Luang Prabang

But

I first want to correct my previous misspelling of this town. Oops. Luang Prabang is one of those places that seems a bit like Valhalla, and it was the one place I really wanted to visit- until I had my little travel meltdown when I didn't even want to be in Laos...fortunately I got beyond that place! We flew here from Vientienne as there are only so many 12 hour trips we can take in a short period. After I heard one woman describe her mini bus trip here, I was glad we did fly.

This is another UNESCO heritage site, and so far those places have not let us down. This is no exception, and as soon as we arrived at our guest house, we could tell it was a very laid back place. We didn't have to dodge traffic to cross busy streets and more people were riding bikes than anywhere else. 

The things to do here are sipping cool fruit drinks or lattes in riverside cafés, getting massages or spa treatments( more on that later), shop the colorful night market and visit temples. 

If you get tired of those activities, you can always sign up for any number of day trips, or longer ones.

This is a sampling of the various things to do nearby. You can even learn to be a mahout, or elephant trainer! Now there's a useful life skill...However, being more in the relaxation mode, we finally signed up to go visit the waterfall.

This was a good choice, as it was beautiful, and the people watching was priceless, from the groups of bikini clad youth , to Korean grandmas splashing in the water. 

 Maybe this butterfly escaped from the butterfly farm nearby, but there were many others flitting about the falls. The limestone gives the pools this unique milky blue color that is otherworldly. I didn't feel much like cavorting in the water, but jim slipped ( literally) into the refreshing pool for a dip. The river cascaded down the hillside, creating various sized pools and of course the unfazed youth were climbing to the very top, just because they could. I kept thinking, " if their mothers could see them now"!

After bouncing along the road an hour each way, we decided that we needed a day of rest the next day,  staying closer to home. After all, we had decided ( again) to splurge a bit and upgrade our hotel to a different part of town after I read that this was where the monks go to take alms in the morning.we were lucky enough to be able to get a room for three nights and it surely has been worth the upgrade! 

This is the view from our verandah upstairs.

A perfect place for playing guitar, and smoking a cigar...

But the best part of all is having a front row seat as the monks come by to collect rice each morning, beginning at 5:30 am. The tourists arrive even earlier, though, with cameras ready! 

Maybe better still, is listening to a select few as they drum and play cymbals and gongs. We first heard it at 4 am and it was amazing. They did it again yesterday at 4 pm and I was able to run across the street to watch up close. At sunset, they chant in front of the Buddha statue in the temple and we quietly sat and listened, as long as we did not point our feet toward the Buddha.

I can't get enough of taking photos of the young monks as they go about their day...