My patience paid off, I had to search for a vantage point making an educated guess where the moon might rise over the surrounding hills. So here you have it the moon set on Friday and the full Blue Moon rise this evening. I am waiting for Iris to come back from her 7 p.m. Buddhist service. There is no Catholic mass here. I rode shotgun in the mini bus from Vangvienand got lots of good roadside shots of the magnificent scenery. The road wound through valleys and up and down mountain ridges. This is mostly Mong tribesmen country. Women carrying heavy loads in the hard whicker back baskets. Lots of Teak plantations and the clear cut pock marked mountain sides. Luang Prabang is even more romantic and idylic than the expectations I had from the travel guides; wedged as a peninsula where the Mekong forks into another branch. We rented bikes and it is a delight to see all the old colonial style buildings and Buddhist temples and monasteries. Lots of very inviting eating places along the high river bank. A lot more class and style than Vangvieng, it reminds me of places like Carmel, California or de Cote d’Azur. The hotels are dearer, we are paying $15 here.
.