Luang Prabang, Laos

Mandy: 15th – 22nd November

Luang Prabang is a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its outstanding cultural, historic and architectural values and its harmonious relationship between the natural and built environment. Official blurb over….. This place was a lovely surprise. We came to Laos just because we could, not because of what we had read or seen or heard about it. Glen had read about the architecture etc but we did not look at photos and so we flew in with no expectations. We could see from the air as we came down to land just how beautiful the scenery was. As we got off the ‘plane we could see mountains all around the runway. It looked like an amazing place, and it was.

Buddhism is clearly a part of everyday life there. Orange clad monks walked around town and also worked along the riverside constructing bridges we were surprised to see! But the main ‘event’ there is at 5am when they all leave the Wats and Monasteries in town. They walk along in bare feet, silently in single file past people kneeling on the pavements handing them their daily food. Giving food shows respect to the monks and as mentioned before it is called ‘Alms giving’ although why they have to do this at 5am is beyond me. We got up early one morning and walked to ‘town’ in the dark to witness this daily event. I have since read the monks actually get up at 4am to pray and meditate before they come out! Surely that’s beyond the call of duty?

We got there before it started and waited for the monks to arrive. As they appeared and collected their food for the next hour until day light I couldn’t really feel the religious or cultural poinience of the event. My OCD took over as always. I watched dozens of random people sat on the pavement with reed baskets picking out small blobs of the sticky rice and putting it into each of the monks pots as they walked by. I just thought ‘I hope they all washed their hands!’ of course they didn’t! There isn’t always water to wash your hands after going to the toilets here. The monks silently accepted each blob of rice, small packet of biscuits or tiny bananas from each person which were put directly in their container….all mixed together!!! How they would enjoy that later I could not figure! Most of them looked thin and I could understand why! (Although there was one chubby one…not sure what that was about) anyway at the end of the line there were young happy but grubby looking children and older women knelt on the pavements, hands together, heads lowered with cardboard boxes in front of them. As the monks walked past them they all put some of what they had collected in to their boxes. Apparently this is something they do. Giving something back to those who need it. That’s ok as the children looked like they needed it. But now this rice had been touched AGAIN by the monks taking it out of their pot to put it in the cardboard boxes for the children!!

One middle-aged women was sat at the end of the line around the corner with a large bowl and several carrier bags. She seemed to get most of the food given back to her. She separated it into bags, bananas in one, biscuits in the other and the blobs of cooked rice stayed in the big bowl. I couldn’t help but think she looked very much like the lady who was selling the food earlier to any tourists who wanted to join in by giving food to the monks themselves. It looked like she was sorting it ready to sell it to more tourists tomorrow! Glen said he felt sure she was from a local orphanage or simular. Who knows!

And finally….. any left overs were being fed to the local dogs (smile)

If you go down to the woods today……. Bear rescue centre near the falls.

Like I said in a previous blog, you have to put your washing in the sun to get it dry in this humid weather…no matter where that means you hang it!

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I never cease to be amazed at where they leave the food to dry here in Asia; and with so many dogs and cats on the streets in Luang Prabang I do not know how it’s not eaten before it gets a chance to dry!

When we first arrived here we saw a guy going by on crutches, he had a leg missing. Laos is the most heavily bombed country, per capita, in the world. (Fact correct as of 2008) An average of one B-52 bomb-load was dropped on Laos every eight minutes, 24 hours a day, between 1964 and 1973. (How can that be justified) When more than 580,000 bombing missions were launched by the U.S. Air Force, in a war that most of the Western world didn’t know about. As a result, more than two million tons of ordnance fell on Laos. Many of which have exploded in the years since causing such injuries and many deaths. A frightening amount still remains unexploded today.

Read more…..

http://lao-foundation.org/learn-about-laos/unexploded-ordnance-landmines/

Here are a few photos of the butchers in Luang Prabang, just for you Dad. We could have done with you here to identify some of the parts (and animals!) they were selling! Notice the butchers were mostly women.