ASIA TRIP 2013
LUANG PRABANG, LAOS
I love Laos!! There is a magic to Laos. Its spirituality and tranquility surround you. After the craziness in Hanoi and the long drive from Halong Bay to the Hanoi Airport, peaceful Laos is a welcome change. We landed and were quickly transferred to our fantastic hotel, Orient Express's La Residence Phou Vao 5 minutes outside of Luang Prabang. The hotel is an intimate 5 star property with 32 junior suites and 2 suites. Our room is beautiful with teak wood throughout. The staff is helpful and so pleasant. In fact, EVERYONE we have met in Laos is so sincerely nice. We will be here for 3 nights.
Luang Prabang is a World Heritage Site city. They do not have advanced medical care and limited educational options. The average age of death is 63 years old. In spite of this, these hard working people seem happy. Everyone smiles. There are over 30 temples and thousands of monks. This is a very spiritual place.
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| Baci ceremony (NOT our group) |
The first day, we visited 2 Wats which are monasteries. Wat Visoun and Wat That Luang. The buddhas in each Wat were beautiful. After visiting the wats, we participated in a Baci ceremony. The ceremony is held to celebrate pretty much anything. New birth, marriage, visit etc. A village elder led the ceremony and tied white cotton strings around our wrists and prayed for our happiness. White is the color of peace good fortune and warmth. 10 female village elders followed with prayers and white strings of their own for our group. The ceremony continued with the sharing of Lao Lao - VERY strong whiskey that we communally shared. We were treated to a group of 11-13 year old young women dancing for us. This is a definite must!
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| Living Farm (rice) |
Our second day in Laos was a mix...some good and some not so good. I'm always relieved when the not so good happens to me so it doesn't happen to you. We saw how rice is farmed. At first, this seemed a little boring but it really was very interesting. We were taken to the Living Farm to learn about the different kind of rice as well as see how they are grown and what other uses they have. We learned about regular rice versus sticky rice which is the major rice used in Laos. The rice in the North can be purple and black while the Southern rice near the Mekong River are white.
After visiting the Living Farm we drove for 45 minutes to a tiny village selling SOS and had to walk down a rickety (I'm being REALLY generous with this description) path to a small long boat to take us up the Mekong River. On route, we visited the Pak Ou Caves to see the 1000 Buddhas. After the visit to the caves, we returned to Luang Prabang via an 1 hour 15 minute river ride back down the river. This is something, that I wouldn't recommend unless you really wanted to see the caves.
On our final day in Laos, we woke up at 5:00am to be ready by 5:30am to take us to see and feed 300 Buddhist Monks. We were instructed to be modestly dressed and sit on a mat. We could give the monks sticky rice and crackers as they proceeded down the street to the temples. The monks each wore the same crimson robes and ranged in ages from 9-80 years old. This was a definite highlight! After feeding the monks, we walked through the Morning Market to see the food and crafts that the locals buy and returned back to the hotel by 7:30am for breakfast. At that point, we were given a choice, relax at the hotel, shop or visit a waterfall. Jeff went to see the waterfall which was a 45 minute drive away and I joined two other women and went shopping.
We are now getting ready to say goodbye to lovely Laos. I really did love Laos! It is an unspoiled third world country. I recommend that you consider Laos as part of any Southeast Asia itinerary.
Off to Cambodia!
The World is Our Playground!
Mari
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