cats are not gods in Luang Prabang!

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Luang Prabang is great... but the poor slimlined cats are undernourished here... umbrellas are popular. it is hot. Umbrellas are especially popular with the young novice monks. they walk in groups or solo in their striking orange robes, with yellow waste sash. traffic is calm, hospitable. this is not Saigon!

n.b. - the cat thing is not a particular crusade of mine, just an unfortunately noticeable prevalence...

my hotel is also great. The Villa Soxsai. the 'manager' is a young lad named Sack. Lovely smile, keen to practice his English, very helpful. my room is a beaut. cosy, but neat, clean, had best sleep for 3 or 4 nights last night. even got cable tv! so, i am catching a bit of overseas football / soccer that i just don' get in oz.

Luang Prabang is like a watered down version of Ubud... if you have been to this spot on Bali... just crank down pace, busyness, noise and population a whole stack of levels and we may be in Luang Prabang... there is much artwork and handicrafts here, at both top end and 'lower' end. There is a night market each night where local people are selling such wares... not surprisingly, there is a lot of bartering and some guffawing of "no, way too much..." ... this from us travellers, of course. it is on the Mekong river. with all due deference to the Mekong it is of an unattractive brown disposition ... but it is a mighty river, streaming through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, for a total distance of 4,661 km. it is known as "The Danube of the East" .... all these facts at the forefront of my mind, of course....

ventured up over a few hundred steps late this a/noon, a 100 metres up to the top of Phu Si, which gives a broad and pretty much total eagle's eye viewing of Luang prabang... peaceful, even allowing for the fact that another 50 - 60 people had also read this recommended travail in Lonely planet or such like... waiting for the sun to set itself down on another day. and it did not disappoint.

there is, not surprisingly, a United Nations worth of accents and languages springing to my ear here... most noticeably English, American - or is that Canadian? - French (used to be under some French rule from 1893 to 1950), German, Spanish, some Italian and a smattering of Oz

Further for your knowledge of Laos:
.it is the only land-locked country in South-East Asia,
.Laos covers an area of 235,800 square kilometres with an estimated population of 3,600,000.
.It has border with China in the North, Vietnam in the East, Cambodia in the South and Thailand and Burma in the West.
.as a country with many neighbours, Laos has often witnessed population movements across its borders at different stages of its history.
.and it has a disregard for its' cats.

in a couple of days i venture out on a day's trek and kayaking with 'White Elephant Adventures'. Canadian Derek who runs this op gave me and a few other inquirers a thorough lowdown on the various trips, far in excess of any of the other bountifully existing travel companies here and the strong emphasis on regard for the people and places they see, it being an educative experience, with a bit more personal attention at its guts... i am confident that my reportage afterwards will verify this...

but otherwise, i have been pretty low key in my 1 1/2 days here, an a/noon nap today, after a lateish rise and still struggling to know what day it is! ... which has all to do with not needing to know, not having to be at appts/ work etc and not reading newspapers or really catching up on news which may remind me... a beautiful thing really. for the most part i am feeling pretty chilled and booking in my mind further travels here...

Laos was not actually in my original itinerary, it was going to be all Vietnam, but someone i know intended to be in Laos, so i thought i'd drop on by and visit... their plans changed, but the appeal had grown in me, so i continued on and here, happily, is where i am....

i hope to have photos up tomorrow, but a glitch - losing my camera connection cord - has sort of nailed out this activity just for now.

trust all reading this are sweet and well. Bernard.

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