Laos

A quick, but not small, breakfast before the public boat ride up the Mekong River to Pak Ou Cave, or the cave with 1000 Buddhas. It is called a ferry, but actually is a long narrow boat with single seats along each side of the boat and no life jackets to be seen. All the passengers congregate above the boat ramp from 8am, and the boats leave whenever boss lady deems it time to leave. Boss lady also calls the ticket number and distributes the passengers amongst the boats. Being off peak season, each of the 4 boats were less than half full with only 6 passengers. We were fortunate to score a quiet boat. 2 single travellers, and a young French couple. It was a lovely peaceful 2 hour journey up the beautiful river. The lady from Hong Kong declared the cruise more beautiful than the cruise of Halong, Vietnam.

Pak Ou Caves had a lovely energy and we were fortunate enough to be at the caves when a group of monks were also visiting. The monks did a beautiful chant and the cave provided amazing acoustics. The cave houses Buddha statues very much like Gnomesville, Lao people take Buddha statues and place them in the caves when they visit.

After the boat ride, Ruby found a yummy coffee place called Saffron cafe that served expressos. A definite revisit tomorrow.

We then had Laotian food, which consisted of lots of wraps. You get all sorts of vegetables like mint, coriander, lettuce and water cress (grass), that you wrap the food in. For lunch we wrapped pork larb, fried spring rolls and noodles.
For dinner we had black sticky rice, that does not stick to your fingers with 3 sorts of salad papaya, mango and cucmber and Mekong fish curry.

After our usual siesta-in-airconditioning, we attended the evening chanting that occurs in every temple at 6pm. We had been listening to the chants from outside the temple the last few evenings. but being unsure of the protocol, if females or unordained were allowed to attend, we did not go into the temple. We asked a Laotian lady who was praying at a shrine of the temple, and she confirmed that we could attend the chanting. There was a little novice monk who looked no older than 8 years who chanted enthusiastically and his young, clear melodic voice was distinct above the rhythmic chanting. Truly enchanting.

After a big dinner, and with the cooler evening, we decided to take the longer route back to the hotel. We chanced upon a festive celebration at the Wat Xieng Tong Temple, one of the main temples of Luang Prabang. A young man kindly explained that it was part of the Lao New Year celebration, where the special Rain Buddha was brought out under a huge marquee, and venerated by devotees climbing a platform on either side of the Buddha to pour water down a channel that rained on the Buddha. The water then drained out the back channel and then collected as holy water. The whole contraption was richly decorated in red and gold and resembled a dragon. The atmosphere was festive, with food vendors and games like throwing darts at balloons. Inside the main temple, 2 monks were busy tying strings around wrists of people old and young, whilst chanting blessings. We were astonished at the number of young and youths who piously venerated, prayed, and took lots of selfies. It was a very local celebration and we felt so privileged to have witnessed it.Read more