Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang is a French colonial city and an Unesco World Heritage City.  It sure was charming and made for an interesting time in the city.

The city has many Wats, or monasteries, and several times throughout the day you can hear the monks chanting or the giant drums being pummeled as a call to prayer.

Early in the morning at dawn the monks go out to collect alms. Hundreds of monks roam the streets to get rice from the faithful.

 The faithful in this case are these cute, old ladies. They place a handful of plain sticky rice in the monks bowl. The collection bowl is one of the few items they are allowed to have as personal possessions.

Laos has few gas stoves. Lots of cooking gets done around the fire. Here is a typical setup for steaming sticky rice. In the morning it is common to see Lao families gather around the fire to warm up and prepare breakfast.

We had our food prepared in the market down a shabby alleyway where the all you can eat buffet is $1.25 USD.  You pick your food and the lady reheats it for you.

The city is very beautiful and flowers abound as you stroll by the river.

Leaving Luang Prabang we started our adventure with nice pavement and great view. That is before it turned into “Hell Day"

We stopped at the villages for water and I am sure the locals laughed at us for they knew the road ahead was under construction and essentially unpassable. To see the end of our ride out of Luang Prabang check out the “Hell Day” post.