A Postcard from Luang Prabang

Our seven hour bus journey to the world heritage listed city of Luang Prabang is spectacular.  I had no idea Laos was this beautiful.  We journey through steep mountain passes and stop at the top of the mountain for lunch and before I know it (‘cos I have been writing..listening to my IPOD…etc) we are cruising through the city and arrive at our guest house. 

Family run guest houses are always great.  The people are friendly and that evening threw us a traditional Laotian BBQ.  Yummy! 

The Loa BBQ is done with a special pan.  It has a  depression that goes around it where soup, noodles and all sorts of greens such as morning glory cook away while the main meat is BBQed in the centre of this pan.  When it is all cooked, you mix it all together in a sort of brothy BBQ and tuck in.  Lee, the lady from the guest house joins us but won’t even start to have her dinner till we have had a few helpings.  Guest eat first in Lao.  She then seems to reluctantly eat a few pieces of meat..letting us know she intends to stay sexy and skinny!  Fortunately we have no such hang ups..and do justice to this feast!  A Lao BBQ is one where you can continue to eat forever.  You eat a bit, grab a drink, chat…put some more meat on the fire….u get the drift..

Next morning I am up at 5.30 to see the monks file past with their alms bowls.  The tradition here is the same as the rest of Asia.  Monks don’t buy their food and rely on the generosity of the village folk.  They file past so fast, I am lucky to get a few shots…so I can justify my early morning wake up call..

It’s raining in the morning but it clears up later in the day and I browse the town with Wong.  I visit the morning market..and experience the hustle and bustle of an Asian Market and as usual there is always something that..well makes me go…oh my…how on earth do you cook buffalo feet?

This town has a temple at every street corner so we visit one of them.  All temples here are decked out in gold and very ornate…

and then its time to watch the silversmiths at work..

We wander down to the Mekong for a look at the long boats.  In a couple of days we will begin our long boat journey on the Mekong and travel toward the Thai Border.  There isn’t too much time left on this Intrepid Adventure.

Travellers' never think that they are the foreigners.  ~Mason Cooley