Day18- Luang Prabang
Refreshed after our early night we headed out in search of a Lonely Planet of Laos feeling out South east Asia one wasn't cutting it and then headed off on the Walking Tour. First stop was Big Brother Mouse a company set up to publish and distribute books to young Laos children to help them learn to read and write. Feeling that was a worthwhile way to help this incredibly poor country productively ( As there's heaps of children begging and apparently many of the children begging spend then money on drugs and not food!) we purchased a couple of English - Lao books to give to children down south. Next stop Phi Si (mountain) where we took some great pics of Luang Prabang and stopped in at the temples Tham Phu Si and Wat Pha Phutthabht the home of the buddha foot print! Abstract to say the least but the cave did provide some shelter from the midmorning shower. As we continued along our walking tour the heavens opened and a quick stop for lunch was in order to avoid getting swept away as the streets turned to rivers. After some hot noodle soup and we were
on our way to the Royal Palace Museum (Formally the Kings Palace) for cultural enlightening. Next stop was some physical pampering a Khmu Massage- a fantastic combination of thai style acupressure and oil massage.
We wandered through the remaining Luang Prabang walking tour and Wat Xieng Thong (yes another temple.. this was supposed to be a good one!) but left us less than impressed.
We enjoyed a traditional Lao Style BBQ for dinner by the Mekong river (circular dish rested on hot coals to where you cook meat, vegies noodles and egg in a stock) tasty but fiddly when your hungry!
And finished the evening with a couple of quiet Beer Lao at the Lao Lao Garden with our traveling mates.
Day 19
After negotiating the best price with what seemed like every tuk tuk driver in town, losing the Irish couple we were planning to go with and accidentally leaving our new lonely planet of Lao at the Bakery at breakfast. We headed off to the famous Pak Ou Caves. After a very bumpy tuk tuk ride, a boat across the river, 150 stairs we arrived at the cave 1, no more than 20m X20m, dark and scattered
with a few buddha's. Less then impressed we headed to the cave number 2 with big expectations given the ordeal getting there, whilst slightly more impressive due to the thousands of buddha's andsome natural light we left a little disheartened!
Keen to make up for a lack luster morning we grabbed a chicken bagette from a street stall and hired some ridiculously expensive bikes and headed towards the big gold stupa we had spotted from the temple on the hill the day before. It turned out be a beautiful gold temple on huge ground of gardens with no tourists or buddha's, just two "antique" ladies gardening. They quickly wrapped a white band aka rope (unsure of its significance) around Jez's wrist and then left us alone to explore the 3 level temple covered in murals of strange torture. With little else to explore we headed back into town to update our blog which we had unfortunately fell behind with.
We met with the others for a dinner, and an early night before heading off to Vang Vieng!
Laos' Flag
Map of Laos