Laos Day 2 - River Cruise into Luang Prabang

Laos Day 2 - River Cruise into Luang Prabang - SEAsia Day 16

We were up early for breakfast and back on the boat by 8. Once again more coffee and conversations were had as we continued down the Mekong. Stories and ideas were shared about where everyone was coming from, where they were going, how long they had been travelling, etc. Surprisingly 6 of the 10 of us are on jouneys intended to be nearly a year away from the office. After a relaxing couple of hours, we arrived at a Mhong village and departed to once again wander through a village and take in their lifestyle. This village was slightly more developed than the one we had visited the day prior. The local women were quick to run out and setup tarps with colorful silk scarves laid on top in order to try to get the tourists to spend a few dollars. Again the interactions were friendly with the locals even sending us back with a large bowl of bamboo soup to eat with our lunch. The bamboo in the soup was delicious and tender, the soup itself nothing to write home about.

Back on the boat we enjoyed another fine lunch, washed down with Beerlao. Another couple hours of cruising and relaxing passed by and we arrived at the famous Pak Ou cave. This cave is famous for containing many Buddha's as well as being the living space for a couple of months for the Royal family while Laos was being taken over by communists. To this day Laos remains a one party socialist republic although many who fled Laos in the mid 70's are still hoping to return the country to the vision of its last king. For more checkout this fascinating read (http://madmonarchist.blogspot.com/2012/05/monarch-profile-king-savang-vatthana-of.html )

We arrived in Luang Prabang in the early evening and got settled in at our hotel. After cleaning up we went out to find something to eat and wandered through the night market. A small watercolor was purchased from a local artist and hopefully it makes its way through the mail back to the US.