South East Asia – Luang Prabang, Laos – 2024 – Part 10

Luang Prabang is located in  northern Laos at the heart of a mountainous region. The town is built on a peninsula formed by the Mekong and the Nam Khan River and has a population of about 430,000 people. We were maybe a 20-25 minute walk from our hotel to the Market area. Our hotel was nice and breakfast was included although we had to walk across the street to a restaurant with a big outdoor balcony. If anyone is wondering, breakfast consisted of local dishes as well as typical North American bacon, eggs, toast etc.

We were very busy while staying here, we were up early to feed the monks, we went to a village called Ban Ou for lunch, temples, Ethnology Museum, market, a Weaving colony called Ock Pop Tok Living Crafts Centre, a waterfalls park called Kuang Si and so much more. You don’t stop on this trip although you do get free time but Clint and I go non-stop during our free time too. Well we do stop for beer breaks….

One morning we were up at 430 to walk to the market to feed the Monks. Their temple is the photo above. This is called Morning Alms or Sai Bat. We were told to sit quietly on tiny little chairs on the sidewalks along the road. Aorr, our guide, gave us all little packs of sticky rice and as the monks walked by, you would put a pack on their bamboo tray. She told us they would go back to their temple and have their breakfast and then whatever food was left, probably a lot, was given to the hungry.

When we were done, we walked back to our hotel and left at 9 to go to the Museum of Culture, which was only 2 rooms so we weren’t there very long.

Below is a map of the Distribution of Ethnicity in Laos and two of the rooms we went into showing how they lived, clothing and more.

On to the Weaving Colony! This was a cool place right by the river, lots of buildings and lots to see and do. We were shown the looms and how silkworms are used.

One of the workers told us about the silkworms, different methods of dyeing the cloth and a lot more interesting information which I don’t remember. Silkworms below and a photo of all the different colours they can make with natural products.

We did a lot more this same day but I’ll wait until the next post!