A street away from our hotel is the Morning Fresh Produce Market. This is an open-air market, with only just tents and umbrellas erected for vendors to facilitate their selling.
A vendor ties pots of sticky rice together, which are returned to her after the customers use it for the alms-giving ceremony every morning.
More pictures of the LP Fresh Produce Market:
Some bags of snacks for sale, like the Khai Paen, which is dried river weed. Along with some other goodies!
It's always a delight to see stalls selling the Lao baguette, which is always stacked on top of each other, in the open! These are used to prepare sandwiches for the hungry locals and tourists alike!
We walked along the Khan River , which is the opposite side of the Mekong River to reach the next temples on our list.
A monk was peacefully crossing the river through a wooden bridge on stilts.
After a few minutes walk we reach the Ban Aham or Wat Aham. We didn't spend much time here as we wanted to save energy and cover more of the town. Just took a few pictures then crossed the path to its adjoining temple.
Wat Aham is home to several weathered stupas before reaching its main chapel.
Again we see children-monks under a tree, who were at the moment having some play time.
Wat Aham is connected to the famous Watermelon Stupa or the That Pathum. It is located in Wat Vissounarath. Locals call it the Watermelon Stupa or That Makmo, because of its watermelon-rounded shape. That Pathum means Stupa of the Great Lotus.
It was very beautiful, since its stone has weathered and the sunlight cast good shadows on the huge stupa.
We exited on the supposed entrance of Wat Vissounarath, on the other side of Wat Aham.
We were satisfied with the temples we've visited in LP, so we wanted to go back to the hotel early in preparation for our flight the next day. But not before visiting Dara Market.
Dara Market was filled with merchandise and some silks, but after seeing the LP night market, nothing could come close to its ambiance, and completeness of mementos.
Walking further we saw some fruit and snack stands on another market...
Cute little pumpkins for sale!
And some more stalls selling the Lao Baguette and coffee.
We also passed Wat Phonxay Sanasongkham. Some preparations were being made for a feast or an occassion inside, so we didn't linger.
We made our way back to the hotel to have lunch at the nearby Cafe de Malee. Our outside table was situated on the Mekong River, with a view of the longtail boats departing and arriving. One can observe that some of these longtail boats are already homes to the owners of the boat. Inside they are equipped with television sets, radios, and bedrooms!
Our meals at Cafe de Malee... Some tuna for me, which turned out to be canned tuna sauteed in some kind of sauce:
And D making the right choice with his Pad Thai:
A jeep-full of child monks passed by while crossing the road to our hotel. They were very cute in their bright orange robes.
After a good mid-afternoon rest, we proceeded to climb Phousy Hill. Phousy Hill or Mount Phu Si is a 100-meter high hill which is right in the center of Luang Prabang. It was only a few minutes walk from our hotel.
Of course we had to climb the 340 steps up the hill!
A painted sign on one of the posts said 190 more steps up!
The sun was just about to set, so we were just in time!
The area up in Phousy was very crowded with tourists already. It wasn't a surprise to see so many people since the view on top was magnificent! It provided everyone a panoramic view of beautiful Luang Prabang and its surrounding mountains.
We witnessed another beautiful sunset.
:)
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