The restuarant - Phamsai Houngchalern.
I had my best sleep of the trip that night sleeping through to 0410 rather than waking up at 0200. So we had our bags parked outside the room at the designated hour at 0530. We said goodbye to Vinh (Vinny), our Hoi An guide, at the airport while Hung shepherded us through check-in for the flight from Da Nang to Hanoi. We collected our bags and boarded.
We connected to the international flight from Hanoi to Luang Prabang at the international terminal in Hanoi. There was enough of a layover for us to get a snack as lunch was going to be at ~1400 in Luang Prabang.
The flight was uneventful and we were met by our Laos guide, Toby, in the immigration area where he facilitated the acquisition of our visas. In fact, we left our passports there to be returned to us at lunch. The drive into town (population ~50,000) was similar to Vietnam except to roadsides were tidier with less trash and rubble and the traffic habits were slightly less laissez-faire. The balance of cars to motorbikes/scooters wasn't quite so heavily on the side of the two-wheeled vehicles.
Our two vans pulled up to the restaurant overlooking the Namkhan River where our table was set up on an open air balcony with a view of the scenery. The food at the Phamsai Huongchalern Restaurant was some of the best we've had on the trip so far.
We started our afternoon walk, stopping at an overlook where we could see the confluence of the Namkhan and Mekong Rivers. I was impressed with the magnitude of the flow and breadth of the Mekong this far north of the delta.
The next stop was Wat Xieng Thong, a Buddhist temple complex with a structure, not even the main temple, that rivals the Golden Temple in Kyoto, although I'd have to give the edge to the Japanese temple because of the gardens that surround it. We looked around the complex and taking off our shoes, we went into the main temple, where the elaborate ornamentation was impressive. There was also what I'd call a singing gong that some of the visitors were successful in producing (non-gong) sound — more like a singing bowl or the same effect of rubbing the rim of a wine glass.
The restuarant - Phamsai Houngchalern.
Evidence - soup. I don't seem to have captured a menu for this lunch.
Evidence - lunch.
Evidence - lunch.
Evidence - lunch.
Evidence - lunch. I think these were rolled fish.
Evidence - lunch.
Disposing of the evidence.
There were numerous hangings like this one on the houses of Luang Prabang.
Heading out after lunch.
Flower on a bush in the park overlooking the river.
A fisherman. His boat is on the Namkhan River, while above the jetty flows the Mekong River.
A longer view of the the Namkhan River flowing into the Mekong River.
That UNESCO logo again.
Finally! A cat! A temple cat at Wat Xieng Thong.
The gold leaf covered pavilion containing the royal funerary carriage.
Close-up of the upper panel.
The panels flanking the entry.
Stupa.
Toby providing commentary: Gwen, Barbara, Toby, Albert, Terry, John, Hung, Julie, Lyn, and Audra.
Tree of Life on the outside of the temple building (not the golden pavilion).
A close-up of the exterior decorations.
A glass/mirror tiled stupa.
The big green thing is probably a lotus bud, but all I can think of is artichoke.
The Buddha in the small side temple/shrine.
The Buddha in the main temple.
