Last Day in Luang Prabang

Time to do a bit of blogger catch up. It's been three days since I last wrote. That day we'd had a very big day, beginning with a (long) ride on a boat and ending with a ride on an elephant. That evening we went out to see the "downtown" Luang Prabang at night. I have just a few photos from that evening. The main street is lined with restaurants, which are in turn filled with people dining al fresco.

Further down the street, and taking up the street for several blocks, is the night market. Come the day, it's all gone.

We didn't buy anything, but it was fun seeing all the people. Some of the vendors were surprisingly young!

The next day, the day before yesterday, we walked the streets and visited temples. The plethora of (Buddhist) temples in Luang Prabang is a part, if not most, of why it is a UNESCO World Heritage site. I'll put up a few images here of some temples and of the delightful street scene.

We took a tuk-tuk (sort of a motorcycle in front and place for passengers in back) to Wat Pa Phon Phao. This beautiful temple is high on a hill, a bit outside of town.

Here's the view from the temple.

And here's our faithful tuk-tuk driver waiting for us to finish. One thing that has recurrently amazed me, I'm not sure why, is the fact that for a very nominal sum in our terms we can hire someone to take us around, wait for us, and take us back. There's no pressure, absolutely none, for us to hurry. It's utterly unlike the U. S of A. I guess I should say it's one more thing utterly unlike the U.S. of A., but for some reason it especially impresses me.

In any event, off we went back to town.

We stopped at the monument to Mr. Souphanouvong, the first president of modern Laos,

and then to one last temple. This one had especially wonderful lighting. Please indulge me, but I really loved this place, so I'm going to put in several photos. Here we go.

After that last, lovely temple our faithful tuk-tuk driver took us back to the main part of Luang Prabang for a very late lunch.

It's a pattern we seem to be following more often these days. We eat a late lunch and then have only a snack or perhaps nothing for dinner. I doubt we'll lose weight, since the food is delicious, but we're not getting fat.

Our final goal for this day was to see the sunset from Mount Phou Si. This is a temple on a high hill right in the middle of town. About a zillion steps (okay, 328, but they were big ones) lead to the top.

From the top you can look down on the Mekong.

Looking the other way you can see the other temple on a high hill, Wat Pan Phon Phao, which I showed you earlier. It's the little gold spot near the center of the photo.

As the sun slowly descended in the west, the crowd grew. Seems we weren't the only people with this idea.

We chatted with people near us. Here are John and Leonie Does who live in Rotterdam. We had a serious conversation about doing a home exchange next summer. They would enjoy Seattle, and we think a month in Rotterdam might be just the thing!

Well, the sun finally set

and it was as lovely as we had expected.

Even a monk or two was there to take it in.

We slowly went back down all those steps.

By the time we got back to the bottom the sun was totally down. We were greeted by the beauty of the night market to cheer us on our way home to a much needed rest.