Luang Prabang

I can't say if all of Laos is like this, but Luang Prabang is so much less hectic and more mellow than Vietnam.  There are fewer people and, while this is still a tourist area, the Lao are not aggressive businessmen, even though Loang Prabang is reputed to have the best night market in Southeast Asia.

I had not seen much of the city before I left on my elephant excursion, so yesterday I took a bicycle from my hotel and drove all around, stopping at each significant temple, stupa, and museum.  I climbed a million steps to the stupa on top of the hill in the middle of town to get a great view of the area.  I loved the Royal Palace.  When you go to St. Petersburg, they ignore the entire Soviet era and tell the tourists all about the tsars and the unfortunate last one as if they loved them all.  Similarly here, they don't want to talk about the last fifty years.  The Royal Palace is where the kings lived in the first half of the twentieth century, but it was completely remodeled in the early 1960's.  So I'm looking at historical artifacts from my childhood.  In the Royal Garage are two unrestored Lincoln Continetals from the mid-60's (gift of the US government) along with a really beat up Citroen from the 40's and a 60's era Jeep that the royals liked to tool around in.

I was going to ride out to one of the many waterfalls in the area, but when the road turned to gravel, I decided that my one-speed bike and I were not going to make it up the final two miles.  Tomorrow I am going on a long bicycle excursion to the biggest waterfall here but I will have a good bike and a guide.

This morning I got up early to watch the monks' alms walk at 6:00 AM.  The monks here are not like Catholic monks.  It is not a lifetime commitment and it is very common for young boys to be monks for several years.  They go to school and work around the temple during the day.  They own nothing and when they are hungry, they go out into the community with their bowls and people feed them.  The monks, however, do not beg.  Rather, it is an honor for the people to give them food as they earn "merit."  Also the monks do not eat after about noon.  In most places the monks just walk into the village when they are hungry, but here in Luang Prabang, there is an alms' walk every morning at 6:00 AM.   People line up on the sidewalk as the monks walk by and put a little bit of rice or food in each monk's bowl.  There are warning to the tourists all over to respect the ceremony, but the Chinese and Japanese tourists are really annoying, getting into monk's faces to take pictures.  It is pretty impressive.





 Then I spent the day in a cooking school learning how to make Luang Prabang salad, chicken larp, feu khua ... the names just get weirder.  It is very pleasant and restful here.