Cortez Chronicles: Luang Prabang, Laos

You may have noticed the delay since the last post. We've been busy here in Sydney and are happy to announce that we've found a lovely place to live for the summer. More details coming soon.

Now back to the SE Asia Trip:

In doing our research on Vietnam, we discovered that we could not pass up the opportunity to visit the neighboring country of Laos. We had heard great stories about the people and the way of life in Luang Prabang.

It was easy to relax here.

Peaceful lifestyle Luang Prabang, Laos

The city is famous for the night market and Buddhist traditions. Every night, the city's main street is turned into a night market offering food, drinks, art, textiles and souvenirs from the region. You can find temples on many of the streets, woven into the little neighborhoods. Many of these temples also serve as monasteries and living quarters for the young monks.

We preferred the low pressure selling tactics of Luang Prabang

Temple entrance guard

A Monk's education begins early

Sweeping is a shortcut to enlightenment

Carving outside of a temple

Every morning the monks would walk the streets collecting alms (rice, other food for the day) from neighbors who are honored to give them such gifts.

We even had time to learn some new cooking recipes and techniques at a traditional Laos cooking school.

Roasting peppers, tomatoes, and eggplants

Our fish entree all wrapped up and ready to be steamed

Dinner!

Laos has a lot to offer and we tried to see everything in this little city. Not all of the attractions are in the city though. Slightly beating out the booze-fueled lazy river tubing trip, Luang Prabang is also famous for it's Elephant Rescue Centers. This is fitting since Laos is known as the land of a thousand elephants; we were even lucky enough to meet a few of them! We spent Anna's 30th "working" at an elephant rescue just outside of town. Our duties included training, feeding, and cleaning the elephants.