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Tak Bat in Luang Phabang
The monks file past in complete silence, collecting a mouthful each of sticky rice from each of the faitful. Yesterday morning we got a rude awakening at 5.30am...Well, not
quite...since we had set the alarm for this ungodly hour. Ungodly being the worst choice of words as you will see, but I can't be bothered to find another one !
Every morning at dawn, throughout the year, residents of Luang Phabang perform the ceremony of
tak bat, or the giving of alms to monks. In complete silence, residents lay a small mat outside their house or shop, and wait...then, in the distance dozens upon dozens of orange-robed figures appear. The monks walk through the centre of town and each collects a small amount of sticky rice (the staple here in Laos) or other food in his alms bowl from each member of the faithful. This is the only food the monks will have to eat all day - the ceremony has huge importance to the residents here and foreigners are only allowed to watch under stringent conditions: no shorts or short sleeves, no making sound, standing well away. In a way it comforting to see that the town's people take this ceremony so seriously. I was in two minds about taking photographs of this beautiful event, but decided the
Giving of Alms
Another glimpse of this beautiful ceremony, a important part of life in this town. photos would make an interesting addition to the blog. The sight of hundreds of barefoot monks walking silently through the still-sleepy town was quite overwhelming. Have a look at the pictures (sorry for the blurring - looks arty but was due to slow shutter since I had disabled the flash)...
That afternoon we took a half day trip to the Caves at Pak Ou, some two hours upstream of Luang Phabang, where the Pak Ou Rover (of which more later) joins the Mekong. The caves here are used as "graveyards" for unwanted statues of the Buddha, as these cannot be thrown away. We chartered a little motor boat at the foot of Wat Xieng Thong in Luang Phabang. Our driver was (yet another) a wonderful, friendly Lao. The scenery on the way was extraordinary - once again a few pictures will speak a thousand words. The caves were quite small and quickly seen, but were very atmospheric, filled as they were with thousands upon thousands of Buddha statues - wood, metals and stone. We got wonderful glimpses of riverside life - children frolicking in the water of the Mekong, water buffalo grazing on the banks, villagers fishing for catfish...
And this morning we set off for a day of kayaking on the Nam Ou River, but much further north than its confluence with the Mekong. We and another British couple set off from Luang Phabang at 9am on the trip, organised by an excellent Eco-Friendly adventure travel set-up going by the name of Green Discovery Laos. After a two hour drive north of Luang Phabang (lengthened considerably by a bit of toing and froing looking for a petrol station that hadn't run out...how on Earth do you get petrol to a place like this ?) we set up our equipment - semi-inflatable kayaks, paddles, lifejackets, crash helmets...yes, for the Nam Ou is rich in rapids...
Thankfully for us beginners these were all category 1 and 2 (Beginner level), but we had a exciting time navigating our way through at least 6 sets of rapids during a four-hour kayak back downstream. We got thoroughly soaked going through them - during the second half of the trip we just gave up trying to stay dry and jumped right in fully clothed during quiet sections. Our guides, Yai and Sang ("Big" and "Elephant" respectively !) were fantastic - there prepared
Fill 'er up !
Topping up the tank at a floating petrol station on the Mekong. A bizarre sight ! Do boats take unleaded ? us a wonderful lunch on the riverbank in the middle of the trip, and regaled us with Lao jokes and funny stories, which, translated into English, nobody understood. We laughed nonetheless, not wanting to upset them !
It would have taken over 72 hours to paddle all the way back to Luang Phabang...so we landed, packed our kayaks back onto the tuk-tuk...barely a mile into the trip home the engine began to splutter and cough. Then silence. Cue much head scratching and tinkering with the engine (with lit cigarette in mouth - luvverly), as the sky darkened around us, threatening torrential rain...we pushed the tuk-tuk into the nearest village, where a passing Toyota (wow ! a proper car...) offered to tow us. Fine. Except there wasn't any rope...so the driver decided we would use a bit of tree as a tow-rope. See the photo for yourself. It worked, but was a scary ride home. It started to bucket down - not that it mattered since we were all soaked anyway. We got into Luang Phabang two hours behind schedule, tired, wet and actually quite cold. Nothing like a warm shower, a cool Beer Lao and a steaming bowl of
Playtime !
Children frolicking on the banks of the Mekong. Seconds later a naughty one hiding beneath the surface thought it might be funny to splash me with water. I thwarted him thanks to our wonderful splashproof camera... rice noodles to make us feel better !
What a day...
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