Lovely, Lovely Luang Prabang

Relaxed from massages and with full bellies from our cooking class, our next destination was Luang Prabang, Laos.  Look at a map - Chiang Mai is only about 100 km from Luang Prabang.  Should be an easy journey, right?  Let's just say that looks can be deceiving.  Factor in roads, mountains, and rivers, and the journey overland from Chiang Mai to LP isn't just a couple hours - it's two days by bus, or three days by bus and boat... or one hour by plane.  The flights weren't particularly cheap, but we decided that we would splurge and fly.  One hour in a Lao Airlines ATR-72 and we were in Laos' most beloved city and a UNESCO world heritage site.  Guidebooks rave about it, fellow travellers rave about it - how good can this place be?

We kicked off our first evening with a wander along the famous Mekong River.  Hazy skies make for lovely light over the longboats that ply the river.

 Second order of business - taste the national beer, Beerlao, at a riverside cafe.  Unfortunately our bottle was stale (a one-year-old bottle of light lager tends to get that way), but that didn't ruin the scenery.

The French colonial influence on LP plays a big part in its beauty.  It also means that many of the signs are in both Laotian and French, and could also be the cause for the large number of French-speaking tourists here.

We wandered around to find a city just as lovely as claimed.

Waking up to a cool morning - only about 20 degrees - we headed our way up the nearby hill, Phu Si. Phu Si is about 100 metres high with a temple on top, a cave shrine, and the ruins of a temple originally constructed in 1395.

A temple at the bottom of the hill in the Royal Palace complex, now a museum.

There's about 300 stairs, with vendors along the way happy to take your Laotian Kip in exchange for a cold beverage or a snack.

Standing atop Phu Si looking out at the valley below.

Looking back down on the city - LP has about 62,000 people and its fair share of sprawl.

Never mind the monk building, can you see the spider in the centre of this shot?  Bigger than anything we saw in Australia for sure.

Some of the walkways have dragon tails as railings.

Back down the hill, we decided to try our luck crossing the bamboo footbridge to the other side of the Nam Khan River.  Before 6 pm it costs about a dollar to cross, with money going to reconstruct the bridge after it is removed each year in time for the wet season floods.  And why would luck be needed to cross this bridge, you may ask?

It's a bit rickety, to say the least.

Chad's not scared of the big bad bridge!

On the other side we found a cafe in the shade overlooking the river where we drank (fresh) Beerlao, tried to play French Trivial Pursuit, and ate - steamed rice for me, black sticky rice and smoked eggplant dip for Chad.  Heaven, particularly as the day was really starting to heat up by then.

1) Ball up the rice, 2) Dip in the eggplant concoction, 3) Enjoy! 

Looking up the river on our way back.

In the heat of the day we wandered about town taking in the sights - in particular those related to food - before realizing that we are on vacation and it was too damn hot to be outside in the sun.

These are (probably) water buffalo sausages drying in the hot, hot afternoon sun.

We emerged for dinner just before the sun went down.  I'll leave you with this shot that Chad took near sunset and you can judge LP for yourself...