Laos Chronicle 3: Luang Prabang at leisure

I was disappointed by the green/ecotourism impression of Laos, however, it did not detract from the beauty of the country, the friendliness of the people, the culture and relaxed atmosphere of LP. All in all I spent 8 days in this lovely city, enjoying shopping (silk scarves, souvenirs from Night Market, modern design of traditional colourful woven bags, bookshops, silver jewellery). I also enjoyed visiting the National Museum including the night time performance of local singing and dancing - beautiful costumes and show. The Ethnology Museum was fantastic - beautiful display of traditional clothing and short manageable write up of different minority groups in Laos. The temples I visited were stunning, all working temples with varying ages of practicing bhuddhist monks nearly every male will spend some time at a temple in his lifetime. I woke up early one morning to witness the 100's of buddhist monks receiving alms (rice) from women in the street - an amazing procession of orange clad monks. The morning market was also fascinating with colourful array of fruit, veggies and then some awful displays of animals - enough to convert to vegetarianism, lizards, iguanas, birds - not great!
A few runs along the river with sun rising follwed by delicious Laos coffee (thick and rich and served with sweet milk) muesli fruit. I savoured both western food (lovely french restaurants, serving salad, quiche brochettes, tarts .... and local food (spicy fish soup, sesame coated dried seaweed or Mekong river weed and not stuff you can smoke), spicy salad of minced chicken/beef/pork with ginger, garlic and chilli and delicous fresh fruit juices and smoothies. Washed down with french wine on a lavish night or my favourite dark Laos beer.
I was sad to be leaving Laos but it was time to move to a new country and new experiences!