It’s hard to sum up our first two days in Luang Prabang. It’s an exceptionally pretty little town; an elegant melange of Asian and colonial influences. We began the morning observing the Tak Bat ceremony outside our guesthouse during which the faithful offer a small amount of sticky rice to each passing monk; a tradition which provides monks with their morning meal and makes merits for almsgivers. It has become a symbol of this little town, to the extent that there are various posters around town requesting tourists refrain from blinding the monks with camera flashes, impede their path or buying substandard rice to give to the monks.

In the morning we visited the former Royal Palace, now the National Museum. It was much humbler and more domestic than those of Cambodia or Thailand. The museum was completely silent about the fate of the royal family after the 1975 socialist revolution. A highlight, in the hall displaying official gifts to the former royal family, were the miniture moon lander and moon dust which the United States gave to Laos in the 1960’s.

Over the next two days we spent time wandering and admiring the town and it’s many temples, to the extent that we really lost track of which wat was what! Wat Xieng Thong, however, was definitely a highlight with gorgeous mosaics on soft pink walls.

One thing I must mention is Big Brother Mouse, an organisation dedicated to printing and distributing picture books in Lao. Many children in remote villages in Laos have little or no access to books and Big Brother Mouse is dedicated to giving young Lao the opportunity to write, illustrate, produce and print books and to create books that encourage young Lao to read. Ally and I bought some t-shirts and a pack of books to give out to children.

Luang Prabang