Day 31 Luang Prabang

We started the day at 5am to see the local monks walk up the street to collect alms from the locals, mostly sticky rice (the monks also gave food to the poor). We had expected to see at least 100 monks as indicated on Trip Advisor but due to the morning thunderstorm we only saw about 15 of them! We walked up the street to the temple where the end of the lunar year festival was just ending and the washing of the borrowed Buddha was in full swing before it is returned to it’s own temple.

We moved on to the morning market where mostly locals shop. This was something to see – everything on sale from veggies to fruit, meat and seafood and a few critters that we thought should not be for sale in the market, or anywhere for that matter, (just outright cruelty to animals we thought) – this made us think about becoming vegetarians.

Back to the hotel for breakfast then on to a boat ride up the Mekong river with a stop at the Ban Thin Hong Village, aka jar making village, because they make rice whiskey. Needless to say we had a sample of one made from white rice and the other black rice, the latter had a brilliant purple color to it.

We also learned that there are 47 different ethnic groups In Laos: Low landers, Mid landers and High landers, represented be 3 heads on the dragon statues.

Back on the boat to see The sacred Pak Ou or Buddha Caves. There are two caves, the lower cave is called Tham Ting and the upper Tham Thung Buddha cave. The caves are naturally occurring limestone caves with small stalagmite and stalactite formations.

After the caves took the boat to the other shore of the river for lunch, tofu soup, stir fried chicken and veggies and of course – you guessed it – rice!

Then an hour and half in the van on a bumpy road to Kuang Si Waterfalls. Through the bear sanctuary (didn’t see any bears)! These beautiful falls cascade over many calcified tiers and down several hundred feet into a series of cool, turquoise pools. After exploring the waterfalls we returned to Luang Prabang on a winding mountain road, well almost a road!

Back at the hotel sweaty and tired – shower, dinner at the hotel restaurant, uploaded pics, blog and bed.