There are a number of Budhist Temples in Luan Prabang (something like 15 -- look it up), which means there are a lot of monks, and traditionally the way they sustain themselves is with gifts of food from the local population. In Luang Prabang that process takes the form of a daily procession of monks walking along the streets of the town past lay deciples who are seated on the side of the road with various feed stuffs ranging from a pot of boiled rice to candy bars. The process is called "Alms Giving". The processing is early in the morning, around 5:30, and there for was not condusive to good photograhs.

After watching the monks for a while and getting breakfast we visited the old royal palace, which is now a museum. The last king had a small collection of American 1950-60 cars which included a Ford Edsel which are on display on the grounds of the palace.

Next on the agenda was an old house, built by a local official in the 1930s and looks like a good example of housing for affluent traditional Loa people. Following the house we visited a couple of Budhist Temples, a few photos are included, but to be honest we are a bit templed-out; so we found other things to focus on. In Nina's case the young couple in traditional dress. She could not work out whether they were having pre-wedding photos taken or whether it was a photo-shot for some kind of advertising campaign. In my case the long wooden boat which holds 52 people for what we would call dragon boat racing. Seems that some budhist monks are into competitive sport.

The highlight of the day was a visit to an establishment that makes and sells hand made paper decorations. We got a walk through of the entire process from boiling the "mulberry" bark to the finally laying out of the cellulose fibers. These three ladies produced between 40 and 60 pieces of paper (3'x2') per day. Very hard work.