Having had our pizza fix the night before, it was time for the real touring to begin! We had a guide booked to bring us around the town for the morning, and then out to the really pretty Kuang Si waterfalls after lunch.

The morning was spent visiting the main temples in the town. As the former capital, this was the main religious site for many centuries, and the town’s temples reflect that. It remains the religious capital. There are several monasteries in the town, so you see monks walking around everywhere in their distinctive orange robes.

Like the region as a whole, Buddhism is by far the predominant religion. As we didn’t know much about the religion (shame on me), our guide had his work cut out for him explaining the basic tenets and rituals. He did a fantastic job. The Boy hacked it pretty well at first, but eventually got templeitis so I think we ended up getting the abridged tour. It was fascinating all the same. On one part of the tour, we had to climb up 328 steps to one particular temple that overlooks the town and the surrounding region. The Boy loved that, and the views from the top were spectacular.

The Boy is either in a deep contemplation, or he’s had enough of this:

We also got our fortunes told to us by drawing sticks in one of the temples, and our guide helpfully translated the Lao text for us. Let me just say that while the fortunes were a mixed bag, all of the July birthdays in the family came out of this very well 🙂

We had lunch at a very nice restaurant overlooking the Mekong river. You’ll be glad to know this was not another pizza place, but was mainly local dishes. Yummy!

After lunch, we drove about 30 minutes out of town to the Kuang Si waterfalls. These are spectacular. Lovely aqua-marine waters in a series of pools one after the other. You can swim in them, and many people do. We noticed though that none of the locals were, nor any of the Chinese tourists. Only the western backpackers. There’s a parasite in the water that can wreck your liver if untreated. Although the treatment is straightforward and effective, we decided to give the swim a miss.

Before we headed back, we had a quick soft drink from one of the street stalls in the village beside the falls entrance, and watched the world go by: