Once again I woke up early and had an early breakfast so that I could begin adventuring as soon as possible. This time in my adventuring I decided to walk in the other direction towards the area where the two rivers (the Mekong and the Nam Khan converge). I was just walking along the Mekong when I ran into a large group of boatmen inviting me to take a boat ride across the river to see the three temples and the cave on the other side. Originally I wasn't going to go, it was awfully cloudy and I was concerned about the possibility of rain.... however this one guy started talking to me and he was so charming that I found my agreeing to a trip the river! The guy wasn't particularly attractive but he was smooth talking. Once I got to the opposite bank I saw Wat Long Khun. This was the temple that the King to be would spend a few days at before the coronation. It was very nice and peaceful, especially since it was only 8am. There were two other temples to walk to and so I walked to the farther one first. It began to rain a little as I walked but the farther I went the more it rained until it was pouring. Luckily, I did bring my umbrella though it didn't help with the slippery mud paths and so I was sliding around on the mud trying not to fall. I wasn't expecting a muddy forest adventure so I had worn my skirt and my legs got quite muddy. I climbed the many stairs to Wat Chom Phet which gave a wonderful view of Luang Prabang from the other side of the Mekong. It's really too bad that it was raining so much because the clouds blocked my view of many of the mountains. Now looking at my pictures I can't believe that I even took a boat ride with the sky looking so menacing. I visited one last temple but it was so old and rotting that I couldn't even step inside for fear that I would fall through the floor and down the hillside. The boatman (I forget his name) and I sat in the entrance of Wat Long Khun waiting out the heavy part of the rain storm and making small talk. When the rain eased up I washed my dirty legs in the Mekong and then he took me across to the other side of the river and dropped me off at the big stair case that lead to Wat Xieng Thong.
Wat Xieng Thong is considered the "most magnificent" temple of Luang Prabang. I have to say I did like it quite a bit though it isn't very well preserved. When I was there dogs were wandering in and out of the temple, I actually took a picture of one rolling on the floor in front of the Buddha. Instead having detailed paintings like Thai temples the pictures were made out of colored glass. Today's picture is of Wat Xieng Thong.
After wandering around Wat Xieng Thong and the surrounding neighbourhood I decided to have lunch and then return to my guest house to drop off some of my shirts to the laundry service. I ended up running into Don and we ate together and then walked back to the guest house.
When I got to the guest house I gave my legs a proper wash and went to give the guy running the front desk at the guest house my laundry. I hadn't said anything to the guest house guy besides "could I please get these washed?" and he was all of the sudden shoulder to shoulder with me and trying to give me a kiss, bleck! I escaped the situation pretty quickly, went to the post office and posted a few postcards and letters and then headed back to Phu Si since I told Link I would meet him at 1pm.
I arrived early at Phu Si so I took in the view and relaxed. The sun had come out and the clouds had cleared and so the view was beautiful and the day was heating up. A few of the other monks came by and chatted with me. Eventually Link arrived and we chatted it up and joked around. Another traveller came by, her name was Sarah-Jane and she was from England and she hung out and talked with us for a couple of hours. She was really fun and taught us Cockney rhyming slang (we were all teaching each other something). The monks on the hill were so much fun, many wanted to talk to me or joke around with me but didn't have as good a command of English as Link did so they would just make silly faces at me when they walked by. One of the monks made me a grasshopper out of bamboo leaves and then a ball out of bamboo leaves. The grasshopper was amazing, very detailed!
The ball that was made out of the bamboo leaves was quite strong and so we ended up making teams and playing volleyball over the rafters of the look-out gazebo. It was so much fun made funnier by the fact that every time tourists came we'd stop so they could play the role of "serene monk". I was so bad at our game but we had a good laugh and I left around dinner time with the promise to return the next day.
For dinner I decided to eat at another open air restaurant along the Mekong. Sadly, this dinner was a bit of a nasty disaster. I sat down and the waiter gave me a plate of complimentary roasted peanuts because I was pretty. I ordered sticky rice and duck. The sticky rice was good because really, what can go wrong with sticky rice? The duck, on the other hand, was a different story! Whoever had plucked the duck didn't do a thorough job and it was still fuzzy/hairy and even had some hard feather spines still sticking out of it in some places. It was pretty nasty and on top of this it had very little meat and many bones. I tried to pick off the edible meat but mostly it was a lost cause. It's a good thing I got those free peanuts because that was the best part of the meal in the end.
After my dismal dinner I bought some gifts at the market and a t-shirt for myself because I planned on getting up early and I didn't think that the laundry service would be done with my shirts by 5:30am.
I'm making a few pictures available on the pictures page. More of Wat Xieng Thong including the one with the dog rolling in front of the Buddha and maybe a couple others.
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