Jan 14 – This was our day of introduction to Luang Prabang. Jon and I got up before the kids and went for an early morning run. Although we don’t do it enough on this trip, we find that it is one of the best ways for us to orient ourselves to a new city – covers more ground more quickly than walking, but is still slower than any wheeled mode of transport and allows for plenty of stops to check out sites along the way! We were quite the spectacle as we ran in “rush-hour” traffic towards town, dodging kids on bikes, entire families on motorcycles, dogs that were either sleeping soundly or possibly dead lying in the dirt, and trucks laden with food and supplies. After breakfast at the hotel, the six of us hopped on 4 bikes (Maggie and Viv straddling the padded seats on the back of the bikes) and biked around town. We didn’t really have an agenda, other than that we were supposed to find a place to have dinner with the Cox family from Chile. These were our friends we had met in Chiang Mai, and were reuniting with here in Laos. Our bike trip took us across the river on a bike/motorbike/pedestrian only bridge, where we located a really cool restaurant for dinner that night.
The Dyen Sabai restaurant was across the river, requiring a crossing via a narrow bamboo bridge, and then climbing up several flights of steps on the other bank. There were several dining cabanas and ours was closest to the river, suspended on stilts high on the bank, nestled in the trees. We sat on pillows along the floor and enjoyed a huge meal of several local dishes, including the ubiquitous sticky rice, a stew of buffalo called Lam, a fondue cooked at the table, and Mekong river fish cooked in banana leaves. The kids played Jenga and talked about travel as we waited for dinner. We will write in more detail about this wonderful family, but for now, it is important to point out that meeting them has been such a blessing, and a definite highlight for all of us.
Jan 15 – One of the highly recommended experiences in Luang Prabang is getting up early to observe Monks receive alms. As I mentioned in my Chiang Mai post, the monks only eat breakfast and lunch, and they only eat what they ware given during their morning walk, where they receive alms from the people. When I mentioned the night before that I was getting up to do this, both David and Molly were the only two volunteers to join me. We woke up at 5 am, dressed quickly, slipped on our headlamps, and as quietly as possible, pedaled away from our guesthouse on the borrowed bikes. About a quarter of a mile from the hotel, Molly’s chain slipped off, and jammed. We broke a few sticks and completely blackened our hands trying to right it, but finally gave up and ran back to the guesthouse for a replacement bike. By the time we had rode the 1.5 miles into town, the monks were already filing along, as people knelt on grass mats and gave them food and others stood by snapping photos in the gray light of morning. A woman raced out to me with a basket, saying 20 Kip (20,000 kip, or about $2.50). Having no other ideas, I went ahead and agreed to the deal, we hastily parked our bikes, and she was shoving 3 baskets at David and Molly and me. I refused mine, as my hands were completely black with chain grease, and the giving of the alms requires you to bunch up wads of sticky rice in your bare hands and place them in the monks’ baskets! I snapped some photos of David and Molly, then we reluctantly paid the women for the 3 baskets (as she was insisting we took 3, which we didn’t), and finally we caught our breath and let our pulses return to normal over some tea, coffee and hot chocolate at a nearby cafe.
We returned to the hotel, woke up the slug-a-beds, and grabbed a quick breakfast before heading out for our Mekong River Cruise, which we had booked with the Cox family. The cruise was an all-day affair, where we glided gently along in an old ‘Banana Boat’. We were so grateful for the sun’s warmth as the day wore on, as the day started out very crisp! Our first stop took us to the Pak Ou Caves (popularly known as the Buddha Caves), where we climbed out of the boat and shuffled up a steep staircase into the very crowded lower caves. There were thousands of buddha statues, candles, and other offerings left by worshippers and visitors. We also climbed the stairs to the upper caves, which was great exercise, and slightly less crowded. The next stop along the river was the very touristy and rather sad, in my opinion, Whiskey Village. Basically, tourists file off their boats in droves, and follow a narrow single track up the bank where they are greeted by a whiskey salesman with small jars of alcohol filled with snakes, bugs and spiders, to flavor the whiskey. They offer tastes, which Jon accepted. You continue on amongst dozens of stalls of women, men and children desperately trying to get you to buy a scarf or other handicraft for any price. Along the way, there is a small, ornately decorated temple, and then you continue along another gauntlet of stalls where the boat picks you up slightly up river. The trip back to Luang Prabang went quickly, as we were no traveling with the current, and we were also happily enjoying a tasty hot lunch and cold beers on board.
Jan 16 – Today was the day that the Cox family was leaving, so we had made plans to meet them for lunch after doing homework and travel-planning all morning. Around noon, we headed out on our bikes and rode to their hotel. As we waited, Sophia and Teri walked into the hotel and told us that their parents had gone to meet us already. Although this wasn’t the plan we had originally set, we decided to try to find them. Luang Prabang wasn’t all that big, and we had bicycles. Now we were eight people on four bicycles as Teri and Sophia had joined us in the hunt. The rest of this convoluted ‘lost in translation’ story is detailed in David’s post, if you are interested. After lunch, Maggie and I had our haircut at Mimi’s hair place. Maggie’s was cute, but mine was “eh” so later that night I tried to thin it out and layer it myself. The front is now lopsided and and I’m not sure what the back looks like! We also hunted around and found a bakery called Joma, which would bake a carrot cake for her! Afterwards, we had a great evening of assisting local students and monks with their English-speaking skills at Big Brother Mouse. We had read so much about this place, and it was fun to finally have the chance to visit. A really ‘easy’ volunteer opportunity that was completely rewarding!
