A Full Day in Laos - July 24

We set the alarm for 5:00 am so we could be on the streets in time for the daily alms ceremony in which the monks walk the streets in silence to collect their food (mostly sticky rice) for the day from locals who wake early every day to prepare their offerings. We watched from across the street having read about the dangers tourists pose to this sacred ritual - the crowd where we were was definitely a mix.  Waiting in line after the almsgivers was a small boy with a big basket.  After the monks collected pa
ckets of rice, they each dropped one that had been given to them into the basket of a little boy who was collecting for his family.  More than just getting to see this ancient ritual take place, waking early also gave us a chance to walk the streets before they come fully to life during the day.  They are lively late into the night, so this was a rare quiet moment.

We had the option of just starting our adventures for the day right then and there at 6:00 am but thought it might be wiser to see if we could go back to sleep for a couple of hours.  Not surprisingly, two of the three of us could...but at least I used the time to get caught up on the blog!

Our second start to the day began with breakfast in our serene back portion of our guest house.  We made arrangements to visit the waterfall later in the day, but had about an hour for a quick, sweaty walk straight up 150 meters to the top of Mount Phousi.   There are several sacred sites to see along the way, like the Wat Tham Phousi shrine with a big-bellied Buddha nestled in a grotto and a reclining Buddha.  At the top the hill is the golden Wat Chomsi and 360 degree views of the rivers and hills of Luang Prabang.  It is apparently a good viewpoint for either sunrise or sunset, but it was pretty great in the middle of the morning too.

Lao tuk-tuks - different from Thai

 We raced back to the hotel in a tuk-tuk in time for our scheduled minivan pickup to the Kuang Si waterfalls at 11:30 am.  The van was packed with 12 passengers and a crazy driver who, after a leisurely start, began careening around mountain curves posted with 30 kph limits at speeds upwards of 100 kmh!  Somehow we arrived safely.

The walk into the waterfall takes you through a bear sanctuary for moon bears who have been subjected to a variety of cruelties. I don't think I've ever seen a moon bear - I was surprised by all the fluffy fur around their faces.  They were very cute running about and seemed happy relaxing in their new surroundings.

We came upon the lower pools of the falls and kept walking up to gradually bigger sets of falls.  People were swimming in the watering holes at the bottom of each set, but we chose the restaurant route and sat playing cards, drinking smoothies, and eating a leisurely lunch.  It was hard to motivate ourselves to go further up along the path, but when we turned the next corner we saw the breathtaking falls.  It is a bold statement, but my immediate thought was these are the most beautiful waterfalls I have ever seen in my life!   We tried for quite a while to take a picture that could capture them, but it proved impossible.   We got a lot of cute shots trying though.

We survived the van ride back to town as well.  Our plan had been to get to the Royal Palace but it has closed for the day and was not open on Tuesdays (our only other day in town) so we will have to get back to Laos at some point.  We walked through the grounds as much as we could and wandered through some temples and through the Night Market as it was setting up.
 Our walk took us to the more French-influenced villa side of town and it struck me what a different impression one would get of Luang Prabang if you stayed on this side of town the whole time (versus the area of our guest house).  It was very cute and full of little European bakeries and restaurants.  Much to Julia's dismay, Rachel and I were drawn to a place serving pizza and pasta with vodka sauce.  We were also able to pick up some great looking pastries for the morning.   We finished the night at a place called 3 Nagas, a restaurant in one of three restored historical buildings, serving scoops of homemade ice cream. We enjoyed scoops of coconut and mango sorbet while playing a few more rounds of cards.