Advertisement
Published: February 15th 2007
Edit Blog Post
So, Jesse & I have settled down at a great little guesthouse along the Mekong where we are slowly getting to know the family & even watched a bit of Animal Planet with an uncle last night. An entirely romantic Valentine's Day, mating strategies on TV & Uncle translating the Thai...pretty funny! As for LP...I just love it here. The city is filled with swirling monk colors of orange & yellow & sparkling light illuminating the reds, yellows, greens & blues of the Night Market wares. If you wake up early enough, you can watch the monks--about 1,800 of them--emerge from their wats at dawn & walk the Saffron Circuit. They leave their monasteries & head out in lines to collect alms of rice, fruits & much more. I've still really yet to see locals give alms--rather the women seem to just capitilize on selling goods to tourists. I suppose a fair trade compensating for the wazungus & Korean camera crews chasing after the processional shoving cameras in the monks' faces. I later learned from my novice monk friend, Bone, that today the locals of LP don't so much participate, rather it really is more just the tourists that give alms.
Good or bad...the times are changing. Nonetheless, it a beautiful sight.
LP is also full of numerous ornate wats and a very peaceful, relaxing ambience that flows from the people, which I credit to the strong presence of monks, temples & otherwise devotion to a peace-loving religion. And then there is the Night Market. An explosion of colors & commerce. Row after row after row of shopping paradise for tourists. I'll admit to have indulged a time or two, but it just can't be helped. I'm no longer allowed to bring money out when I walk through the market at night...too much of a wallet drain! At sunset you can even hike to the top of Mt. Phousi for spectacular views of the city & more temples to explore. Stunning & even though, littered with lots of tourists, a very pleasant way to end your last hours of sunlight. At the top I even found a rather larger, happy Buddha that I just couldn't resist taking a picture of.
Juxaposed with all the serenity of the monks, the temples & commerce of the market is the everyday life of the city. I got a fairly good taste of
the "real" LP yesterday while wandering around trying to find the Ministry of Education to see if I could volunteer teach for a few days. Needless to say I never found it, but I think I got to take a glimpse at what LP used to be a few years ago before being discovered as a sightseeing jewel--incredibly friendly locals calling hellos, the trading of goods, passing of cargo trucks, but of course, all this serenity ends quickly as a jetliner flys overhead.
So far I passed four days in LP & could stay much longer if needed. Walking about I met a young 18 year old monk and asked him if he would show me around. Of course he did & Jesse & I got quite an afternoon of entertainment. Bone & his roommate, Phew, took us into their room in the monastery & chatted away. Bone spoke English rather well & explained to us that being a novice monk (apparently you become true monks after the age of 20) was basically a way to receive an education. There are no schools in his village, so joining affords him the ability to learn core subjects & English. Basically
his day consists of collecting alms at dawn, school from 7:30 to 11:30 & then the rest of the afternoon he gets to indulge in sleeping (his favorite), listening to his MP3 player or even using the Internet. Definitely sat next to him the morning I met him as he surfed around emailing his friends. It's funny & peculiar, yet very, very normal. We asked him all sorts of questions about his life & like most high school kids, he preferred to talk more about music & pop culture. Their walls where filled with posters of trucks, cars, men & women & at one point he brought out a CD of American love songs & we got to listen to Celine Dione sings "Because you loved me." I, of course, sang right along with Bone as Jesse sat there laughing his head off.
Eventually we all went across the river to see a cave that was used as a hideout during the US bombing of Lao & Vietnam. The caverns were endless & you can almost imagine villagers & city folks huddled together, deep underground in safety. We parted our ways late that afternoon & I do plan on
stopping by again to hang out with Bone before I take off. He's made my LP experience complete. That evening I finally got a hang out with a girl--lots of male travelers & females in couples, but solo girls are a bit hard to find in Laos. Of course there were 10 other guys in tow, but needless to say, Louise, from Canada & I had quite a good time chatting & even bowling at the LP bowling alley. The ONLY place in town that stays open past curfew. Curfew of 12 AM that is. Apparently a few years ago it used to be 9 PM. Can you imagine??? Tomorrow Jesse & I are off to the Elephant Festival in Hongsa for two days of (hopefully) enjoyable sights & sounds. There is really nowhere to stay in Hongsa, so sleeping accomodations should be interesting. The travel agencies in town reassured me that government would provide alternative housing. Um, the roads aren't even paved in Laos. Alternative housing for a two day festival...right. 😊 We'll see! www.elefantasia.org/docs/festival
Advertisement
Tot: 0.047s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 9; qc: 25; dbt: 0.0262s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb