Feb 17 – Luang Prabang

After an overnight stay at a hotel at the Bangkok, Airport we were up very early and took the shuttle to the terminal.  The lines were pretty long at regular check-in, so we checked in at a kiosk, got our luggage tags, and took the luggage to the luggage drop-off desk.  Up side is that they didn’t weigh our carry-ons (they had very light carry-on allowance and we are perpetually overweight on carry-ons). 

We were met at the terminal by our guide and driver and were in the lovely Avina, home for the next 3 nights.  We had lunch at the hotel restaurant and did some unpacking.  Then we met Tara and Patty and the guide and headed out for our first travel site.

A few photos from the drive.

Our stop was the Tat Kuang Si Waterfall.  There were a number of vendors selling wares near the parking lot…

including pineapples the size of tennis balls, 

and the local delicacy of fried crickets.

And there were a million white tourist vans in the parking lot.

Just inside the entrance gate was a moon bear sanctuary where they cared for rescued moon bears. 

Then it was on to the Tat Kuang Si Waterfall.  None of the falls were tall but there was a long staircase of pools and falls.  It was a really lovely set of falls…

with lots of tourists.  

Some swimming in the pools and jumping off rocks into the pools.  None of our group went swimming.

A lovely black and white butterfly.

From there we visited the Vat Visounnarath temple.  The complex featured a very large stupa…

and a very lovely temple, rather simple on the outside.. 

and a very large golden Buddha on the inside...

and lots of other minor Buddhas and decorations.

A young monk checking his phone.

Near the temple was a small market be we didn’t go shopping.

In the evening, we took a very long walk 

to find an Indian restaurant the Tara had found.  The restaurant was right on the Mekong River.  It was pretty dark so we couldn’t see much but a few of the brightly lit party boats (the photos of which turned out very blurry because they were moving).

On the way back to the hotel we wandered through the night market.  Lots of motorcycles and colorfully painted tuk-tuks. 

It went on for blocks and was really a tourist market.  Very colorful with many vendors carrying the same goods (why do we think most of the goods were made in China).

More of the night scene and neighborhood.

A very good start for out visit in Laos.