Self-Guided Tour of Luang Prabang
Luang Prabang, Lao Peoples Dem Rep
April 07, 2009
It was quite the thunder storm last night and it was still raining when we had breakfast in front of our Guest House, now worries, we were under cover. Bill had potatoes and baguette with orange juice. I enjoyed my banana pancakes with chocolate sauce and honey. Bill did not like the imitation cheese on his potatoes and now thinks I should share my pancakes with him... Laos tea is good, it is a light green tea. I tried to get some extra hot water for my tea, but that did not fly.
We dropped off our laundry nearby. I hope that the rain lets up so our clothes dry.
We signed up for a cooking class at Tamarind for Wednesday, tomorrow's class is already full, good news, sounds like it is popular. 2 other guys are there and have heard that this class is the best one. It is going to be 220,000 kip ($35) each and the class is from 9 - 3. It sounds like a better deal than Tum Tum Chang.
We walked along the Mekong River and checked out the menus. The food and drink prices are cheaper than on the main strip near our hotel. We walked up a side street to an internet cafe, Bill needed to use it for 2 minutes, 2 hours later we were still there. We caught up on email, blogging, Facebook, baseball pools, CMA requirements, weather forecast and the MSU game. We found out that Atlanta beat Philly in the first baseball game of the year.
The rain had stopped, so we dropped our coats off in our room and went for lunch. We chose Phousi Restaurant Garden for the view of the Mekong and the lowest priced BeerLao (8,000 kip/$1.40). I had Aurlam with pork as suggested by the waiter. Bill opted to have a chicken sandwich instead of the other recommendation - fried Mekong weed with chilli paste. The entire time we were at the restaurant there was a group of red ants walking back and forth on the railing beside our table. Bill spent most of the time tormenting them.
We went to the Royal Palace which is located right beside our Guest House. Ho Kham, the Golden Palace, was built from 1904 - 1909 by King Sisavangvong. The Palace was made available to the public after 1975 when King Watthana abdicated the throne upon the founding of the Lao People's Democratic Republic. In many ways the Palace looks exactly like it did in 1975.
There are many Buddhas and other religious articles that are from Luang Prabang and other parts of Laos from abandoned Wats or collapsed Stupas. The Audience room is decorated with murals of everyday life and festivals painted by Alix de Fautereau. Along the floor of the hallway were large bronze drums, used for cermonies, that are decorated with a sun, flowers and frogs. The throne room is decorated with legends such as "Nidhan Khoun Bou Rom Rajathirad", ancestors of the Laos people and their royal dynasty, stories of the foundation of Laos cities and traditional festivals by Thit Boun Thanh and Thit Duang with mosaic glass from Japan. One room has a showcase of gifts to the King from other countries. The Canadian gift (a plate we think) is pretty boring, unlike some beautiful artwork, china and silver sets from other countries.
In the Prabang room there is a pure gold Buddha from India. It had been given to the King of Sri Lanka and then to the King of Cambodia. It was then brought to Laos in the 14th century. King Fa Ngum founded Lane Zang and obtained the Prabang through his wife, the daughter of the King of Cambodia. The town was later named after this Buddha.
We also saw the Royal vehicles - a Citreon, 3 Lincoln Continentals (donated by the US government) a Toyota Jeep, and a Johnson boat (Sea Horse 35?) that was made in Canada.
We went to the Floating Buddha exhibit. There were two retreats to a monastery in the forest starting in 2004. The purpose was to educate young monks about meditation and to revive Buddhism. Some of the photos were very good. I bought some small drawings for a scrapbook page.
We went to Wat Phu Si on the slope across from the Palace (100 m high). The view of the city from here is amazing! We climbed down along the back and saw a cave and Buddha's footprint. This one actually looks like a giant footprint, not just a painting.
We have used another memory card, so we went to burn another CD of our pictures. Afterward we went to one of the many travel agencies to book our cave tour for tomorrow and our waterfall excursion for Thursday. We paid less than $20 for both tours (110,000 kip) at Treasure Travel Laos 2.
We walked across the street for more cheap BeerLaos at Phousi (2,000 or 4,000 less than other places) and we tried black sticky rice alcohol. It is red in colour and is pretty good. It is sweeter and smoother than normal Lao Lao. We had some fried cashews with salt for a snack. Bill was playing with the ants again until 1 was on the table, 1 ended up on my purse in my lap and 2 tried to climb the leg of my chair.
We explored the Night Market that has slippers, bedcovers, aprons, antique opium pots, wooden bowls, homemade stuffed animals,... most places all have the same things and look like they have been manufactured and not handmade.
We had dinner at Tatmor. It was a nice place with wooden tables and chairs, candle light and a water feature wall beside us. There was even nice jazz music in the background. I thought it was romantic, Bill was not really into it! We shared Set A - crispy morning glory (tempura), Lao curry with chicken, glass noodles and minced pork salad and steamed rice plu an order of fried noodles with beef along with a banana shake.
After dinner we bought a note pad with bears on it for Nigel to write to the grade 2/3's.