Photo Galleries
Luang Prabang
November 2008
Scenes from the streets, rivers, cafes, and former royal palace of Luang Prabang. This beautiful town in northern Laos, perched on a peninsula, is full of French colonial and Laotian architecture and wonderful views. With its quiet, unhurried atmosphere, it's a great place for just enjoying life.
The colonial architecture and quiet streets of downtown Luang Prabang
Exhibits in the small but fascinating Traditional Arts and Ethnology Center museum
Laos's many ethinic groups have diverse traditonal clothing and ceremonies
We love these highly pleated skirts of the Hmong, with their indigo batik and elaborate applique
Some ethnic groups in Laos use backstrap weaving looms very similar to the ones we saw Maya women use in Guatemala
Traditional basket weaving designs that are still in use in villages today (and, at the bottom right, a stone mouse trap)
One of our favorite weaving styles from Laos
We wish we could afford one of these intricately woven masterpieces (traditionally made into skirts)
Necklaces of the sort traditional worn by some ethnic groups in Laos (these were for sale in a crafts store)
The Nam Khan river flows along one side of Luang Prabang, until it meets the Mekong river
We walked past this view almost every day on the way from our guesthouse to the cafes of the downtown area. The view never got old.
Our guesthouse came with kittens and a mother cat (not tame enough to hold, though)
Our favorite French cafe, especially for breakfast: Cafe Ban Wat Sene
Fantastic scrambled eggs, bacon, croissants, fresh oranage juice, and jam made from local fruits
More characteristic architecture of downtown Luang Prabang
A rooftop detail that Melissa liked
At the Luang Prabang national museum (a former royal palace), this temple houses the Pha Bang, the centuries-old golden Buddha for which Luang Prabang was named
The temple was built in the 1990s and 2000s in traditional Luang Prabang style
The Laotian version of the nagas (sea serpents) that are also part of Cambodian mythology
This palace was home to Laos's royal family from 1904 until 1975, when they were overthrown by a communist revolution. Today it's a royal museum (where no photos are allowed)
A Lao alphabet poster
Parts of old bombs dropped on Laos in the 1960s or 1970s, used as decorations at an outdoor cafe
A neighborhood party we walked past one afternoon
Traditional houses in the less touristy parts of Luang Prabang
A great place for a traveling office!
Every afternoon, we saw kids fishing or playing in the Nam Khan river
The banks of the Nam Khan are lined with vegetable gardens when the river recedes after the rainy season
A typical fishing boat on the Nam Khan river
This bamboo bridge is rebuilt every year after the rainy season (there's a $1.25 toll to cross it)
Across the bamboo bridge is another of our favorite places to work and eat, Dyen Sabai
Groups of monks crossed the bridge every afternoon around 4, returning from studies in Luang Prabang to their wats on the other side of the Nam Khan river
Bigger boats ply the wide Mekong river, which runs on the other side of Luang Prabang's peninsula
