Markets and Monks

Luang Prabang is rather famed for its night market.  Vendors with crafts, cloths, artwork, food, t-shirts with BeerLao logos, and a wide variety of purses, bags, pouches and other garments lay out their goods upon the ground, and the shoppers weave around the lines of goods.

This woman was offering this unbelievable buffet spread for about $1.50 a plate.

The day market butcher ...

and if you look closely, the flies on the day market butcher's fine slabs, chops and cuts of meat.  Yum.

We'd bicycle over this scooter and bikes-only bridge from our hotel into town.

After a strenuous uphill pedal, Karen liked a stuffed crepe, a local specialty.

To wash down the crepe, fruit smoothies were available at many stands.

It was sometimes difficult to choose between smoothie ingredients such as "honny", "remon" or "yoguert."

Of course, their was always the Scandinavian Bakery, with its Swedish Pizza.

To get out to a local waterfall, we rented a tuk-tuk.

On the way to the falls was a bear sanctuary, where sun bears were confiscated from poachers, and kept safe here.

The multi-tiered waterfalls here at Kuang Si were gorgeous.

One of the highlights of a visit to Luang Prabang is witnessing Tak Bat -- the daily procession of saffron-clad monks through the streets to receive alms. At dawn each day, the monks demonstrate their vows of poverty and humility while devote Buddhists gain spirituality through respectful giving. The Buddhists place bits of sticky rice in the monks' alms bowls.

In one of the pictures you will see small boys following the monks.  These boys are poor and come in from the local villages to beg for food from the monks.  It was amazing the see the turnout of people giving food to the monks who in turn would pass on some of their gifts to the less fortunate.