Marcy and I spent a day walking around town and walked to the place when two rivers come together. We also went into several Wats/Temples and discovered the Big Brother Mouse project to bring books to schools. Below is a map of Luang Prabang. We did not go as far south as the bus station but stayed more in the central area.
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| A number of women carried items this way |
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| Marcy on left walking down street |
As we walked by the entrance to a religious place, I was fascinated by the multi-headed snakes at the entrance.
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| From the top of the stairs looking toward the street (and heads of snakes) |
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| Marcy walking down a main street--quiet |
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| Fascinating plant |
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| Inside a small temple |
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| gong |
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| close-up of back wall |
Walking along the Mekong:
Paintings for sale on the street....we saw them also in the Night Market.
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| Map showing where two rivers meet |
We sat at the cafe in the green area and took the following pictures.
Pedestrian bridge--we saw people walking across it. I think that it was not functional in the rainy season. Some tourists were swimming to the left of the bridge.
I expected the rest of the point to be touristy, but it actually was a beautiful narrow parklike setting along the road.
As we walked back, we walked on this narrow tree-lined road between major streets.
Above: cooked rice shells drying on a fence top along the road.
We walked into several temples and I took photos.
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| Monk's laundry hanging out to dry |
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| gong | |
This temple, probably Wat Xieng Thong, is the starting place for the morning alms ceremony s you can see from the sign below.
We then visited the National Palace Museum.
The Royal Palace was built in 1904 during the French colonial era. We were not allowed to take pictures outside so I have a few pictures of the grounds and of the carriage house with a collection of royal vehicles. In 1975 when the royal family was overthrown, the palace was converted into a musuem. The museum was not that impressive to me. It preserved the rooms as they were when the troyal family lived there. I am more interested in ethnic and history museums.
The grounds are quite pretty and there is a long path to the entrance.
There were quite a few elegant and sporty cars from the royal family on display also and stories of the drivers of the cars.
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| A seller, waiting for a customer outside of the Royal Palace Museum |
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On the way back to our hotel, I passed by the remodeled Dara Market, an indoor group of stalls. It has all kinds of things including IPhone chargers, which one of our group bought. The motorcycle and tuktuk were typical of the cars that passed by.
Near our hotel was a very nice hotel/restaurant. I sat down after walking, got a fruit shake and enjoyed the view.
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| Water Lily Flower |
Menu of drinks--8,000 kip to the dollar....
While on our walk, I noticed on the map a special book store call "Big Brother Mouse," so we headed that way. It turned out to be a special project to write and distribute books to schools in Laos. Laos was not know as a country where people read. In most schools the teachers do not have books and learning is by rote. A high school students who was a novice in a monastery so that he could afford to go to high school noticed the problem and wrote a few books, starting with just one or two words per page, that relate to children from the country. They were successful and he got friends to help. Soon a non-profit was formed, and many more books have been published. Some are based on Lao folktales and/or customs. A few are in both English and Lao. Here are some pictures I took at the store:
website is: www.bigbrothermouse.com
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| Sign in front of the store |
For $350, people can sponsor a "book party" in a village school. Books are brought to outlying villages. That day there is a "party" at the school. A book is read, then acted out, then kids go outside and play special games, then more books are read, more playing, and then children are told that 50+ books will be left with the school to share and are taught how to take care of them so that they will last. This is the first time that many have held a book.
It is often difficult for books to be delivered, especially in the wet season. One book is called "The Little Elephant That Could" and is about a small elephant who helped deliver books to a school!
Books are for sale at the office we went to. As you can see, some are very practical.
I brought a few to bring home including one in English about a Lao Hmong teenager. The Seattle library was not interested but the county library gave me a contact to the state Hmong association as there are a number of Hmongs in the county. I just sent a donation to Big Brother Mouse through the Lao Literacy project-- as a birthday gift to myself.
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