Bangkok to Rio

From Vang Vieng we headed over many mountain passes to Luang Prabang, the ancient capital of Laos. The city is on a strip of land between the Mekong and another river, and is filled with temples, and monks, and tourists. We spent four days wandering through buddhist temples, watching river sunsets, and eating well.

Photos from around the city:

These are photos from the morning market. Much of the food eaten in Laos is harvested wild from the forest, so the market was full of unidentifiable forest herbs and vegetables that are found nowhere else in the world.

We learned in Luang Prabang that Lao food is unique - the flavors and ingredients were different than anything either of us had tried before. The strangest new dish was river algae from the Mekong that is dried, pressed into sheets, covered with thin slices of onion, garlic, chili, and sesame seeds, and then deep fried. It's eaten with a paste of red chilis and buffalo skin:

On a day-trip to a waterfall outside town, we ate grilled river fish at the base of the falls, hiked halfway up for the view, then swam in a pool in the river below. The highlight of the day was the rope swing into the river, though the whole thing was pretty fantastic.

One morning, we woke up early to see the monks on their alms rounds. In a ritual that has happened nearly every morning in Luang Prabang for hundreds of years, monks walk through the streets at dawn to collect donations of sticky rice from the town's residends before returning to their temples for breakfast.

Finally, some sunset photos over the Mekong: