Luang Prabang to Phongsali

Next came Luang Prabang. Another interesting little town that we passed through twice. Lots of french colonial architecture, and is actually consdered a world heritage town (or so Jillene tells me). Below, one more picture of a Wat to add to our collection... the oldest in Luang Prabang.Some pretty scenery/gardens along side one of the towns rivers...And just outside of town (30km) there is a great set of waterfalls. There are many tiers of pools and falls working its way down the mountain. We actually don't know how many, we never counted... lots!

Did some swimming here...And then there was Udonxai for a night. Not too much to see here, more just a hub in our transit, but we really liked it. Found a great place to stay, a better place to eat, and the people were really friendly. They really want tourists to stay longer than they do. Below is a picture we took of a bunch of monks hiding out and watching a soccer game from ontop of a hill over looking town. From Udonxai we took another bus to Phongsali. We stopped for a break enroute, and it ended up being a little market where tons of different women from the village tribes in the surounding area came to flog and buy some goods. It was quite the experience, and much more authentic than any experience we had in Thailand. These people wear their clothes because thats just what they wear... its not for show (for tourism) as it is in Thailand. We realized that if you really want to see something authentic... go to Laos! There were 3-4 different types of tribes at this market/village. Was a special day.Phongsali, almost as far north in Laos as you can go. The chinese border is to the east, west and north. And because of such, there is a huge chinese influence here. We talked to a guy whom worked at the tourist information office (if you can call it that!) and he figures about 1000 foreigners (westerners) visit Phongsali every year. So in short, if you make your way out of town to visit some of the villages you can find some people whom rarely (if ever) see a white person! Its quite the experience...

It was really remote and isolated up here. Not to mention freaking cold!

And the kids were CRAZY! Had too much fun with them, and I think they had even more fun with us. They taught us how to play this game where you take this stick with a sting and wrap it around a hand carved 'top' and then throw the contraption in such a way to make the top spin on the ground forever. Then other people take turns throwing their 'tops' at the ones already spinning...

Yeah, didn't really make a lot of sense. But we had a lot of fun none the less, and kids sure got a good laugh from us 'ferangs'.