Luang Prabang…SHA-BANG!

We’ve spent the last two days in Luang Prabang, Laos.  It’s actually pronounced “Lu-ang Pra-bong”, but that didn’t rhyme with Shabang.  Thanks for indulging us.  And, thanks to Melissa for the inspiration.

Laos is a beautiful country and Luang Prabang has been one our favorite places on this trip so far.

The country opened to tourism just ten short years ago, so not a lot has changed.  It’s still very rural and, thankfully, not a Starbucks in sight.

Like Thailand, Buddhism is the main religion here.

One of the most amazing sights was the famous caves of Pak Ou. We traveled for two hours on the Mekong River by boat to get to there. The caves are perched on the sheer face of the cliff, offering stunning views of the Mekong and surrounding mountains. Inside the cave, there are more than 1,000 Buddha statues that have been attracting local people to visit around the time of The Lao New Year (in April) since the early 14th century.  In many cases, when visitors come to the site, they leave a Buddha behind to ask for good health and fortune in the year ahead.

Today, Team SE Asia went to the Kuang Si Waterfall.  Beautiful to see.

And, keeping with the water motif of our time spent here, we are just about to board a plane for Hanoi, Vietnam.   As you can see above (and, probably have heard about on the news) there is a super typhoon in the South China Sea and it’s on its way to Vietnam.  We are being told by the travel folks on the ground that it is safe to travel to Hanoi because it is so far north.  However, we are pretty sure our plans will be changing once we’re there since the rest of our time was to be spent traveling south.  We’re keeping all the folks in the path of this storm in our prayers.  And, we promise to keep you all posted regarding our plans.