Laos
In Laos, the local beer is half the price of sparkling water. So guess what we drank? Bia Lào is a light, refreshing lager.
Luang Prabang, the former capital of Laos (locals say Lao, dropping the S) and a UNESCO World Heritage site, is full of temples and folk tales.
On our first day in Laos, we took a leisurely cruise on the Mekong River, an important feature in a country where 80% of people are farmers, yet 70% of the country is mountainous, non-arable land.
We landed at the Pak Ou Caves, natural caverns overlooking the river that have been stuffed with thousands of Buddha statues. It is considered bad luck to keep a damaged image of the Buddha, but it would be disrespectful to destroy it. Luang Prabang residents have been storing old and damaged statues here for hundreds of years.
At this point in our adventure — Day 37 — we joined a trip organized by Backroads, a nine-day cycling tour and cruise on the Mekong River that would take us from Laos to Cambodia and Vietnam.
With our Backroads group, we took another boat trip on the Mekong to the Kuang Si waterfalls. These falls are unique. The water contains calcium carbonate, the same mineral that causes stalagmites and stalactites to form. Thus, these falls don’t just erode underlaying rock; they also lay down new material, both in the falls’ cascades and at the bottom and lips of pools at multiple levels of the waterfall. The calcium carbonate gives an unusual green/gray cast to the water.
Wat Phousi sits on the highest point above the city (300 steps). There are legends about a confrontation here between the Buddha and a man-eating giant or Naga (part human, part serpent deity). It was an unusually chilly day; our guides had never seen mist patterns on the river like these, caused by cool air over warmer water.
Wat Xieng Thong, “Temple of the Golden City,” is a Buddhist temple that dates back to the mid-16th century. We visited twice, returning in the early evening to listen to the chanting of the monks and novices.
We were up and out before sunrise one day to view alms-giving, a daily ritual for devout Buddhists and monks. Monks and novices (as young as age 10) walk the streets barefoot each morning, accepting food gifts from neighbors and chanting a blessing in return. Whatever food they receive is their meal for that day.
For our own breakfast, we enjoyed melt-in-your-mouth coconut pancakes from this bustling morning market that was clearly where local people come to shop.
