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| Following my fall in the mountains we were able to make it all the way to Luang Prabang. My hip didn't hurt as much as it did after my fall in India where I hadn't even been able to put weight on my leg for several days. We had patched up some of the damaged plastic with cable ties after the fall, and here we could take some time to put a few screws in and brace it a little better. Besides, staying a few extra days here could hardly be called being stuck. Luang Prabang is one of the old provincial capitals from the days when this area was known as French Indochina. The old provincial part of the town sits on a peninsula that is a narrow finger of land formed where the Nam Khan joins the Mekong river. The place is a treasure of old provincial architecture, and there is still a large French presence here, and it remains popular with Europeans. Above the Mekong is seen from the balcony of our room in one of the town's sleepy guest houses. | |
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| On our first
day in Luang Prabang we came across this scene. This woman is obviously
auditioning for the position of poster girl for the warnings seen in
every guide book and tourist brochure of how NOT to behave when
visiting Asia's holy places. If she had only patted one of the monks on
the head and pointed her feet towards the temple she could of covered
all of the taboos that foreign visitors are constantly reminded about. |
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| With only four
blocks between the two rivers, the shores of both were lined with
peaceful cafes with many small pedestrian lanes running in from the
rivers. |
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| As I had
mentioned, I had not been immobilized by my hip, and
although the accident happened on Thursday morning, on both Thursday
and Friday there was little swelling. But in the middle of the night
Friday the pain woke me, and on Saturday morning I woke with the
swelling at left which left me a little concerned. Now, Laos is not
exactly what you might call a destination for medical care, but with so
many Chinese working in Laos, Luang Prabang had a Chinese funded
facility called the Chinese Laos Friendship Hospital on the edge of
town. An x-ray determined that nothing was broken, and the doctor
advised me that the best thing to do was to watch it over the next few
weeks and then have it looked at in Thailand. By the following tuesday
the swelling had mostly subsided but the bruise had spread to below the
knee. |
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| One of the best
things about Luang Prabang, for me at least, were the cafes along the
provincial quarters main street. After more than eight months in Asia,
these places represented some of the best breakfasts I'd had in a long
time. I should be clear about this. NOBODY does breakfast like America,
but this place was close. |
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Away from the river, many
of the boutique hotels were restored colonial era villas (above), and
the town's museum (below) is in a former royal palace.
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| The next time
before I get on my high horse about the hootchie-mama attire of certain
people in honored places I will have to remind myself that the signs
here said "No footwear, shorts, T-shirts, sun dresses, or photography." In my
defense, I was fully clothed. |
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| Before
we knew it more than a week had slipped by and we figured it was time
to start heading south. We had already foregone the notion of getting
into Cambodia because of visa issues. Now it looked as if my hip was
going to keep us off of the notoriously bad roads going to Laos' Plain
of Jars. We decided to break up the trip to the capital in Vientiane
with a stop in Vang Vieng, so we reluctantly said goodbye to Luang
Prabang's tricked out tuk-tuks and Mekong sunsets. |
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