Luang Prabang

Another new country for us ….. as we enter Laos for the first time after flying on Lao Air from Chiang Mai.

We are in Luang Prabang and the town is like a breath of fresh air, not only is the temperature cooler than we have experienced for the last number of weeks, but there are trees, picket fences, overflowing with flowers, lovely alleyways to go from one street to the next and virtually no traffic and noise, ahh peace.  We are in the old quarter, bounded by the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers, and you can walk everywhere in the nice cool climate.  The old French villas have been turned into boutique hotels so they have not lost their charm, lots of restaurants with a French influence and you can also take a cooking class at many of the restaurants. 

Our hotel is on Kingkitsarat Street which is beside the Nam Khan River.  We enjoyed our breakfast on the patio across from our hotel overlooking the river.

Our food pavilion right beside the river.  This was one of the most pleasant experiences for us, watching the river traffic and enjoying a leisurely breakfast.

These are the alley ways - they were a very pleasant shortcut to the next streets and they were all very different.

This one has a little temple.

I just loved using the alleyways.

This street was the main shopping street as well as where you could book an elephant trek, or find a French restaurant.  The town was very clean, you didn’t see litter anywhere and they had people sweeping up fallen leaves and blossoms.

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The green trees make a great background for the stores and restaurants.

For those of you who visited Vietnam, what a treat to have a sidewalk to walk on and the bikes parked on the street!

The hostess with the mostess…

This sign was hanging on the wall of the restaurant where we ate.

White picket fences, very difficult to know you are in Laos.  This was such a nice change for us, LP is a walking town, you want to explore the streets and when you go around a corner you have another surprise awaiting you.

I have to admit I fell in love with the brick sidewalks and all of the lush greenery.

We took in some temples as well, although we thought we had seen more than our share after Myanmar and Thailand, but there is always a new and different temple awaiting you in all of these countries.

I took this photo of the school, there were just a couple of kids outdoors, I took a photo of a monk and when I turned around the kids were outside just being kids, you have to love them.

She was trying to get them to line up but it was taking a while.