First and foremost, we decided to use most of our day here to walk around the ancient, UNESCO-noted area of Luang Prabang. We had been eyeing the tours offered by the numerous agencies in town. We could have chosen to go to waterfalls, ride elephants, or kayak upriver to some caves. The white water tubing is not currently offered as this is the dry season and the rivers are too lazy for adventure. All this, but we chose to walk around town and look at the ancient and colonial architecture and just see how the locals live. Really?
It dawned on me that the tours were manufactured to give tourists a sense of doing something, not to mention to make money from those willing to part with it. For us, on most of our journeys, we find the being there the important thing. To traverse the surface of the earth far from our usual routine provides us with the necessary something. So today we tried to soak up the sights and sounds of a place we will probably never witness again in this life.
Perhaps the second point is stronger evidence that we are maturing. We rub shoulders with the backpacker crowd on most all trips. There are many positive reasons for travelling like this. Perhaps, the most important is one is to be closer to the reality of the place and its people. Another factor is the financial advantages of affordable longer trips. Really, though, what is the sense of staying in a chain or upscale hotel when on the road? It just puts one more artificial barrier between the foreign traveller and the real life on the streets. (Many of the cities on this trip may not even have had available, big-name chain hotels.). Backpacker's fare often contains a much higher percentage of indigenous, local dishes too. One final advantage for backpacking is the fact it's a hell of a lot easier toting around a smaller amount of luggage. Toothpaste is available everywhere, why pack it? If you really need a sweater, wouldn't it be best to buy at the source? Even little tricks like packing the tatty underwear to throw away after use can help to offset the weight of any new souvenirs.
The one parameter of backpacking we are missing now is the being juvenile part. Many of these baby-faces with whom we've been on buses are barely of legal age. This young rat pack running around without supervision could get out of hand. Yet, the harsh realities of the road (or trail) do tend to keep all in check. It just seems we are of that certain age and no longer need to discover ourselves. We had sort of planned on visiting Vang Vieng on our way south to the capital. We started researching a little bit more about it though. It is significant only because it is a backpacker's hangout. We decided to forgo the non-stop party, adrenaline, and flirtation to buy night bus tickets directly to Vientiane.
Both avoiding youth-oriented tours and the hangout of the young and adventurous may mean that we are maturing. Yet we will never be too old to travel.