My eBid Cap Trip to Laos & Cambodia!

[meebo1]

I like eating with chopsticks

[Oldandintheway]

I did notice in one photo Sil was using proper cutlery!

[Oldandintheway]

Trip to the Royal Palace Museum (including the Pha Bang building), & That Chomsi Stupa

I'm doing another "copy/paste" job here because, A - I'm lazy & B - bro can explain their experience better than I could.

Today we visited the 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.

Royal Palace Museum x 4 pix




The Pha Bang Building x 3 pix




more trip cont. next:

[Oldandintheway]

Royal Palace Trip continued

The That Chomsi Stupa x 6 pix






Meanwhile - Back at the Hotel & after a tough slog (some Beerlaos were called for) x 4 pix

Parked outside, some local transport!


Cheers & bottoms up!

[meebo1]

I am sure the scooter belongs to Barbie

[Oldandintheway]

I am sure the scooter belongs to Barbie

Yes Barbielao

[sucadot]

Yikes! all those steps twice - those beers were very well deserved

[Oldandintheway]

The Kuang Si Waterfalls & Bear Rescue Centre at Ban Tat

Here's me being lazy again by letting Bros blog do the description for me.
What an amazing oasis this place must be. I love the change rooms! The water was c'c'ccold.
Check out that shirt, what a beaudy!

A terrific day with a 30 klm trip from LP by mini van to the Kuang Si waterfalls. As a double bonus the Bear Rescue Centre is on the same site.
Bear Rescue first.................
This is a part of the larger, world wide 'Free The Bears' organisation. Have a look at www.freethebears.org for details. At Kuang Si they seem to deal with Sun Bears, although in this part of the world Asiatic Black Bears are also in need of rescue from humans.
The bears here certainly look well feed and generally have a pretty good time of it - fair enough too when you consider they have all previously been kept in tiny cages having bile extracted from their bile ducts for very dubious 'medical' reasons. Lazing around eating or sleeping seems to be the main agenda for these bears. Me too actually.

Bro says "no thanks I couldn't eat a "thing" but we'll get a pick-a-nick basket for the Yogis"


The lookout

I see ya!

Makin' his bed

Where's me picnic basket?

Spot the fake bear? - That's right, the one on the left

[Oldandintheway]

With my interest in orchids, this place just has to be dripping in same???
What a magical area!

The Waterfalls............
We took some video of the falls [files are too large to upload here sorry] and as we approached the first pool I can be heard saying 'this can't be real'.
The photos are pretty good but they don't really show the naturally occurring azure blue of the water.
It's like a fantasy movie set, especially at the main 25 meter high waterfall.
Desley & I did go in for a swim and the water is initially very, very cold but does become bearable (bad pun sorry) after a short while.
We'll let the photo's do the talking.
Ciao.

The change rooms!











cont. over:

[Oldandintheway]

Waterfalls continued:




Sil says - I'm goin' in!



I think that's an orchid on the trees left? Oh & Sil swimmin'


The bathing belle!

Exchanging details with new South Korean pen pal.