2015 - MEKONG RIVER in LAOS, more days in Luang Prabang

Water festival time

Sat 4 Nov 2017

So . . off the river boat now & a few more days in Luang Prabang.

A stroll around town ..

Another stop at this restaurant overlooking the river .. the floor above is made of bamboo & I trusted to luck that it would hold my weight .. of course it did.

This floor is more substantial . .

Some war souvenirs at the entrance ..

Bare bums on display .. About as rude as Laos gets

Lots of street food & many people per scooter.

There a quite a lot of tourists in LP . .

Must be tricky riding a scooter & holding an umbrella . . . . but they make it look easy. Fold-up umbrellas to keep of the sun is a very good idea.

as are surgical masks . . the air is very bad from the fires set to clear farmland.

It's the start of the water festival ... I found that Laos people do not smile too much but that changes come water festival .. & a good excuse to get dressed up

The little boy was always a tad too late with his bucket ..

Another good reason to have an umbrella ..

Buddha during his starving stage . . one grain of rice a day.

Not just the very young get into the water festival ..

The night market being prepared ..

A beautiful old car belonging to one of the hotels ..

An evening at a restaurant that has a cultural show upstairs ..

Followed by a walk around town ..

... where the night market is up & running ..

I spent a few hours sitting & chatting with this lady who attends a hole-in-the-wall place that sells juice & coffee .. . just the one chair on the pavement so I had a good view of the comings & goings on the street.

The next day & the water festival is still in full swing

These ladies are staff from my hotel .. on the right is the receptionist, looking very smart . . as is the girl next to her who cleaned my room & the very elegant lady beside her who cleans & supervises the young cleaners.

Some of the kids have sophisticated water-pistols but most just use a bucket or anything that holds waters.

It is really a lot of fun for these people .. look at the expression on the girls face .. . she loves it

Some live music here ..

The massage girls here .. plotting a raid on the tourists ? .. one of them gave me a pedicure here .. they don't charge very much.

A passing tourist getting soaked. I did get wet a few times .. but they avoided my camera which was nice of them. I tried to bribe one group with a couple of dollars to let me by without getting wet but much to their amusement they soaked me anyway.

There are some pretty scary spiders hanging in the trees ..

There was some problem on my visit to the cultural show & I got a voucher for a second performance .. here is a gecko on stage watching proceedings.

The end of the show & the end of my time in Laos .. would I go back? Yes .. but somewhere other than Luang Prabang .. It is very nice but I do not think it is representative of Laos .. much too clean & rich.