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 also a modest car collection (no photos!) which includes two 1960's Lincoln Continentals, a rare 'wing edged' 1958 Ford Edsel and a sadly dilapidated Citroen DS (my favourite).

There is a separate building within the grounds - an elaborately styled one that you will see in the photos - which houses (to quote Lonely Planet) the Pha Bang, an 83cm tall gold-alloy Buddha for which the whole city is named.

This is a beautiful object which legend says was cast in Sri Lanka (there's a coincidence) in the first Century A.D. before arriving in Laos in 1512.

Directly across the road from the Museum are the 328 steps which lead up the Phu Si hill to the That Chomsi Stupa.

The Stupa itself is quite a modest structure - not that it is any less important as a result - but the hill offers very good views over the Town, rivers and the mountains beyond.

As an aside, we climbed the steps twice on the day as the first time we did so the Camera battery was exhausted - as were Desley & I after we went back to the Hotel, re-charged the battery and climbed the steps again.

We hope you enjoy the photos.