Luang Prabang

Tuesday, March 24th

There was a thunderstorm overnight, and it started to rain again when we set off at 9:00am for today's "program". The storm served to keep people off the streets, and therefore make them quieter during the night, but the rain brought everyone indoors. It was also quite a bit cooler, although anything but cold.

First stop, the Royal Palace, now the Museum - some neat political correctness going on here. This is the temple of the gold Buddha to the side of the palace main building - unfortunately, no photos allowed (more PC, apparently).

This the view of the palace from the temple. Built in 1903 by the French, it served as palace until the death of the last king in 1959, and the subsequent civil war which effectively ended the monarchy in Laos.

BTW, Laos is pronounced "Lao" - (a) because that's what the Lao have always called it; (b) because there is no "s" in Lao; and (c) because the French called it Laos, being the plural of Lao.

A statue of the last king of Laos stands in the palace grounds. The situation with the monarchy after his death is very complicated! In a nutshell, he had two sons, one to the queen and one to a concubine. The two princes fought - one sided with the royalist south, the other with the communist north. There was a civil war which the communists won - see Vietnam war. In the mid 1970's the royalist prince was sent to the north for "re-education". He died in 1983 of malaria (allegedly).

The (solid) gold Buddha is stored in this separate pavilion - no photos allowed.

The palace has good Feng Shui - it sits between the river and the small hill in the middle of town.

The palace itself acts as a museum, both to its former inhabitants, as well as to state collections. Again, for political reasons, no photographs are allowed! This is a pity as there is a lot of nice stuff inside.

Another view of the gold Buddha pavilion, this one from the main street. The rain is beginning to ease.

We drove the short distance to the end of the peninsula where a small river meets the Mekong. I decided that the bar/restaurant here was a good place for tonight's G&T.

Hippies - you can't take them anywhere!

A few hundred meters away is the oldest and most important monastery in Luang Prabang. Most of the others were destroyed by the Chinese in the 16th century. There are still a lot in Luang Prabang, but they all post-date this period.

Pictures are allowed here - I guess because it's not state owned. Who knows?

As Prue would say - OTT.

We learned a lot about Buddhism from our (Animist) guide. There are five commandments, no re-incarnation, but an after-life in which people are punished for contravening the commandments - sound familiar? This wall depicts the crimes - eg. drinking to much, and their punishment - having your stomach cut open to expel the alcohol.

Another view of the main pagoda.

This pagoda houses the funeral carriage for the last king.

His body was placed inside the middle urn in a seated position for transport to his burial place. Seated because no mortal is perfect and he had to atone for his sins to the people.

This other pavilion is covered is exquisite glass murals.

One of which depicts the tree which is regarded as the foundation of Luang Prabang (which, by the way, means Royal Buddha - I just remembered that!).

We headed out of town for our final activity - a visit to the waterfall and the beer sanctuary. At least they have an efficient rubbish collection system, albeit with no obvious recycling program.

About 25km out of town on a relatively slow road is a spectacular waterfall (see below) and a small bear sanctuary. The bears were rescued by an Australian woman when she uncovered an illegal trade with China (they use the bile for "medicinal" purposes). Unfortunately, the bears cannot be returned to the wild, and will serve their days out here.

I didn't even know there were bears in Laos!

I think they are contented bears!

Not far away is the base of the falls. There's a lot of calcium in the water which gives it a blue colour (especially when it's sunny, unlike today). This unusual formation resulted from trees falling into the water and eventually calcium building up to form small walls.

Who needs a "selfie stick"? There are a lot of them about, we've noticed.

This view is impossible during the rainy season, apparently. Even the bears have to be relocated.

The waterfall and bears attract a large number of tourists. We were glad to be returning in an air conditioned van of our own.

Back in town we agreed that the best accommodation is in one of the many small lanes, similar to this one very close to our hotel - not much through traffic, for a start!