Luang Prabang, round 2 (The one with pictures)

     Our new hotel in Luang Prabang was a step up from the cramped quarters of the first time, with an amazing hot shower and place enough to put our bags down and walk around.  The doors didn't lock, but we were the only guests and the staff had a spare key anyways.  The door to the balcony didn't even close properly, but it looked out on the same river as before and that was only a problem when we needed the aircon.

     The three of us were filthy and exhausted from the trip and only went out to cross the river and look for the pizza restaurant.  The restaurant was in somebody's backyard, with an oven at one side and a cluster of tiki torches at the other.  There were only three or four tables and one veggie option but two pizzas were perfect for us and they were delicious.

      Unable to sleep, my mom researched elephants.  The mahouts had told us that, contrary to popular belief, elephants only have a memory of two or three minutes but now we hypothesize that they only say that because if the don't pay attention he/she will stop walking and start looking for bamboo.  But come on--it's completely unrelated to memory: if you had a chance to stop hauling trees around and grab a snack wouldn't you take it?  In structure and complexity, elephants' brains are similar to humans', and they are among the most intelligent animals (up there with cetaceans and primates).  Elephants are very altruistic, one account telling of how an elephant refused to lower a log into a pit until the dog, until then unseen, had been lifted out and got out of danger.  
     They will self-medicate, chewing the leaves of a certain tree to induce labor (kenyan women do the same thing).
     In the wild, the whole family will stay together for life and though the elephant center probably doesn't have much of a choice it is amazingly cruel to separate a mother and baby pair after three years.  Bonds between elephants are formed for life.  See the heartbreaking story of Tina (Elephant society section).
     The next morning, after cheese sandwiches at the hotel, we walked to the old royal palace.  Built in 1904 for King Sisavang Vong and his family it was converted to a museum in 1975 when communists overthrew the monarchy.  The walls in many rooms are covered in Japanese glass mosaics.  No pictures were allowed, but you can see some here.  The style is unique because the whole wall isn't tiled; just the figures in mirrored glass on a red background.  Many of the scenes were either bizarre, surreal, or violent, depicting horses with elephant trunks and  tusks and numerous beheaded people.  Some seem to have taken off their heads with their own sword but that's probably a misinterpretation.  
     The royal bedrooms were spartan and huge.  The large beds were dwarfed by the twenty-five-foot ceilings and even longer width, and apart from the bed the room was only filled with a large armoire, an electric fan, and a misshapen portrait.  Maybe the ceilings were to keep the room cool or maybe for grandness, but if the latter it was not effective.

                                    

  In the hallways there were drawings from a Buddhist legend of a prince who was exiled.  He was  hardly a sympathetic character despite (we think) being Buddha's last incarnationwe think) beingBuddhas last incarnation and getting the happy ending of returning to his kingdom and ruling, as he tried to sell his children to a corrupt Brahman.  His mother, upon finding that she was to be the mother of Buddha, got ten wishes form the gods and one of them was for 'Eyebrows as blue as a bumblee's wings'.  I feeling like I'm missing something here... I didn't even know bumblebees had blue wings.  

     The room with the floating Buddha was almost as opulently decorated as the Buddhas in the royal palace in Phnom Penh and the cathedral of the most expensive Virgin Mary in Bolivia.  Horrifyingly, four pairs of elephant tusks in varying sizes made a sort of aisle up to the Buddha.

 

     After a short break back at the hotel room we went out looking for a book exchange and lunch.  Lunch was first, at a restaurant called the Big Tree.  I was having a down day and looking for something really tasty, but the soup was disappointing.  What's new.  
      The points where there is a risk of being splashed with cold water loud music plays as a warning and we were able to avoid it, but then there's the downside of the loud music.  The library/restaurant had only two bookshelves of English non-guidebook books but we managed to find a couple to buy and a couple to put in the library list when we get home.  The coconut chocolate milkshake was tempting, but when we were done browsing we walked to the night market.  
 
       The nightmarket is a little overwhelming and, though it fills only a couple blocks, felt endless.  We only meandered down one of the two aisles the first night before breezing through the food market, ignoring the meat, and picking up some fruit.  On our way home we looked for a milkshake place but the one we had in mind was closed and we decided to go home and eat fruit rather than look for a new one.  As soon as we made it back we decided that milkshakes would really just hit the spot and we set out gain.  Now milkshakes, but we sat down and ordered icecream before deciding that it was a crazy price for one scoop and turning around to go home. 
      The hotel was out of cheese sandwiches the next morning so I settled for the far-less-tasty egg sandwich.  My parents went out and about for bus tickets or to a bank or something in the morning, and we didn't eat lunch so we could have an early dinner at the veggie buffet in the night market.  I wanted to try everything, but all too soon my plate was filled.  Some of the spices on different dishes tasted almost identical, but it was by far the best meal in a long time.
 
     When we were done we walked down the second half of the market, but spent less time there because of the winged insects that swarmed the lamps, landed on our faces, and crawled down our shirts.  
        I've been trying off and on to get the pictures to upload without success, so when we get to Chiang Rai tomorrow I'll update this post with them in their correct places.  Bye bye, Lao!