Monks and Baguettes in Luang Prabang

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It was another early night and early start for the eight hour boat trip to Luang Prabang. When we got back on the boat it had shrunk, well our boat had gone back to the border and we got a new smaller boat for the second leg. The seating was pretty uncomfortable and not even our cushions could help, so I sat out the back of the boat in the crews kitchen on their log pile for most of the journey, no space for backgammon today! Again the journey passed pretty quickly and again the scenery was awesome. We got off the boat to the unexpected smiling faces of Jakob and Ellin whom we had met earlier on our trip. We checked into a guesthouse and had a lovely meal overlooking the river and catching up on the last few months with them. A lovely first night in Luang Prabang. J and E left the next morning and so we set about exploring Luang Prabang. It’s a very beautiful city that still has a very strong French feel and so we spent a few days exploring the temples, sampling the cuisine and visiting a museum or two. It’s a beautiful place but not exactly what we were expecting of Laos. There are many monks walking around due to the amount of Wat's there and the chanting in the evening is such a beautiful sound. On the last night we climbed up to the stupa at the top of the hill and on the way up were conned by a lovely old lady into buying two birds each to let go at the top, we were assured it was good luck so couldn’t really refuse! There is always something that is sold as lucky and am always too superstitious not to buy into it! So we climbed up the steps and as the birds were freaking me out sick note let both sets of birds go! I did make a wish though! Unfortunately there was no sunset as it was pretty cloudy and had rained a fair bit but the views were beautiful. We then walked through the enormous night market, which had the most amazing silk scarves in and I had to have massive amounts of self restraint to not buy the lot! We then decided after much umming and aaghing to get the six hour minibus to Ponsavanh to see the Plain of Jars and learn the details of the secret war which occurred in Laos. Hope all ok at home and spring has finally sprung!

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Photos

My bird photography is rubbish
But if you look carefully you can see the black speck flying off!

Comments

[Claude]

would you luike t'boy sum looky pegs!!