| Thu | 26 |
Fly to Vientiane
We spend our final morning in Luang Prabang exploring the Royal Palace Museum, which was built from 1904-1909 during the reign of King Sisavang Vong and served as his palace. Today it is a museum where you can see the royal throne and other artifacts. The building itself is a fine example of the French beaux-arts style and traditional Lao artwork. The ground floor of the museum is divided into several halls and rooms displaying gifts from other countries to the Lao kings and collections of swords and Buddha images.
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Then enjoy lunch on your own before we take a short flight to Vientiane, Laos' easy-going capital. Despite its growing population, the city still retains a small-town feel: Laundry dries in the sun on French-style balconies, and street vendors spread out their wares on blankets and banana leaves. When we arrive in the capital this afternoon, we'll take a brief orientation walk, perhaps witnessing group aerobics at King Anouvong Park.
Dinner this evening is at a local restaurant.
Breakfast,Dinner
1 of 2 nights SABAIDEE @ LAO HOTEL
PANGKHAM RD
SISAKET VILLAGE
VIENTIANE
Laos
Tel: 011 856 21 265 141
Fax: 011 856 21 265 143
Website: WWW.SABAIDEEATLAOHOTEL.COM |
Coming back from breakfast we had to take one last look.
Our room is upstairs in the far corner.
Tuk tuks bring us to the palace.
Not only do we have to take our shoes off, we also have to leave our bags and cameras in one big locker for the group. The palace and what is inside is not really that old, built by the French occupation in the early 1900's but still interesting. We are not given much time though - no photos allowed -
James and I skip going up to the Buddha but the dragon railing is fun.
Don't worry, William, the dragon is harmless. Sonyeon has fun.
The tuk tuks take us not far to a bakery where we get take-outs for our lunch.
Since we had to hang around a while I had a passion mango sherbet. Not bad, ha-ha.
We still have a few minutes and we buy some postcards and stamps. Since we are going to a different city but staying in the country we have time to write them.
It is a very short flight and we are about to land. Interesting landscape.
A lot of waiting around today so I did do some tatting. We want to say thank you to Ole's wife for taking our gifts for our sponsored Thai girl to the CCF office (which he said was only 2 1/2 miles from his house). He said she would like the red heart.
O.k. Now we are in Vientiane, Lao capital city.
A bus is waiting for us. Lovely curtains in the bus!
This picture is on the landing of our floor. For all my stitching friends! Sorry that the photo doesn't do it justice.
We settle into our rooms and whoever wants to can come for a short walk starting 4:30 pm. To the right this will be filled with the Mekong in monsoon season.
I think this is a statue of the last king but I am a bit confused about the Kings because there seem to be several in different areas.
We go up in the front and down in the back. The White House in the back is were the President meets.
Had to do a panorama shot to get it all in.
Suddenly several of those little official transportation buses all loaded with monks go by. Their Orange is such a vivid color.
Everywhere are these wires and we wonder how many are actually needed or how many where actually just left after a new one was put up.
Stupas are very important. They contain the ashes of a person who died. Stupas are totally closed and solid. This one is in honor of a former mayor.
We can see our hotel but stop here. Ole and Chear offer to treat us to a local snack. Drinks are on us.
Fried cow lungs (on the ends of those bamboo sticks).
No explanation needed?
Not many try. No thanks.
Then we are taken to dinner. This all will be offered.
Really like the cucumber soup.
The chicken curry was very delicious and my favorite. Several think too spicy for them but James says he doesn't even have sweat beads on his forehead.
When we had checked into our room we had noticed one thing about it.
They must have pushed the beds together. The telephone cord is too short to reach the nightstand now so it was just left between the pillows. We told Ole not to worry if he can't reach us with the wake-up call. We will unplug.
I forgot to mention that the temperature here was 97 degrees today. But it is a dry heat. I don't find it uncomfortable and certainly preferable to the snow at home.
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1 comment:
The water lilies are lovely. I love that James brought his Virginia hat. So, did HE try the lungs and bugs? I might have tried the lungs, but probably not the bugs.
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