodles, fried eggplant, and eggs!

After dinner, there was talks of going to the Luang Prabang bowling alley. But I ended up chatting with two new people from Scotland and decided to save the bowling alley for another night!

As I said earlier in this post, I’m sad to be selling my motorbike. However, not having the motorbike will allow me to travel freely without having to think about what to do with a motorbike! So now I’ll be able to join my friends on the slow boat to Thailand on the 31st. My visa on Laos runs till April 7th, but I’d rather keep enjoying my time with these awesome people!

Plans can obviously change in a blink of an eye. But my gut is telling me this is the right choice and I’m very exited to follow it!

But until then, it’s time to continue enjoying Luang Prabang!

– Elie