the Luang Prabang capital, travel day to Vientiane, and dinner with a family (May 22)

We packed up again and set our suitcases outside the door for pick-up by our "ground crew."  Then we headed for the national capital building (and temple, always a temple) which at one time housed the family of the king. "Luang" means "capital" and "Prabang" is the name of the Buddha which is in the temple in the palace.

The palace was built in 1904 during the French Colonial era for the king and his family.  The location was chosen so that visitors to the city/palace could disembark from their river voyages right below the palace and be received there.  After the death of the king, the Crown Price Savang Vatthana and his family were the last to occupy the groups.  In 1975, the monarchy was overthrown by the communists and the royal family members were taken to re-education camps where they are belief to have died.  The palace was then converted into a national museum.

the red carpet was ready to be unfurled for the visiting ruler of another country to mark the beginning of a national sporting event

clothes fit for a king? 

we caught the tail end of a parade, probably having something to do with the national sporting event occurring later in the day

The most impressive feature of the capital building was the mosaics which covered the red walls of the throne room -- gorgeous.  Included in the musuem were artifacts given to the king by various governments, including the US.  One of our gift items was a small replica of the lunar lander (??), but our government also gave the king an Edsel which became his official vehicle.  An Edsel?  Really?  The king also had a couple of Lincoln Town Cars, a jeep, an old Citroen, and a couple of other cars.

The temple was similar to all the other temples -- lots of gold with a big gold buddha in the center of the temple portion.  As always -- our shoulders had to be covered, knees had to be covered, shoes and hats had to be taken off.

After the temple, we grabbed some lunch at a place owned by a Canadian. . . then headed to the airport for a 30 minute flight to the new capital of Vientiane, also the home of Sean, our guide.  We washed a few clothes and rested before heading out to our family dinner.

We were broken into 3 groups of 4 people each, and each group went to a different middle class family home.  We were to bring a gift for the hostess which I had forgotten about.  I scrambled and bought 4 packs of M & Ms, and wrapped up a 100% white silk scarf that I had brought along but which I had never used.  I also added a wind-up flashlight (no batteries ever required.  The flashlight also has a little radio and a connection for head phones.  It's actually quite a cool little device, and I think/hope they will like it all.

What a wonderful time!  We were picked up by the father, but it was the son and the mother who carried the party.  We were joined by OATers Cheryl and Orren at the festivities.  We helped cook our appetizer (a papaya salad), then had a delicious dinner.  They loved the gifts and the son was immensely intrigued by the light/radio which also had a cool siren on it.  After dinner, we took pictures and one of the granddaughters dressed up traditionally and performed a traditional Lao dance for us.  Then the other granddaughter sang for us.  What fun.  They were quite wealthy:  big house and gated yard, driveway, 2 vehicles, and 5 motorcycles.  The grandfather and his wife were both air traffic controllers, and the son was an airline mechanic.  They had tried to get a visa to travel to the US to visit her two brothers and a sister, but have been declined.

The son took us back to the hotel and I asked him what he had done as a child that he never told his parents about.  He really laughed and said he would often go fishing, and if he didn't catch anything, he would stop at the market and buy a fish to take home and would then show his parents the big fish he had caught.  He said they were always so proud of him, and that they still didn't know that he had bought the fish.  LOL.

The night was a total delight.