A procession of saffron-robed monks outside Wat Sensoukharam along Sakkaline Road
They received mostly khao niaw or sticky rice. And according to our guide, back at the temple, there will be volunteers who would cook dishes for the monks to eat with the khao niaw.
We ate this sweet red sticky rice in bamboo, it was delicious!
From outside of the temple, we walked to the morning market ..
Rice
I bought 500g of sticky red rice to bring home, for only LAK4000
Dried cuttlefish
Dried bael fruit
I did buy a pack of this; I boiled 2 pieces in water for 5 minutes to make bael fruit tea; tasted like a mixture of citrus and cinnamon
River weed
Like seaweed, but from the river .... we tasted both the roasted river weed sheets and the river weed floss; they tasted much like the seaweed that we were accustomed to
After breakfast at our hotel, we commenced our tour. We visited the Royal Palace first.
Haw Pha Bang is the Royal Temple
This was built to house Laos' most sacred buddha image, Pha Bang Buddha. It was after this Buddha image that the name of the town was conceived. No photos of the Buddha image were allowed here.
This was built to house Laos' most sacred buddha image, Pha Bang Buddha. It was after this Buddha image that the name of the town was conceived. No photos of the Buddha image were allowed here.
Statue of King Sisavang Vong at the palace grounds
The palace building
The palace was built in 1904 during the French colonial era for King Sisavang Vong and his family.
We had to take off our shoes before we went inside the palace, where we could see the King's reception room and also his living quarters. I wondered why everything was dark inside the palace. The seemed to cast a gloomy spell upon the place. The king's bedroom was so dark that I could hardly see inside. We found later when we exited the palace, that there had been a power failure at the palace that morning. Hmn ... how lucky we were.
Next we went to Wat Visounnarath. This temple was founded in 1512 during the reign of King Visounnarath (1501-1520).
The Buddha image inside the main temple hall
That Pathoume or That Mak Mo a.k.a. the watermelon stupa
Next was Wat Xieng Thong. It is one of the most important of Lao monasteries and remains a significant monument to the spirit of religion, royalty and traditional art. Wat Xieng Thong was built 1559-1560 by King Setthathirath near where the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers join. Until 1975 the wat was a royal temple and the Lao kings were crowned in the wat.
Entrance to Wat Xieng Thong
This building housed a huge funerary carriage
One of the buildings within the compound
A lotus pillar adorned with glittering mosaics
More decorative mosaics on the wall
We got to witness a beautiful wedding photoshoot that morning ...
After Wat Xieng Thong, we drove about an hour to Kuang Si Waterfall. Our group had late lunch at the stalls here ...
The fish was fresh and the marinade minimal ... not too bad ...
Kuang Si was lovely.
Welcome sign!
The trail leading up to the main fall was scenic. I took my time walking on the trail and snapped photo after photo of the beautiful waters ...
Just awesome!
The main falls
Visitors could sit around the main waterfalls for a picnic or a swim ... or they would walk up the steep trail right to the top of the waterfall. I refused to walk. Heh. I hung out here at the main falls ....
Before we went back to our hotel, we visited Mount Phousi for the sunset. Mount Phousi is a 100m high hill in the centre of Luang Prabang. Though only 100m high, I was huffing and puffing on the way up.
The view of Luang Prabang on my ascent
When I reached the summit, there were already lots of people there, all vying for a view of the sunset. I saw a member of my group Mr. P ... he'd found a nice spot and was shooting away with his sophisticated camera. I went to join him ... and eventually managed to get a nice spot too. I managed to see the sunset ...
Just captivating!
The last rays of the sun ...
My brownie tasted awful! I was pretty sure I could make better ones.
We also had chee cheung fun for dinner. The stall was tucked away, right at the end of the food street ...
Yummy!
Topped with fried shallots and a sauce by the side
I wasn't sure what was in the filling, but it had pork in it. It was a tasty and familiar dinner. Back at the hotel, I chatted with my tour leader for a while before I retired for the night.
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