Last Day in Laos...

Thursday, 20 December 2007

After our full day of adventure yesterday we decided to make our last day in Luang Prabang a mellow one. There was still much to see around town, so we made a rough list of what we wanted to do.

We got up at the crack of dawn to witness the "offerings to the monks" procession that was famous in this town. Every guide book and internet posting raved about how essential this was, and, as it sounded intriguing, (if a bit early!) we decided to check it out. Little did we know at this time that we would end up being participants in the ritual!

At about 5:45 AM we quickly dressed and hurried out of our hotel as we were told that the procession started around 6 AM. There were a lot of tourists positioned, some with very expensive cameras and tripods, all geared up for the action. The morning fog was rolling in and it made for a perfectly eerie atmosphere as we watched the saffron-robed holy men slowly walk through the mist. A pestering village woman insisted that we buy some rice, fruit and packaged snacks to give to the monks. Not knowing any better we paid her a buck -- if only to get rid of this wretch. She gave us a bucket of the food and a mat to sit down on. Charles thought it would be a good way to get some photo ops but he didn't want to be the one giving alms. Luckily Laura agreed to do this.

The monks were coming in from many different wats, all at different times, but all lining up in roughly one big line. It was quite the silent scene. They wore sandals or were barefoot and did not say a word. Though they may have been from competing wats there was no pushing or shoving -- they behaved quite well -- guess that's why they are monks!

Unfortunately we were to later learn that tourists were not necessarily supposed to be involved in the offerings. In fact, there is a lot of controversy about this, at least according to wikipedia:

NOTE: The alms giving ceremony is one which, while picturesque, is not without its detractors. Unscrupulous local merchants have used the eagerness of tourists to participate in a local tradition as a means of making easy money, and sometimes sell unsuitable, stale and even unsafe food. This has resulted in monks falling ill after having consumed the offerings, and resistance to continuing the tradition. However, the government has made it clear that the monks have to continue the tourist pageant or risk being replaced with lay people clothed in saffron robes in order to keep up appearances and thereby keep the tourist dollars rolling in. So if you wish to participate in this ceremony, prepare the food or fruit yourself, and avoid giving food of unknown quality. This explains why the monks often seem to go for the "junk" packaged food. Also beware of the following "scam" locals hand out food to monks, see you and then get you to come over and "help" hand out food. Then they mob you demanding money.

Guess we blew it.

After the ceremony ended we decided to try to find a place for breakfast. Unfortunately it was so early no restaurants were open yet. Laura had read about three places, one of which was down a path of some charming cottages that looked like no tourist had been near. We walked down to a bamboo bridge and started walking across to a restaurant one of the guide books insisted was there. There was some sort of restaurant and there were some disaffected workers setting up but it didn't look like it was ready to open for some time. We headed back the way we came, still hungry but happy to have seen a part of this town that we did not know existed.

We walked back to the same street the Hive Bar and Lao Lao Garden were on to find another breakfast spot -- this one wasn't open either. We then walked down the hill back into town (with one of us getting REAL, REAL hungry) and found the third and last place Laura had read about -- a charming, former French cafe across the street from an elementary school. The restaurant was first class all the way -- obviously the French influence had made a lasting impression (either that or it was owned by a French ex-pat!). Strong coffee, tasty croissants and pain au chocolat, yogurt, fresh fruit, eggs, bacon and lots of French bread with real butter! This was the life....

While waiting for the food to be served Charles walked across the street to witness the opening ceremonies of the school. It was quite impressive to see hundreds of Lao children playing peacefully then coming to full attention as an older student started speaking into the microphone. We have no idea what he was saying but it sounded most stirring and motivating. The students stood at attention and repeated chants most likely (we'd like to imagine) calls to order for the collective good of the land and rebukes to the dangers of evil capitalism threatening their prosperity. After the chanting ended most of the students lined up to go into the school building. The ones that showed up late were made to sweep up the grounds under the watchful eyes of female instructors. (One thing we noticed about this country was how clean everything was. People would constantly be sweeping up the dust from around their shops and homes with crude, makeshift brooms).

After finishing our tasty breakfast we began our search for some other wats we'd read about. Much to our surprise, our plans were thrown off (happily so) by a novice monk who engaged us in a 2-hour long conversation as we walked past his wat about life as a monk. He told us about his Hmong family, his plans to leave the temple life to become a tour guide, and the fact that he knows about 6 languages (!). This turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip. It was totally unexpected and we learned so much from him. He took us into the main temple and explained to us all sorts of things about Buddhism and what certain objects in the temple were used for or symbolized. He even showed us his room (he had a large room to himself because at 20 years of age he was one of the older novice monks and therefore had higher status than the younger novices). We took photos with him and Charles videotaped some of our conversation which we look forward to watching. We also exchanged email addresses (yes, Lao monks have email), and hope to keep in touch with him. Our last day started out with giving alms to the monks at the crack of dawn, so it was fitting that we ended up getting to know one of the monks.

We tried to cram in as many interesting things as possible since who knows when we would be able to come back to this amazing city. After we left our monk friend we visited a few more wats (a never-ending mission!), ate lunch along the Mekong for the second time, then visited the Royal Palace. Unfortunately, while the admission price was minimal they made us take our shoes off and put them in a locker before we could enter. This was kind of strange as usually they only make you do this if you are entering a wat. Whatever, when in Rome...but the bad thing is, we had to walk 20 yards on the hot tarmac-type walkway from the ticket table to the entrance and, as it had been baking in the sun all day it was pretty damn hot! Such spoiled Westerners...
The Royal Palace (aka "Haw Kham"), was built in 1904 during the French colonial period as a residence for King Sisavang Vong and his family. The Palace itself was a mixture of French "Beau Arts" style and traditional Lao motifs. It was the Lao Royal Family's private residence until 1975, when the Communists took over and sent the Family packing for "re-education camp." Not a very educating or fun way to spend time for this family as they were (according to legend) sent to live under guard in a cave with no medical attention; eventually they died from neglect. Nice. Actually, no one is really sure what happened to them as the Communist leaders were never forthcoming with this information and, since the Royal family had no powerful allies, no one seemed to care what happened to them! Amazing. The Communists (as we would discover in Saigon later on) seemed to enjoy turning these types of places into museums for all the world to enjoy...(and to to profit from our capitalistic interest, no doubt). The Royal bedrooms were kept exactly as they were when the Family was kicked out. Also of interest were the "gifts" other countries gave. Some opulent jewelry from many obscure countries and, hilariously enough, a piece of crap model of one of the Apollo spacecrafts from the US! A nifty note from President Nixon accompanied this. So sad. Other than this there were many items of interest -- a series of murals accompanied by multi-language text depicting both traditional Lao life and the early life of Buddha. Also on the grounds was a a statue of King Sisavong Vang (see photo above), a lily pond, and a theater that had traditional Lao dance recitals. Laura was in her delight, hoping for a show that evening. Alas, we were a day late. The dance performance had passed and the next one would be in a few days.

Next up was climbing Mount Phousi with a million other tourists for the spectacular Sunset view. We chatted with a few tourists including one American girl who was traveling by herself. It was funny to see scores of tourists walking around town with a Lonely Planet guide book in front of them. Can't say we were much better! Another highlight was dinner as we found a brand-new Belgian restaurant and had a good conversation with the owner who was telling us how wonderful this city was and how fortunate he was to be able to have his own restaurant (though this country is Communist they allow foreigners to own commercial enterprises as long as a Lao citizen is co-owner). We ended our evening by shopping in the incredible night market where townspeople and villagers laid out their wares on the certain streets. There were many deals to be had for anyone interested in textiles and rare paper goods. Charles bought a traditional Lao shirt (which he hopes to one day fit in!) and we bought a few other small items but realized we still had quite a few more days left on our trip so we had to save room in our already-bulging bags!