Kicking back in Luang Prabang...

Yesterday afternoon (Tuesday) I took the second half of the tour that I had started on Monday. This time, the van picked me up at the hotel and we drove about 30 minutes out to a local waterfall. Although it is still officially dry season, the waterfall was still very impressive. The water in the pools leading up to the main falls was an incredible shade of shimmering green. The area actually consisted of several falls with the largest fall at the top. Along the way, there were several deep pools that you could use for a swim. At the main falls...which crashed about 70 feet over a cliff to a pool...I decided to brave the swift water and wind and move in the turbulent water along the side of the pool to an area behind the fall itself. Very cool, indeed. Later that evening, I hooked up with a German IT guy named Steffan who was just completeing a four week holiday, and another fellow from Canada (Luke) who had just completed his contract teaching English in Mynamar. My friend Fiona went off on an elephant trek for a few days and we may have dinner together again tomorrow night. This morning, I bought a cardboard box and plan to buy some things at the street market tonight and ship them back to California. I also visited the National Museum which used to be the palace of the king. The walls and ceilings of the main reception room for the king were covered with colorful, mirrored mosaics depicting people fighting, worshipping and celebrating. Most of the human figures were about 8 inches high but there were also elephants, buddhas, etc. of various sizes. Each figure was carefully constructed and color coordinated. Since they were mounted on a wall that was painted blood red, the effect was really quite startling. The weather is clear and hot today. A lot of the restaurants around here list their menus in several currencies: the Lao Kip, the Thai bhat and the US dollar. Occasionally, they even list the price of the item in Euro. More later....