Bangkok is to Luangprabang as a crocodile is to a gecko. At dusk, the peak-hour, this was the scene in the epicentre of the busiest 'tourist' precinct of the main street (Sisavangvong St). Tuk-tuks here are 'jumbos'.
Ta-wenty minutes later, this was the same street. Cars are so rare that you can generally hear any vehicle coming from some distance. We saw two streets with (council) lighting in the entire town. Any other street-lighting is an accidental by-product of private enterprise such as restaurants etc.
The brightest street, at least for a short time after dusk, was the local night market. Ironically, Laos actually produces enormous amounts of hydro-electricity, but the government sells it to Thailand and pockets the profits rather than supply its own citizens. A walk through back-streets reveals that the population - apart from some wealthy expat residents - lives largely by candlelight, and therefore hits the sack early.
Next morning (after ghastly un-coffee at breakfast), Marie plays 'chicken' with local traffic along the 'esplanade' of the Mekong River. She got bored after a while, so wandered off to graze on the strawberry trees shading the jumbos. Oddly, the locals don't seem to eat the yumacious fruit. 
The bakery (!) provided about the only semblance of nightlife apart from the handful of shops which stay open till late (8.30-ish). In the pic above, our explorers (without their customary pith-helmets or blunderbusses) were secretly snapped by CIA in a [you guessed it] ...jewelry shop. In the bakery you can buy government-brewed Beer Lao, quasi-cappuccino [don't do it!] , or fruit smoothies; Coca-cola and McDonalds are prohibited :-) There are 2 government-sanctioned nightclubs, conveniently located some distance outside the town to keep the population pure. A third club was closed recently, allegedly due to being located too close to a wat. Having said all that, Lao people are absolutely delightful - polite, respectful, if sometimes over-shy. Maybe it's us who are still post-colonially over-assuming, brash, and unreasonably demanding.
Halcyon daze. A local suki restaurant next to the Mekong... and the nearby Boules Olympics 2007, running every morning, patronised by jumbo-drivers between trips. Hey, it's a fast life here:
Then donning our pith-helmets and priming our flintlocks, we set off up the Mekong in search of legendary secret caves crammed with ancient Buddha statues... and, with any luck, large treasure chests full of glittering bling with no 7% VAT. We had a V8 Chrysler truck motor mounted on the canoe in case the oars failed, but heroically succeeded at battling the current and rocks.
We escaped being eaten by anyone, although we were very nervous about suspicious riverbank villages like this one [above] which, on closer inspection, sported a few satellite dishes above houses. We kept our powder dry.
Eventually reassured of our safe passage, we nevertheless had to mix our own cocktails... and climb stairs without the assistance of sedan-chairs or peeled grapes:
The Gates of Hades, guarded by a less-than-fierce Cerberus. Notice Kuhn Ba-lenton, ecstatic after discovering an ancient 300-month old Buddha statue in a previously almost unknown cave. To help it get known better, Kuhn Cerberus was charging a minimum donation of 1000 kip EACH for hire of a torch (1000 kip = about 10c).
We've been to Luangprabang before with our daughter Anna, and we'll doubtlessly do it all again as it's so convenient to Chiangmai. Waterfalls next time, chaps? Fave weekender hangout in Laos.
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