Luang Prabang, Laos

After breakfast at the hotel we drove to the airport and flew to Luang Prabang, Laos. There we stayed in a hotel built on the grounds of a beautiful French provincial villa on the banks of the Mekong River. We arrived around noon, and had a bit of time to explore the local neighborhood before being driven into the town center in some overgrown tuk-tuks. This is a small town of 45,000 to 70,000, depending on who you ask. Anyway, it's a lot smaller than the millions in Bangkok -- and considerably less developed.

We had to change hotel rooms for several reasons. First, they gave us twin beds instead of a double. Second, the beds both squeaked badly (more of a squawk than a squeak -- it was really bad, we'd have kept one another awake all night, each time either of us moved). But most importantly, there was a group of young men in the room next door -- possibly Australian, though we weren't entirely sure -- who were playing loud music, shouting at one another, and generally being obnoxious. The desk clerks didn't want to move us, but our guide graciously agreed to exchange rooms.

Laos is beautiful but very rugged country -- mountains covered by thick, sub-tropical forest. I can see why we didn't do well fighting a war here. They say that north of here, along what used to be the Ho Chi Minh Trail, farmers are still being killed and maimed when they happen to plow up cluster bombs dropped by B-52 bombers 50 years ago during the Vietnam war. Sad. Most Laotians are far too young to remember the war, however. There seem to be very few old people here.

We visited a temple recently renovated with American tax dollars, and our Lao guide, "Lou," explained what Buddhists are actually praying about when they bow down to pay homage to a Buddha. The group peppered him with dozens of questions about Buddhist beliefs that differed somewhat from those in the last two countries we've visited. Some questions were insightful, but others revealed the usual American ignorance of things foreign and things religious. There appears to be a good deal of animism and other superstition mixed with the Buddhism of this culture.

 The tuk-tuks took us into the center of town, where most of us climbed a mountain (slightly more than a Decorah hill) for a bird's eye view of the town and the rivers that meet here. By the time we came down again, the Main Street of the town had been remarkably transformed into the "night market" by hundreds of vendors selling their crafts. After a bit of shopping, we piled into the tuk-tuks once again for a very good Laotian meal. Then we continued back to the hotel to make an early night of it.

Children selling trinkets spot Americans waiting for their ride back to the hotel.