It’s Super Bowl Sunday (or Monday) in Laos. Yes, the game is available on our hotel television but started at about 6:30 am. The audio is done by Thai announcers which makes for a strange broadcast.
We have an off-day today in Luange Prabang which is a UN Worldwide Heritage site and located on the Mekong River. Luane Prabang was the capital of Laos before it was moved to Vientiane. Our hotel is very nice, modern but small. We overlook the Mekong River. This morning our guide took us to the old Presidential palace, the main temple and the day market. The day market is the place where common people go to buy anything and everything. There are small vendor stalls that sell everything from 23k gold jewelry to fish, to cell phones, to soap, to vegetables, to freshly slaughtered meat, to used clothes, to dried rats. It’s not as hectic as the market in Ho Che Minh City (Saigon) or Addis Ababa but it is still quite amazing.
A cut up python for sale at the day market. The same vendor was also selling dried rats.
The old Presidential Palace. It is nice but not overwhelmingly ostentatious.
The main temple in Luange Prabang.