Posted: Aug.2010, Written: Oct.2008 Ok... Today is a great day! After the chaos of the slow boat hell for 2 days, it is good to be settled again in a small town. Luang Prabang is incredible! Walking down cobbled streets littered with cafes and bistros, admiring the French colonial architecture that dominates the main quarters of the town, it's quite easy to forget you're in Asia...that is until a Lao woman walks by selling sticky rice in woven bamboo baskets and boiled bamboo shoots reminding you, you're in Laos!
I seriously feel like I'm walking down the streets of Brussels again, but instead of cathedrals there are Buddhist temples scattered in and between the alleyways and homes. Instead of the crowds, there are only a given handful of people in any restaurant, cafe or shop at one time. Instead of cars, there are motorbikes and walking streets. Instead of cell phone chatter or yelling, there's the slapping of a ball in a preferred match of badminton or the temple's ringing bells calling the monks to their meal times. I am in heaven!
It's amazing how much colonial heritage is preserved here, and only because the Lao want to keep it that way. The Lao here are just as eager to preserve their colonial past as the French are to help them fund it. French is widely spoken still and taught in every day classes, and there doesn't seem to be any trace of hostility directed towards the French visitors. It was quite funny to bump into our French friends yesterday and to see their happy faces, that once again they can get a French baguette in the morning with jam on the side.
We spent all of yesterday, just walking. Walking along the river, stopping to talk politics quickly with a local fisherman. Walking along the Old Quarter, to sip Lao black coffee and read along the cafes sidling the streets. Walking to the temples to talk with the monks about the upcoming water festivals and the intricacies of building a 'holy barge' as an offering to Buddha. Walking along the local Hmong hill tribe markets, marveling at the handiwork and craftsmanship it takes to make one tribe's traditional pattern. In the night, we hit the bars! 2 for 1s all night every night, simply because the bars are only legally allowed to stay open until 11:30pm. After that music cuts and lights out! So where was the after party? At the local bowling alley...yes that's right, I went bowling until 2 am yesterday night and it was so much fun! Dance music with a floor to dance on, all you can possibly drink deals on beer and alcohol, a full game of bowling with 8 new friends (where I was the 2nd to the worst player on the board!) and all for a good price :)
Today we visited a Buddha cave: a cave carved out of the limestone cliffs that was once a site of holy pilgrimage when the Royal family lived in Luang Prabang. It's like a graveyard of Buddha statues, so eerie and quiet to go into the caves with minimal light. We got to hike up to the very top of the mountain (which nearly kicked my butt!) and look out over the Mekong and the valleys below. It was a whole day's excursion but worth it.
We'll stay here for another couple of days and then head South to Vang Vieng next. Now? I'm going to eat my cookies in the room, finish an awesome book I'm reading now called 'Another Quiet American' and then go to bed early. Tomorrow morning Queenie and I are waking up before dawn to prepare food for the monks. Every morning, monks walk the streets around their respective temples with alm bowls of silver in their hands. To gain good merit in this life and the next, locals come out to meet the monks to offer them foods: rice, meat, vegetables, candies...or sometimes even things they think the monks might appreciate like toothpaste, shampoo and soap.
We spent all of yesterday, just walking. Walking along the river, stopping to talk politics quickly with a local fisherman. Walking along the Old Quarter, to sip Lao black coffee and read along the cafes sidling the streets. Walking to the temples to talk with the monks about the upcoming water festivals and the intricacies of building a 'holy barge' as an offering to Buddha. Walking along the local Hmong hill tribe markets, marveling at the handiwork and craftsmanship it takes to make one tribe's traditional pattern. In the night, we hit the bars! 2 for 1s all night every night, simply because the bars are only legally allowed to stay open until 11:30pm. After that music cuts and lights out! So where was the after party? At the local bowling alley...yes that's right, I went bowling until 2 am yesterday night and it was so much fun! Dance music with a floor to dance on, all you can possibly drink deals on beer and alcohol, a full game of bowling with 8 new friends (where I was the 2nd to the worst player on the board!) and all for a good price :)
Today we visited a Buddha cave: a cave carved out of the limestone cliffs that was once a site of holy pilgrimage when the Royal family lived in Luang Prabang. It's like a graveyard of Buddha statues, so eerie and quiet to go into the caves with minimal light. We got to hike up to the very top of the mountain (which nearly kicked my butt!) and look out over the Mekong and the valleys below. It was a whole day's excursion but worth it.
We'll stay here for another couple of days and then head South to Vang Vieng next. Now? I'm going to eat my cookies in the room, finish an awesome book I'm reading now called 'Another Quiet American' and then go to bed early. Tomorrow morning Queenie and I are waking up before dawn to prepare food for the monks. Every morning, monks walk the streets around their respective temples with alm bowls of silver in their hands. To gain good merit in this life and the next, locals come out to meet the monks to offer them foods: rice, meat, vegetables, candies...or sometimes even things they think the monks might appreciate like toothpaste, shampoo and soap.
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