Luang Prabang

I had been looking forward to Luang Prabang for awhile. It's considered the culture capital of Laos, and the last major city in Northern Laos. After that, the travel gets a little more remote. By the time, I reached Luang Prabang, I was pretty tired of being on the move so I planned to stay for about 5 nights. After a few weeks or picking up every few days, the thought of packing again make you want to cry. I still do not understand how my bag can completely explode all over the room after 30 minutes of my arrival.

I climbed into yet another bus for the 7 hour + drive to Luang Prabang. I have never snow skied, but I can only equate the journey to a downhill slalom. Well that's not quite right, there were some uphill parts too. There was no reading on this bus, you just sat as you experience turn after turn through the mountains. Oh, and there wasn't any air-conditioning. If there had been it would have been usually because the driver decided that keeping the front door open the entire trip was a good idea. I eventually made it to Laung Prabang, to a lovely guesthouse recommended by a friend.

The city of small cottages and wats sits around the steep Phou Si hill at the intersection of the Mekong and the Nam Khan. I ended up in Luang Prabang with a group of travelers I had met in Laos.

One of major attractions is the city's night market. After four in the afternoon, the main road in town shuts down and locals set up tents selling textiles, paper goods, and jewelry. Laos has some of the most impressive weaving I've ever seen. Many of the women selling scarves, bed linens, and hangings bring their work into town from the outlying villages. Friends and I went straight to the source and were able to see many of the weaving workshops including their silk worm farms ad natural dyes.






























































We took a long boat up the Mekong river to the Pak Ou caves. The cave was the worship site for the river spirit, Phi. The caves contain roughly 4,000 buddha figures. The spot has become a pilgrimage sight for the king and local population. Each visitor brought a figure to leave in the caves.