Laos - Day Two

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Today was an extremely early morning as we met our group at 5:15am in the lobby of the hotel to give alms to the monks. We all got in our Tuk Tuks and headed to the temple close to the town center. It was still pretty dark when our guide Lou gave us a brief tour of the grounds of the temple and then told us what to expect and how to give alms to the monks.

We all sat on these little plastic pre-school chairs in front of the temple all lined up in a neat row. We were then all handed a basket of sticky rice that we would ball up into bite size pieces and hand to the monks as they passed by. We were not allowed to touch the monks but were allowed to take pictures once our basket was empty of sticky rice.

The sun started to rise and the monks started parading down the street. They traveled in groups of about 20 or so and we all put sticky rice into the monk's baskets as they passed by. All in all I say there were over one hundred monks we saw that morning. I was one of the first to finish my rice and backed off to the side of the street to put on my shoes and take pictures. It was an extremely peaceful and very humbling experience. I know it may sound weird, but afterwards everyone said they felt a sense of peace and calm. Our tour guide then took us back to the temple where we were all blessed by a monk.

We then headed off to breakfast that consisted of doughnuts with sweet coconut and some more long stick looking type doughnuts and some very strong coffee. They also gave us a bowl of condensed milk to tip our doughnuts in. Now I don't know if I have ever tried condensed milk before, but let me say this, where has this been all of my life. We dunked our doughnuts in the milk and it was like a sweet glaze. It was SOOOOO good that the doughnuts did not last long.

We bought these little cages that contained two birds each that you release and make a wish. I released mine by the river and Drury released his by the temple

Now it was off to the market where we were given a task by our tour guide to buy ingredients that would be cooked for our lunch. He gave Drury and I the pronunciation of some Laotion words and then our task was to get the correct ingredients by asking for them in Laotion. Drury went to a vegetable stand and said the words and the person handed him a bag of mint. We found out later that this was correct. The market had all sorts of crazy food, including whole fish, frogs, crickets, worms, the freshest vegetables and then all sorts of foods that I don't even know what they were.

We headed back to the hotel where we had a second breakfast and met up with some more people from the tour that did not want to get up that early. We all loaded onto a bus and headed for a small town about an hour outside of Luang Prabang. The town was very interesting as we met the chief and his deputy who gave us a great tour of the town and we even stopped by a school. The tour company we are traveling with is called Overseas Adventure Travel and they have a foundation called Grand Circle that helps underdeveloped towns in the places they tour. The town we were visiting was one of these that were helped by Grand Circle. The foundation helped provide water wells and concrete roads as well as school supplies for the kids.

The kids were great as they welcomed us immediately to their class and they all grabbed our hands to sit with them at their desks. We learned about the school and some of us gave gifts like pencils and coloring books to the kids. Then the kids sang us a song and we in turn sang them "I'm A Little Teapot" and "Little Bunny Foo Foo". The kids really liked "Little Bunny Foo Foo" and were trying to do the gestures with us. It was a lot of fun.

Next stop was a typical house in the village where the owner invited us in and we asked him questions about the village and his life. It was really interesting. The owner then played us a song on this musical instrument I have never seen before. The chief then took us back to his home where his wife cooked us lunch with several of the ingredients we had purchased that morning in the market. The food as always was outstanding and soon it was time to drive back to the hotel.

It was pretty hot outside so Drury and I decided to go swimming in the hotel pool and it was extremely cold but refreshing after a while. We got ready for dinner and met Margo and her mother and a French Restaurant call L'Elephant. Drury and I split the escargot and then I got a water buffalo steak. It was a lot like a buffalo stead back in the US. The four of us then headed to the night market. This is an extremely long market in the center of town that the locals do every single night. It was amazing and you could buy nearly anything.

We went back to the hotel and then headed for bed as it had been an extremely long day.

I am running about two days behind on the blog as the wifi in Luang Prabang was extremely slow. We are now in Vientiane and the wifi is much better so I should be able to catch up while we are here.

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Photos

Giving alms to the monks
Apparently these woman wake up at 4am every morning to cook sticky rice to give to the monks every day

Our first breakfast
Consisting of fried sweet coconut doughnuts and another bowl of plain doughnuts