Day 11: Luang Prabang

The next morning, I signed on for a longboat tour to some caves on the Mekong River. One of the great things about these tours is that you never know who you'll end up touring with. In this case, it was two lovely British girls and a couple from San Francisco.

One of the Brits had her right hand bound in the most unusual contraption. She told the story of tripping at night while carrying a glass of water and cutting her hand. She had been in Vietnam at the time and was flown to Singapore for emergency surgery. The amazing thing was that she described the entire affair with such nonchalance. Ah....to be young and carefree....

Day 10: Luang Prabang

The hill in the middle of town is known as Phu Si and at the top is the temple That Chomsi. In the hot mid-day sun, it was only me and a couple of monks.

In most of Southeast Asia, monks are reverred and meant to be left alone so you might imagine my surprise when one of the monks approached and addressed me in extremely good English.

His name was Cao and a novice in one of the local temples. I was expecting Novice Cao to pose the typical questions of someone practicing their English: "What is your name? Where are you from? Do you like Laos? " Rather, he took one look at my iPod and asked, "What kind of music do you like?" followed by "Can I listen?" Which is how I got this awesome photo of a novice monk in Laos listening to my iPod! KILLER! Do you think I can sell my story to Apple?

Day 10: Luang Prabang

Lush, green, hot, steamy, stunning, beautiful....the adjectives just kept on coming. I couldn't get enough of the place.

I have had the great fortune to travel to many places but Laos in general and Luang Prabang in particular had a magical quality to it. I was just drinking it in.

Day 10: Luang Prabang

In the heat of the day, I climbed up the hill at the center of town. I was sweatin' my butt off at this point! However, the views were gorgeous and the hillside was dotted with a variety of interesting Buddha statues.

Here's one of my attempts at an "artsy" shot. You be the judge....