Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang, the second largest city in Laos, is home to 103,000 people. Although it is a small city it has much to offer from scenic views of the Mekong and Nam Sung Rivers to over forty Vats spread throughout the city. After an hour of searching we find the guest house completely booked for the night; however, the owner’s sister’s guest house had a room available for us. Although the hotel was out of our budget (USD$40 per night) they gave it to us for a mere USD$10, which is a steal because the room had air-conditioning, private shower with a curtain, and satellite television, woohoo!

Most people start their morning with a nice cup of java, but not us. On the way to see more temples (Vats) we spot large glass jars filled with fermenting snakes, scorpions, and millipedes. Ummm…nothing like a shot of snake whiskey to wake you up in the am.

So with one more dare down we hic-upped our way down to the Xieng Toung and Phou Si Vats hoping that the alcohol content was high enough to kill any potential bad things. The first temple is the oldest Vat in town and covered with colorful mirror tiles. The latter Vat is situated on the top of Phou Si Hill overlooking the entire town. We made it up just in time to see the rain clouds open up into a brilliant rainbow sprouting from the golden temple below.

With so many temples in this city it has become quite popular to watch the monks collect alms from patrons early in the morning. Unfortunately, this lovely tradition has turned into more of a spectacle with scantily dressed tourists taking up close flash photos of the participants. Several monks have also fallen ill to food poisoning in recent years, from vendors selling impure food to tourist who wish to participate. Locals have complained over these poor standards but the government denies them any changes as it accounts for a large part of the tourism industry. Interested by this tradition we wake up at 5:30am and walk up to the main street to quietly watch from the other side seated.

After our early morning we spend the rest of the day out at Pak Ou Caves (aka Budda caves) and the Kuang Si Falls. The trip to the Pak Ou Caves takes about an hour by boat through the Mekong and is home to several thousand Buddha images. The trip is worth the effort; however, since we came by slow boat from Huay Xia, we had already seen much of the same scenery. It was neat seeing all of the different Buddha images; however, after two weeks of Buddhas they all start to look the same. Kuang Si Falls on the other was amazing. We wish we could have spent all day at the falls exploring the turquoise blue waters and bear park.

After some debate we decided to leave Luang Prabang a day early to spend four nights relaxing along the banks of the Nam Song River in Vang Vieng.