Today we slept in and still felt dead tired when we got up. Our bodies know that the cycling is over and they want some recovery time. Our room has satellite TV and air conditioning, so we enjoyed catching up on the political news in the U.S. on CNN and even (gasp) watched a movie. And still, my quads were stiff and felt like big weights to carry around when we finally went out.

We went first to see Wat Xieng Thong, which is supposed to be the most stunning wat in town. By the time we got ourselves out it was mid-day, so it was almost too bright to look at the outside of the beautiful buildings, let alone endure the heat. We’ve grown accustomed to the heat for biking, but walking is another story. You don’t get a built-in breeze while you’re walking around.


The wat is built in a different style than others we’ve seen down south, with less of the gaudiness and more subtle earth tones with gold highlights. We read that the roofs swoop down lower in the Louang Prabang style, and it does look elegant.

After lunch we went to the Royal Palace Museum. It was formerly the palace of the King and Queen, built by the French during colonial times. Much has been left as it was when they lived there (they were killed off by the communist government in a cave prison after the revolution, but that’s another story). There is one room with gifts from different countries to the Royal family. There are beautiful and ornate gifts from around the world. In the glass case with gifts from the U.S. there are blocky plaques, a pen set, and a plastic model of the Apollo space craft. No pictures were allowed inside, so we can’t show you any of the many hundreds of little Buddha statues they’ve collected from around the country.

The new wat on the Palace Museum grounds.