Luang Pra’baaaynngg

I think that last time I posted I mentioned that we are now in northern Laos in a town called Luang Prabang. Now, all three of those a’s are long, but I have to admit that I’m having a great time calling it Luang Pra-baaang, and giving it a good American twang. It’s just too fun a name.

It’s also turning out to be a pretty fun city. Although I still maintain that it’s a tourist trap, I can now understand why. In Laos you really can’t walk a block without running into at least one temple. Now, this makes sense considering that every boy in the country has to ordain as a monk for at least a couple of days, but Luang Prabang seems to have gotten more than its fair share. One reason for that is that is that it’s a former capital. And really here the temples are quite spectacular and elaborate. Each is painted carefully in gold leaf so that it shines in the sun. The town is also full of monks, and one of my favorite sights was when monk school went on lunch break and all of the boy monks were going somewhere for lunch in their orange or brown robes, there were many who had matching umbrellas (one must realize that umbrellas are used all over Asia to protect from the sun. Actually, the root of the word has shade, ombre in Latin, in it, so that was its original purpose). It looked almost like a parade down the street. Luckily I was able to snap a pic (though not with my digital so I can’t show it here yet).

So, yesterday we spent the day exploring the town and its many wats (temples) on foot. We ended the evening with a traditional Lao dance performance (which was even free, yay!). In other words we took it pretty easy. Today on the other hand was adventure day. Yesterday evening own of the boys about our age who works at our hotel offered, after we were complaining about too many tourists, to take us to see his home village where hardly any outsiders ever go/have been. We took him up on the offer, and took an hour-long tuk tuk (a pickup with benches and a tarp roof in the back) ride out to his town.

We stopped in the middle of a dirt road and my first reaction was “so where’s the village?” I hadn’t noticed that there was a tiny dirt path leading off the side of the road. We hopped out, crossed over the Mekong River on a rather rickety bridge that he explained was rebuilt every year because it was always washed away during the rainy season. A short fifteen minutes we arrived at the first village (not his). We found them in the middle of reconstructing their town temple. We had come to see the school, but they had just had a big test yesterday so were not in session. We found the headmaster though, and gave him some exercise books, pens, and pencils for the students. We also, of course, paused for a photo op with the kids. Then it was across the river on a boat about the size of a two person kayak (there were seven of us in it at the time) to his village. We stopped at his brother’s house (his former house) for tea, then continued on to the rice paddies. We walked all across the fields their and it was one of the most amazing sights that I have seen in my recent memory. We wound our way along the walls of the paddies, and ended up at a river that we had to ford. One of our travelling companions is not so confident about her balance, and had a hard time on the thin mud walls. She had had enough by the time we got to the river, and was not looking forward to the prospects of crossing it on a half submerged dam. But we all worked together to get everybody across. I keep telling her it was a growing experience, but maybe that’s just the American in me talking. I had a blast.

On Friday we’re off to Thailand via speedboat (six hours on a small bench in front of a roaring motor, whooo fun!), so I’ll end with a few general observations about Laos. First, I really like the relaxed pace of life! It’s really a nice change (with perhaps the exception of slow food). Second, I don’t know that I’ve met a friendlier people (not to overgeneralize now). I think it has to do with their greeting, sa-baii-di! You just can’t say that last ‘di’ without smiling. Such good planning on their part! :o)