Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Cuba - More than old cars
Phouvy took us on a walking tour this morning starting at the Wat Xieng Toung. This is the most important wat in the city as it houses the Prabang Buddha. Next to the wat was a statue of the second to last king of Laos and the Presidential Palace that is now the Haw Kham museum. Laos is no longer a Kingdom with the last king being forced to abdicate in 1975 when the Pathet Lao took over. He and his family were sent to re-education camps where they eventually died. There is an 81 year old princess still alive and living in Luang Prabang and she has a son (51) who is exiled overseas and making noises about gaining the throne back.
We were not able to enter the wat nor take photos of the interior from the outside. We were able to go into the museum but again no photos.
We visited 1 more wat, Wat Mai, after this and passed numerous others on our way. Doing our own thing in the afternoon after lunch we climbed Mount Phu Si, a 100m hill with a wat and good views of the city. On the way down we passed many statues of Buddhas and a cave that had a footprint of the Buddha.
We were hoping to walk down the other side of the hill and go to the bamboo bridge on the other river going through Luang Prabang – the Khan River. The bridge is only there during the low river season which is now. The river would be 5 or more meters higher in the wet season. Anyway we apparently took a wrong turn and ended up at a wat with a lot of monks wandering around. Two of the younger ones struck up a conversation with us for a while – one of them in particular had very good English.
Leaving the monks we ended up on the main street and as it was a humid 36 degrees we thought the coolness of our room was what was required before we met up with our party again at 4.45 to go see another wat and the sunset on the Mekong.
At this other wat we played pétanque which is a very popular pastime with Laotians. This was followed by some Laotian drinks (hibiscus flower with lemon grass, and bael fruit drink) and snacks (riverweed, rice cakes, local mushrooms, sugar cane, poppadoms). All of it was very nice.
After the sunset we got back into the Tuk Tuks and got dropped off at the night market where we all split up and did our own thing.
This is a fantastic town that you should all visit very soon before it becomes too touristy. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site and we could probably spend at least a week here. It is a mixture of French and Laotian architecture. You can get here by plane, river and roads although we are not sure how good the road system is yet.
We were not able to enter the wat nor take photos of the interior from the outside. We were able to go into the museum but again no photos.
We visited 1 more wat, Wat Mai, after this and passed numerous others on our way. Doing our own thing in the afternoon after lunch we climbed Mount Phu Si, a 100m hill with a wat and good views of the city. On the way down we passed many statues of Buddhas and a cave that had a footprint of the Buddha.
We were hoping to walk down the other side of the hill and go to the bamboo bridge on the other river going through Luang Prabang – the Khan River. The bridge is only there during the low river season which is now. The river would be 5 or more meters higher in the wet season. Anyway we apparently took a wrong turn and ended up at a wat with a lot of monks wandering around. Two of the younger ones struck up a conversation with us for a while – one of them in particular had very good English.
Leaving the monks we ended up on the main street and as it was a humid 36 degrees we thought the coolness of our room was what was required before we met up with our party again at 4.45 to go see another wat and the sunset on the Mekong.
At this other wat we played pétanque which is a very popular pastime with Laotians. This was followed by some Laotian drinks (hibiscus flower with lemon grass, and bael fruit drink) and snacks (riverweed, rice cakes, local mushrooms, sugar cane, poppadoms). All of it was very nice.
After the sunset we got back into the Tuk Tuks and got dropped off at the night market where we all split up and did our own thing.
This is a fantastic town that you should all visit very soon before it becomes too touristy. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site and we could probably spend at least a week here. It is a mixture of French and Laotian architecture. You can get here by plane, river and roads although we are not sure how good the road system is yet.
- comments
Roslyn This "net fishing' photo is beautiful
Gael Not too sure whether this is for real, or someone has a really dark sense of humour!
Gael Roslyn - you beat me to it and stole the words right out of my mouth!
Gael This is absolutely mouth-watering! My God - it's looks soooooo healthy too. I'm on the next plane!!!
Jane Did you have a go Bruce?!