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| Our hotel room-overlooking the Mekong River |
Leaving Vientiane, the capital of Laos, we flew on Lao Skyway Airlines, north to the UNESCO city of Luang Prabang.
We had a quick taxi ride from the airport to our accommodation, the Mekong Sunset View Hotel.
The hotel is amazing, and seems authentically rustic. We had a room with a balcony overlooking the Mekong River. It provided us with an opportunity to watch Laotians going about their day to day activities.
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| Housing in Luang Prabang (UNESCO) |
It is a UNESCO city because the religious and architectural heritage of both the Laotian and French culture, have been well preserved here.
The streets contain temples, shops and charming houses that blend into a very attractive cityscape.
There are 34 UNESCO-protected temples in Luang Prabang, so we headed out to see a few.
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| Wat Xieng Thong |
Wat Ho Pha Bang, with its interesting roofline also caught our attention.
It is one of the most ornate temples in Luang Prabang and is now preserved in the grounds of the Royal Palace Museum.
Collectively, the temples house several hundred monks.
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| Monks in the Tak Bat ceremony |
At 6:00 am each morning, around 200 monks leave their wat and walk, barefooted and silent, through the streets of Luang Prabang.
Each monk carries a basket in which he collects food offerings from the local people.
The locals line the streets, specifically to offer the food.
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| Monks crossing the river for Tak Bat |
The monks see the food as alms and a way to keep their vows, and the locals give alms toward practicing their Buddhist faith.
The ritual is carried out in silence and neither the monks or locals speak.
This traditional ceremony is called Tak Bat.
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| Boats that are homes on the Mekong River |
After seeing this solemn procession, we headed down to the Mekong for lunch, and a closer look at this famous river.
As with many rivers, the Mekong provides a lifeline for the locals.
They use it for washing, drinking, fishing, travelling, and whatever else they need it for.
To get a better idea of its uses, we took a river trip on a Mekong river boat.
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| Boats that are homes and also tourist transport |
These boats are not only used to carry tourists, but are also the homes of the boat drivers and their family.
Our co-travellers on this trip were the two Australian couples who we had met in Vientiane at the Jungle House.
We kept bumping into them in Luang Prabang and had decided to team up for a bit of sightseeing.
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| Some of the Buddha idols in Pak Ou Caves |
The boat trip took us to the Pak Ou Caves.
These limestone caves are 25 km upriver from Luang Prabang in a cliff, 15 metres above the Mekong.
They have been a place of worship for more than a thousand years.
When pilgrims completed the difficult journey and climbed to the caves, they left behind a Buddha idol and there are now thousands of them.
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| Riverside home |
It is still a place of pilgrimage and at Lao New Year in April, the locals enter the caves and wash and care for the idols.
The river trip was fascinating.
We passed riverside home after home, and boat after boat where people were going about their day to day business.
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| Paper drying in Xang Khong village |
The next day, we headed out for a walk into the hills, specifically to visit certain villages.
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| Daily market in Luang Prabang |
There are several villages nearby, where the locals have become specialists in producing products that are taken to market, and from which they earn their collective income.
The Ban Chan Pottery Village is one such village.
There is also the Ban Had Hian village where men craft machetes, knives, shovels and spades from Vietnam War bomb casings.
At the Ban Phanom village, you can see women weaving silk and see the whole silk-making process.
We particularly enjoyed the Xang Khong village. It is a pretty and traditional village that produces Saa paper. Saa paper is made from the bark of a Saa (or mulberry) tree.
Walking through the village, you could see the paper hung out on frames to dry. It was very interesting and colourful.
Walking through the village, you could see the paper hung out on frames to dry. It was very interesting and colourful.
The next day, we spent some time at the local food market.
The produce is grown or caught by the locals and spread out on a cloth on the ground, or on tables, forming an interesting array of colour. It all looked beautifully fresh.
We really enjoyed our time in Luang Prabang and felt that it was a special place.
After several days there, seeing heaps and buying local goods, it was time to move on again.
Our next stop is Vietnam, and we are looking forward to visiting and exploring another new country.
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