Today we visited he Royal Palace Museum in the 'Old Town' part of LP. Photos of the interior of the Museum are not allowed unfortunately so you will just have to imagine the high quality, rambling timber structure which contains many interesting art pieces, including Buddha images (rescued in many cases from ransacked or destroyed Stupas), gold object d'art, swords, furniture and the like, plus some clothing and personal items of the last King of Laos. There is ...

After our boat trip, it being cold and all, we needed a decent feed for dinner. A couple of local people we have chatted with recommended the Riverside Barbeque Restaurant & as it is located nearby we thought we would try it out. We got there early as it fills up fast. There are many tables, some overlooking the Mekong, and each as a curious clay receptacle fitted which, once you are seated, is then filled with large burning embers. An aluminium 'dome' is ...

An early start this morning - whipped down to the morning market for breakfast and then back to our Hotel to be picked up by the local version of a Tuk Tuk (this being a strange hybrid part motorcycle / part van that carries up to 9 passengers). Today we were off on a boat trip up the Mekong to visit a cave that houses a Temple. The boat was one of those low slung wooden efforts with a big motor and a full length drive shaft back to a small prop. The temperatu...

Hi again. We went to the morning markets this morning (obviously I guess) and have a very nice breakfast there. French style baguettes with bacon, egg, greenery and mayo, plus a large cup of Lao Coffee - which is like, but not as good as, Vietnamese coffee. We then thought it a grand idea for a gentle stroll down the nearest thoroughfare. Well, four hours later we found our Hotel again and although the exercise was accidental we did see a few of the many Buddh...

We went to the night markets in the Town last night. A large number of vendors there but in the end much of the goods on display were repeated over & over from one seller to another. It's actually a bit of work to stroll from one end to the other and back again. It's been suggested that a lot of the items are mass-produced in China and that's quite possibly right. Still, it's fun people watching and the food on sale is A1. A few photos we've uploaded wil...