The Lao people definitely dig their seven headed Nagas (a mythical Hindu serpent that was co-opted by Buddhism) ... even more than the Thais. Some Lao believe that they are descended from these babies!

Snarl.

Super cute kitty cat hanging out at this temple that towers over Luang Prabang on top of this big hill right in the middle of downtown (what a waste of real estate those big hills -- just kidding!). You know I was all hugging it and petting it and picking up tape worms and ring worm (which is actually a fungal disease, not a worm, as I learned the first time I visited in Thailand in 1999 and couldn't keep my hands off all the stray doggies and kitties ... my friend and I named it "Ringo" and it looked, after awhile, much like a pepperoni pizza. It was on my right thigh in case you were dying to know, which I know you were).

The setting sun from atop LP's highest temple ...

The Luang Prabang suburbs. I jest not. This is literally the view across the river.

River traffic.

Just your general Laos gorgeousness. Wait, I think that's my boat! Hey!

Wow that was a really dorky comment. Guess I'm running out of things to write. Ha! As if.

A very blurry photo of a very cool moment ... we took a two hour boat ride (with plenty of little stops at villages that churn out piles of tourist tchotchokes) to this temple that's housed in a cave. Actually two caves, this is the lower one, the higher one is ... really frickin' high. Love them stairs!

Anyway, inside of each of the caves are hundreds ... nay thousands of Buddha statues (with a good number of Hindu and animist ones thrown in for good measure). Just as we were leaving, a Japanese tour group started having a service at the lower cave, led by their own Japanese Buddhist monk that they brought with them. If you squint you can see them praying and the monk in front in red ... they were peacefully chanting when we left and it gave the whole place a much needed air of ... reality. Because it's nice to be reminded that this isn't there just for us to snap photos of ... it's a functioning temple and means a lot to some of the people (Lao people and other Buddhists) who visit it. Which is why I get really irritated when I see Buddha heads and statues snatched from temples in SE Asia in Western museums. They're not relics of a bygone era ... you just snatched their Jesus on a cross for ... Buddha's Sake!

Bookends! Nancy and I in the boat on our way back from the cave of a zillion Buddhas.

Preserve your memories, they're all that's left you!

I'm not going to lie, I became slightly obsessed with shutters during our stay in LP. There is no way that whoever lives here appreciated the super cool shutters their house has been blessed with so they should let me live there instead. They can have our apartment in Bangkok. Won't Nancy be surprised!

My new house. It was an impulse buy, what can I say.

We couldn't get any locals to pose with one of us so we just pasted this photo of Nancy onto a postcard. HAHAHA! No not really. She is very tired of being followed by me and the camera at the point and is baring her teeth for all the wrong reasons.

I don't know whether to order a gin and tonic or pray!

This is a Buddhist temple in Luang Prabang that is half Lao, half colonial swank ... lovin' it. At top is a close up of a couple of guardian apsara's guarding the kind of gorgeous wooden shutters and tastefully disheveled tropical garden that you see everywhere in Luang Prabang ... drool.

Spooky gate opening up to overgrown garden and big abandoned house. I guess not everything is getting restored ... makes you wonder why they decided to give this one a miss.

Our view at lunch. All I could think was: naked monk.

Luang Prabang -- even the cars are cooler.