Vietnam with the Dowlers: Luang Prabang, Lao

We hadn't made it to Lao yet during our now 2 years of living in Vietnam. We had the opportunity of a public holiday so tacked on 1 day and we had 4 days to enjoy our visit. It only take an hour to fly to Luang Parabang in Lao which is obviously very close to Hanoi. Visa is easy to do at the airport, although US dollars in hand are useful. I had to actually go out of the airport to the ATM to come back in and pay for our visa. They only took local money, Kep, or US dollars. The welcome was very calm and quiet like a country town airport.

Straight from the official website 'Situated in northern Laos the township of Luange Prabang sits on a peninsular at the confluence of two rivers, the Nam Khan and the famous Mekong. With its charming combination of timber Lao houses and European colonial architecture it is easy to see why UNESCO declared it a World Heritage site in 1995'. The province has a total population of just over 452,900 which includes 12 distinct ethnic groups. The Khmu are the largest ethnic group in the province and make up the majority (around 44% of the provincial population'

It is very Thai feeling and the food is more to the Thai style. We arrived in time for lunch and a wander in the main street. Soooo much quieter than Hanoi, which was a nice change.

The view from the window of the hotel which was in a great spot and the manager was fabulous, it was run by a Canadian lady who gave us lots of tips of where to go and where to eat.

The next morning we headed off for a cycle ride around the city.

Coffee with a view of the Mekong.

Some pics of the beautiful 'Wats' or pagodas in the city.

The museum in the centre of the city.

A familiar site around the city, no helmet but they are keeping cool and out of the sun.

One of the lovely buildings that are part of the street scape in LP.

Tuk Tuk's are the way to travel and you can pick them up on the street anywhere.

Loved this in the local school yard, workplace health and safety?!?!?!

We headed out to look at the local waterfall, one of THE things to do, so of course we had to...

On the way to the waterfall there is a bear sanctuary, you can see them from the pathway.

You can just make out the bears.....

Walking literally through the waterfall.

Committed to having a picnic even though there had been lots

of rain and the waterfall had overflowed into the picnic area...

and below you can see just how close we were to the waterfall having a cup of tea.

So VERY early the next morning, 6am, we got up to have a look at the local people lining up on the streets to give alms to the Buddhist monks...an amazing thing to watch. We were sitting on the front step of our hotel to take these pics.

Hundreds of monks went past us and the ladies gave each of them a tiny bit of food each.

Monks out and about...a familiar site during the day.

We took a local boat and rode along the Mekong to some caves....a long 2 hour ride up river and a quick 1 hour to get back with the river pushing us back.

Some local kids swimming on the side of the boat

The cave has been made into a pagoda

The view after climbing a couple of hundred stairs.

Buddha statues all through the cave

Keeping the umbrella use up...great on the boat as well.

We called into a small village where weaving is the local industry. Below the some of the yarns drying after being dyed.

I picked up a lovely runner from this lady that is now on my coffee table.

We headed out to the weaving place in Luang Prabang the next day. There is a free tuk tuk out there and you can do weaving and dyeing classes, not our cup of tea but it would be lovely weaving looking at the Mekong. It was really nice and relaxing, we had lunch out there as well.