Weaving their magic

It's important to make sure you ask for permission before taking photographs of people in Laos. Our hotel contains a 'book of words' with careful instructions as to what is polite and what is impolite in this friendly, but reserved, society. This morning we visited the Ock Pop Tok living craft centre and enjoyed watching some of the highly skilled and patient weavers at work. It was such a oasis in the city, right by the Mekong, and just a stone's throw from Luang Prabang's busiest and noisiest market, which we walked through immediately beforehand.

After a fairly hot and dusty walk to the craft centre, we treated ourselves to a ride in the centre's free (and pink) tuk tuk back to the city centre, for coffee and a bite to eat. The afternoon was fairly chilled, before we headed up Mount Phousi (along with a million other tourists) to try and catch the sunset. It was too packed for us so after I took a couple of photos of the light on the river (long before sunset), we headed down again for a couple of beers.

Today was supposed to be a fairly quiet day. Hmmm. Another 17k steps in the bag!