Day 87! Today marks a monumental day… I sold my motorbike! I definitely have mixed emotions on it, but overall I’m very happy with my past 3 months and the person I sold it to! I also had a wonderful day exploring Luang Prabang, but you’ll read all about it soon enough!

I woke up with no plans this morning besides potentially selling my motorbike! So I scarfed down another free hostel breakfast and met the potential buyer!

His name’s max and he’s from England! He’s already done Vietnam and Cambodia by motorbike but I guess threw Thailand in the middle so he didn’t have a motorbike anymore. He was a really nice guy and we chatted for a bit about traveling before getting to the motorbike! It sounded like I was passing off the motorbike to a good candidate!

I went over all the quirks about the bike and what maintenance I had done. Then he took the motorbike out on a test drive and came back 10 minutes later saying he’d buy it!

It’s definitely a sad reality that I won’t get to motorbike around on the bike I had been using for the past 3 months. BUT, Max ended up paying exactly how much I paid for it originally so that was amazing!

I truly only paid for gas and maintenance for travel which comes out to be very cheap per day (I don’t know exactly but it’s anywhere around $1-$5 a day)!

I thanked Max, said goodbye to Kilby and joined a FaceTime with my cousins who are coming to Thailand to visit me!

We finished planning some early plane tickets and I found out, later in the day, that my cousin Mina is also joining! I’m super excited to have them all join me in exploring a country I love so much!

After the FaceTime ended, my friend Dan asked me if I wanted to go explore the town more and a couple museums that he had found nearby.

I of course said yes and our friend Sam tagged along too! I haven’t met many Americans on this trip, but funnily enough we have a crew of around 4 or 5 at this hostel and we are 3 of them.

We started our museum hopping at the Traditional Arts and Ethnology Center.

This small museum dove into the ethnic diversity in Laos and had clothing from all the different groups residing in the country!

There are four main groups that reside across Laos: Tai-kadai, Hmong-Yao, Sino Tibetan, and Austroasiatic. There was a crazy fact about one of the subdivisions of these groups, the Akha. The Akha people are able to recite up to 60 generations of their family! I thought this was wildly impressive!

After exploring and learning about the different cultures that make up Laos, we stepped into a very modern room and dove into a very deep exhibit.

This exhibit was about fashion, “inspiration,” and cultural appropriation.

It displayed example magazines of modern clothing paired against traditional clothing from across the world. Showing how big clothing corporations profit off of the cultural elements of tribes all over the globe.

It was quite an interesting exhibit as this is a conversation that gets brought up all the time while traveling! Now, we as travelers, usually discuss if it’s cultural appropriation to wear the traditional clothing sold at night markets. But this museum took it to another level showing how big companies take away from the hand made craft culture of these people!

For me, I believe that as long as you’re not disrespecting the culture, wearing the clothing shows a sign of respect and appreciation! Especially to the time and dedication it took for someone to make the clothes.

I heard an interesting example recently of a town (somewhere in the US) that had a sports team named after the Native American tribe that resided nearby. There was a big uproar about changing the team’s name… but the tribe actually liked it and wasn’t a part of the people saying it was cultural appropriation.

It’s a very interesting line between appreciation and appropriation and we all have our own thoughts on it! I’d be curious to hear what you all think, because it’s a large debate with cancel culture and cultural appropriation in todays society!

The next museum was closed for some reason, so we wandered to find some food and found a strange jello snack on the way.

After enjoying a cheap and delicious Khao Soi, we took a long walk around to and down the river! We pit stopped at a cafe overlooking the river and enjoyed a cold and refreshing smoothie as we admired the view.

We then continued our walk back to the closed museum and it was finally open!

This museum is called the National Museum. It is a museum of the kings mansion and dives into the culture of Luang Prabang and the kings that used to rule it.

Unfortunately, we could not take pictures inside most of the buildings. But there were old royal cars, carriages to carry the golden Buddha statues, and a mansion filled with ornate designs and relics, some of which were presented as gifts to the king from western countries.

But, before we got into the mansion, we got turned away to rent long clothes. We didn’t realize that was needed at this museum, but for 10,000 Kip we were able to rent some pants and shirts.

After a long and hot day of walking, I went back to my hostel for a nap before joining back up with Dan and Sam for an evening of food and a night market!

We started off at a Bao bun restaurant, then made our way to the local night market where we grabbed smoothies and wandered the many stalls!

I then enjoyed a delicious bowl of wonton soup and another smoothie to end the feast!

We made our way back to Sam’s hostel which was just about to start a karaoke night! No one was brave enough to kick it off, so I grabbed the mic and started the event with Sweet Caroline! This got the night going and we dive into a big group sing along to a bunch of songs we all knew!

I ended up singing 4 or 5 songs by myself or with a group of people! It was a blast and a great way to kick start the night!

We then hopped on a Tuk Tuk and made our way to the only bar that is open late, a bowling alley!

This bowling alley also has an archery range…? It was a ton of fun bowling, which is something I haven’t done in a while and definitely missed!

We had a nice group of 7 of us play 2 rounds of bowling and plenty of new friends stepped in to play a frame or two with us! The bowling was also 40,000 Kip for one person (so $2 a game, insanely cheap)!

We took a Tuk Tuk back home and called it a night!

It had been a long day and I was exhausted! I’m looking forward to having a relaxing day tomorrow before I head off to Thailand!

– Elie