The adventures just keep coming on this trip! We had the opportunity to fly Laos Airlines on this leg … we showed up early to the airport and I asked for exit row seats. The young man said he gave them to us, I thanked him, and then didn’t look at the boarding pass again until we were at the gate. When we got to the gate I realized we were seated in Row 1. Haha. That’s exit row … however, when I looked out at the aircraft, I noticed it was a two-engine propeller plane. When we went to board everyone entered from the rear of the aircraft — so, although we had the front seats, we were actually at the “back” of the aircraft–pretty funny. Oh, and here’s a shot of my nice snack on-board.
It worked out, the wait through customs was not long and we were soon on our way to the hotel. I know you can’t tell by the picture below, but we were headed in the right direction!
We had another early start the next day–our guide wanted us to climb up to the temple in the center of town early to avoid the crowds … it was a great decision.
If I remember correctly, there were around 360 steps to get to the top of the mountain.
It was a beautiful walk up and the views were great. When we were at the top, we noticed one of the vendors was selling little birds in a cage for you to release (for luck they said). It seemed really sad … we couldn’t decide if we wanted to release some or if we were making it worse for the birds by participating. In the end we decided to release some … they were just some cute little birds. Oh well …
Here is one of the release videos … the little guys weren’t that successful in launching themselves! 🙂
Here’s one of my little birds after release … I’m not sure he looks that happy. Lol.
We toured a couple of more temples…so many and so much glitz! These were some of the more brilliant, glittering temples we had seen.
This Buddha is made from Jade.
Our tour originally was to visit the weaving villages, but as you may have surmised in your reading of my blog, we don’t like visiting the village people. So, we opted to visit a waterfall instead … it was a beautiful locale and was an awesome finish for the day.
We topped this awesome day with a nice Laos food option: Mexican. Haha. We found this place on Google maps and walked over for a change of food pace. A couple of margaritas and a plate of fajitas later and we were happy. There was a nice Australian lady running this local restaurant. There were also 5 people there besides us–three ladies from Arnprior (Ontario) and two from Quebec!
The next post will be about some bike riding!
Stumblingpiper
Hi James & Deb,
It’s Sunday morning in Toronto and I’ve just made myself a French Press Vietnamese coffee ……hmmm, so good….
Our bodies are still out of whack with jetlag – it’s been brutal trying to recover – but I think we’re almost there. We’ve been enjoying your blog and living vicariously through your travels. Expect you’re settled into Chiang Mai now?
We enjoyed our time in Siem Riep – turned out that the Brits were staying in the same hotel and we kept running into other cruisers as we wandered the markets. Your pictures of the Temples are outstanding – mine pale in comparison, so I am showing off yours to folks who haven’t a clue about Angkor Wat, etc.
Snow hasn’t hit Toronto yet – but Collingwood is happy – they’ve opened the ski hills. We’re not yet in the Christmas spirit – but have enjoyed a few parties and get togethers.
It was great fun getting to know you and it’s good to be able to follow your experiences.
Best, DJ & Lance
Those temples and the waterfall are beautiful! Those birds are probably pissed because they probably keep getting caught & then released again, poor things!