Day 42 Friday 13 October Luang Prabang

Lazy breakfast on the hotel terrace watching life on the river and a day of catching up. Found a free internet service if we sat on our balcony. Checked out the cafes and inspected a wat or two. Luang Prabang used to be the capital and was a centre of French administration so has a large number of Franco-laotian buildings undergoing varying stages of restoration under the auspices of UNESCO which has designated it a world heritage area. Its a pretty laid back place with the main street running along the ridge of a peninsula formed by the Mekong and a tributary called the Nam Khan. Despite the distance to the sea the Mekong is over a km wide and flowing at a rapid rate, chocolate milk in colour and carrying a lot of debris. As well as the French buildings the city has some 40 odd wats or temples in regular usage as well as former palaces and civic buildings.

Came across a campervan conversion of a saab 900, which only a swede could love (or be seen driving).

Superb dinner at a restaurant called the Brasserie l’elephant, which would have to rate as one of the best restaurants in SE Asia. Spluged on more margaritas (best yet) and some quite passable French plonk as we figured there wasn’t going to be much more between here and Turkey. After dinner we chose to visit the night market which occupies the main street each evening, stretching for about a km with stalls or blankets spread on the road and pavements selling mostly handicrafts and Laotian textiles. Probably not a good move as our bargaining powers were not at their best and we staggered back to the hotel with all manner of home furnishings which would be all right if we had a home to put them in.

Travel and Leisure describe it as "the prettiest market in the world, like a market from Asian central casting"- not sure if they were describing the merchanise or the vendors. Sudden consternation among one group of stalls (if horizontally spread blankets can be described as such as a snake had decided to come shopping - lots of hysterical mock panic amongh the female vendors as they turned over all the blankets trying to find it, not helped by the local lads who thought it great sport

Weather 30 sunny
Distance today 0km
Total Distance 8386km