Lovely Luang Prabang

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Our guide in Luang Prapang mystified us rather as he had a unique way of pronouncing English. As we toured the ancient royal Palace we were surprised to learn that the king was fond of fancy bunnies and gold Lego but then realised it was frangipani and gold leaf that he liked. The palace was rather good with many walls covered in splendid glass mosaics. We then visited four temples and the Buddha school and felt a bit templed out. That evening we climbed to the top of mount Phousi with about a thousand other tourists to see the sun set over Luang Prabang and the Meekong.

Next day we took a river trip to see some caves,( full of Buddhas) and stopped at various villages en route. Whilst our boat was not exactly Cleopatra's barge it was a wonderful trip with beautiful views of the mountains. We stopped for an elephant ride as well.

Yesterday was probably the very best day. We got up at 5:30 and were on the pavement outside our hotel by 6am to see the monks on their daily walk down the road asking for alms. People gave potions of sticky rice and other food and this is all the monks have to live on.After breakfast was a visit to the morning market, then stopped at some tribal villages and saw rice being harvested. next visited a bear sanctuary and then went to the most beautiful waterfalls imaginable. Though small compared to other waterfalls the scenery here is straight out of a Chinese water colour with pure white water cascading over sand coloured stones into pale turquoise pools, all framed by elegant oriental trees. We had a swim, heavenly! Then our guide fixed us a picnic table right in front of the waterfall and we had a delicious Lao picnic. Today is our last day, we went round the markets again and were sorry to see some little pigs all trussed up in bamboo. Now back in Bangkok airport for late night. Flight home.

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