Day 3 of the River Trip to Luang Prabang

10/3/2006

Today was the final day on the river on our way to Luang Prabang. We left Pakbeng early in the morning and arrived in Luang Prabang around 2 pm. During the boat ride we stopped off at some caves that served some type of religious function and had a bunch of Buddha statues. One set of caves went pretty far back and thus was very dark, and I used the flash of my camera as a guide since I forgot my flashlight. The picture on the left is of the river viewed from one of the smaller caves. The boat ride was pretty similar to yesterday's, beautiful but repetitive scenery. I did finish a book called Another Quiet American, which was written by a Princeton graduate who went to Laos upon finishing college to work in the tourism office for 2 years. The author basically tells a bunch of his stories while in Laos, and it gives some interesting insights into Lao culture.

When we arrived in Luang Prabang, we checked into the guest house and just wandered around for a while. Luang Prabang is a peaceful and touristy town that is full of wats and restaurants. There were many different types of restaurants, which was great for all the group members who were sick of the sticky rice that is ubiquitous in Laos (I happen to like sticky rice, howeverr). We found a nice American style cafe called JoMa bakery, which would be a frequent stop for much of our group over the next two days. After lunch I walked around the town with Brendan and Richard. We felt obligated to check out a few of the wats and then went to a nice used book store to get some more reading materials. Definitely the most interesting part of Luang Prabang is the night market, which offers a bunch of nice handicrafts that are made by people in the villages and sold in the city market. I need to make up for my lack of gift giving to my family members over the past year(s), but I think I'll wait until Bangkok at the end of the trip to make purchases so that I don't have to lug them all around. The picture at the right is a view from Luang Prabang.