We made another stop at a roadside stall selling Somchai's favorite noodles in the whole world. It's amazing that he hadn't been there in many years, but the old lady stirring the big vats of noodles is still in the same spot in the road, and they still taste great. We then visited the Royal Palace, of course, which wasn't exactly Versailles. It was built around 1900, and the royal family lived there until the Communists took over in 1975, whereupon they were moved to prison camps and died there. The interior of the palace is fairly depressing, small pokey rooms with some pretty standard furnishings. Some of the rooms look like the All in the Family set, where Archie and Edith used to bicker all day long. The temple on the grounds is actually nicer, and is a good example of a Lao temple. As you can see, the distinguishing feature of a Lao temple is the elaborate, multi tier roof, which is much more deeply sloping than in other countries, often sloping almost to the ground.