Walking home from school...

Every day we walk to and from school. It takes about 20-30 minutes and it is a welcome change from a commute back in Adelaide!

The walk from home goes along the flat up a hill, down again, then part way up another hill to the school.

This is looking up towards the school across a busy road. 

The school is a few roads back from the edge of town and for much of the walk we have lovely clear mountain views.

Luang Prabang is surrounded by mountains so the beautiful green hills are pretty much always at the end of the street which is perfect for a not really urbanite like me!

Everyone has at least a few fruit trees or plants for the kitchen. Here is a papaya tree. Concrete wall, concrete yard and still producing!

There are lovely little lanes and nooks along the way to peep down. Many afternoons we see a group of ducks returning home down this lane.

We now know all the dogs along our walk and all have our own personal favourites. We regularly say "sabaidee" to the children and old people we pass every day and some are getting to know us as  regulars which is nice. 

This picture is taken looking towards the school on the way home one afternoon. It is over someone's garden patch. You can see the afternoon storm rolling in.

After climbing up to this garden we then go down the hill past a beautiful French resort - way out of our league! 

This road is my favourite road on the walk home from school.

It is leafy green, chickens by the side of the road, beautiful wall one side, lovely flowers and trees and the other side has traditional woven houses on stilts.

At the end of this road you hit a busy cross road. You can really see the storm arriving now!

For the record, Kinyin and I had umbrellas but didn't make it home very dry! Luckily wet here isn't very cold!

We have had a few soakings here and it hasn't rained that much!

These two photos are from a different day as you can see the sunshine! 

This is the remains of a beautiful dragon boat made from bamboo and paper. It is in the yard of a house on the corner of our street. The house is huge, for rent and decaying in front of your eyes. The greenery is just taking over - as you can see from the vine which has crept across the yard to find the boat..,

On our street there is the Chinese Embassy, a dress maker who works in her open front room,  a few little front yard shops, a couple of restaurants and our guest house. A typical side street - everyone mixing daily life and business close to and on the street.

The white wall in the foreground is our guesthouse.

A different day - you can see the shadows from the bright sun!

Welcome home - thanks for walking with us!