Originally written on October 22, 2004

Today we decided to run some errands in town in the morning, and visit some of the many wats (Buddhist temples) in the afternoon. Errands, it turns out takes a long time in sleepy Luang Prabang. There are at least three banks, which we found along the main street. Each have different hours of operation, some cash US traveller�’s cheques (usually only to Kip (Lao currency), while others will only exchange US currency for Kip. We had seen many lovely items in the evening market and wanted to make sure we had enough money to make some purchases, and still be able to leave the country. I.e. have enough money also for food, bus rides, tuk-tuk rides etc. We had less than 110 000 Kip (11 US), hence the need to change traveller�’s cheques.

After walking up and down the main street a couple times, checking with each bank, we found out that the best method it turned out was to exchange our traveller�’s cheque at the travel agency where we were booking our flight to Hanoi. They were able to give us US dollars (less 3.5% commission of course-same as the bank) and all we had to do was go back to a bank and convert some of the US dollars to Kip (better bang for your dollar). This proved to be a more difficult task�. » Read the rest of the entry..