Laos day 14 – Luang Prabang

It’s raining!  This is the first rain we have had since we left Vietnam about a month ago and it’s making for a very miserable last day in Luang Prabang.  We successfully manage to change some Kip to Baht and as I’ve already finished the book I exchanged yesterday (The Reluctant Fundamentalist) we visit another book exchange and I swap it for something a little more substantial – ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ by Khaled Hosseini, which, if it is anything like as good as ‘The Kite Runner’, should be an enjoyable read.  We stop to get some cash at one of only two ATMs in town.  It’s just being refilled and we are the first to use it.  It goes through the motions, issues confirmation that the transaction has gone through but doesn’t dispense any cash!  (This is the second time we have had problems at the cash machine in Luang Prabang).  But despite the engineer witnessing the transaction, re-opening the machine and confirming an error – inputting the  safe combination in full public view in the process (there was a man toting a gun at his side, mind you) – we still have to come away empty-handed with only the promise, after filling in a form, that our cash will be re-imbursed in the next two days!  We get some cash using another card from the second cash machine, but whether we’re out of pocket remains to be seen.  …and that, is about as exciting as our day gets!