Day 6 - 8:Luang Prabang Early to rise again for breakfast - pretty much an American breakfast - eggs, toast and fruit. Then we were off to the Lao king's palace - beautiful place with lots of historic artifacts. The last Lao king was killed in an American air strike during the Vietnam War or as they say here, the “American War”. That was the end of the kings for Laos. They now have a communist government.
Temple at the Laos king's place compound
It was always shoes off before entering a building
A temple guide who didn't speak English
The afternoon was a FREE afternoon for walking around on our own (for me catching up on Internet emails and the journal).
My free afternoon proved to be a wonderful experience. I stopped by a Wat (temple) and one of the monks came up and asked how I would use the word "approach" in a sentence. Then he invited me to his room to see his English books – that turned into a “white board” lesson.It turned out he was the English teacher at the monastery – his difficulty was pronunciation.When we returned, a couple of other monks came up – soon others followed and we had a group English class. I was really a lot of fun - we would go through their English book and I would point out words and ask them to use the word in a sentence. They were all between 15 and 20-something and had been in the monastery for anywhere from 6 months to 9 years - most were novices but the one who was there nine years had become a monk. He asked for my email address and asked if he could practice his English with me via the Internet. Sounds like fun.I wonder if he will ever contact me. He didn't.
English 101 class - Teacher on the left
Me and my English students
The monks invited me back to the Wat for evening prayers at 5pm – I returned at 5pm only to find that the prayers had been canceled by the abbot – the monks were pretty embarrassed that I came back (they didn’t think I would return) and found nothing at the monetary.So it was then off to the night bazaar and a late dinner. Another great day in Luang Prabang. The morning started off with a ride to a monastery where the monks did their morning alms walk. The monks get all their food for their daily meal from the morning alms walk.Unfortunately, their alms walk had become a major tourist attraction with tourist busses driving up and unloading scores of people who were all taking photos and trying to get into position to make an offering.Lao women were also lined up selling “sticky” rice so we could give it to the monks.It was almost like a zoo – buying food to feed the animals. Following that we all stopped by for the "best" coffee in Laos, which is famous for its coffee.
Food donations for the monks - photo by Bob
A beautiful spot for a swim
The sound of rushing water everywhere
That afternoon the group headed for the Kuang Sii waterfalls, which were a series of cascading falls with a glowing light blue color.
On the return trip we stopped at a hill tribe village of Hmong people. The poverty is just terrible. Everyone living in grass huts with dirt floors. The Hmong women seem to do all of the work and support the family with their needlework. I ended up buying a couple more things just because they seemed to need the money so bad.
Man chanting to the spirit of his father/grandfather
Hmong needlework for sale
A young staff member of the needlework stand
While we were in the village I came upon a man going through a ritual of calling the spirits of his father and grandfather. Apparently things were not going well in with his family and he wanted to know if they were angry with him. Quite a sight. The man was bouncing on a board being held by a young man.
At night several of us went to a "hot pot" Lao cafe were we cooked our food over and open charcoal pot in the middle of the table. The food was good and it was fun to prepare it. One of the challenges of traveling in Asia and staying in contact with family and friends (or writing a journal) is finding an Internet café - most Internet spots are not cafes but store fronts filled with computers. Usually the places are filled with kids playing games. Some of the Internet connections were very slow or intermittent – forcing me to start over again and again. I learned that the solution to bad service was to look where the kids were playing and use that site – the kids know where the good connections are. Day 7 was spent on a road trip over the mountains from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng was beautiful even if we were going over the mountains on some pretty narrow roads. Along the way we stopped at a Hmong village - very poor people. The women appear to be the primary income source -- making needle work for the tourists. The needle work is very nice (last thing I need) but felt obligated to buy something to help them - I did not bargain - just paid them what they wanted, which was always very cheap.
Guide with needle work
Kids waiting for tourists at the truck stop
The best thing for begging kids is to give them food
The drive took us through very high mountains - so high that the pressure started popping the potato chip bags. At a rest stop we were approached by a group of Hmong kids all asking for a handout. I bought two trays of fruit -- rather then letting me hand it out, on of the big kids grabbed both packages and ran away leaving the small ones crying in the dust -- lesson learned.
Young girls selling crafts
We stayed at the rest stop longer then expected because an accident was reported on the road ahead.When we finally started off again, we came across the accident – a gasoline tanker turned on its side almost blocking the two lane road.With the smell of gas filling the air, we slowly passed the tanker hoping that none of the spectators lit up a cigarette. The remainder of the ride took us over the mountains and through sparsely settled rural areas.We did see a number of villages with public water supplies supplied by an Australian aid agency – a stenciled notice in English gave the credit to the aid agency.With signs in English, you wonder if the Lao people knew where their water came from or even where Australia is.Water in Laos is a precious resource and getting it is a challenge for every village so help from aid agencies is a life saver.During the entire trip, the GAP group drank only bottled water……or beer.
