On to Laos and Luang Prabang...or as we like to refer to it...stop number 4 on our UNESCO World Heritage Tour! This all would be more impressive if Moira didn't point out that there are many more UNESCO World Heritage sites than we all realized. Sigh. At least there are 4 less now that we need to visit.
Laos is a quick 1:20 minute flight from Siem Reap, but feels quite different. For one thing, the airport doesn't feel like a Disney hotel and there were only 8 people to process your Visa, instead of the 16 in Cambodia. There is still definitely humidity here...hello, it's the jungle people...but it's not as hot as Siem Reap, meaning that unless we are climbing up 400 stairs to look at Buddhas (which we did do today), we aren't dripping sweat constantly. The bugs, though, are a bit of an issue though. While Steph and Lallande seem to be escaping bite-free, Moira and I are dealing with multiple bites, even with deet bug spray to ward them off. I've got them on the ankles and knees, while the bugs seem to be attracted to Moira's neck and left arm. Not to worry though...some aren't mosquito bites...too big for that.
We've only been here a day and a half and packed in quite a lot thus far, including:
- Visiting about six Buddhist temples, including one that sits on the top of a hill overlooking Luang Prabang, and requiring a 400 step walk up.
- Stopping by the National Museum, which used to be the King's residence when there was a king here.
- Visiting the Kuang Si waterfall, about 25 km (again this is where it would be helpful if we were more educated on the metric system) west of town.
- Stopping by a weaving factory in a local village.
- Taking a Laos cooking class
You can't visit this area of the world and not learn, or share, more about temples and monks. It's actually very exciting to spot your first few Buddhist monks, walking along in those gorgeous saffron robes. My guess is that at the end of a few days it becomes like zebras in Africa though...you start to say, "Oh, another zebra? I just saw one back there." Regardless, it's still new to us, the saffron robes photograph beautifully and we've learned a lot about them from our guide, Bounmay. Things like:
- A wat, or really the whole temple area, consists of 5 things: a stupa (almost like an above ground tomb), a drumhall, a monastery, a monk and a sim (main building of the temple). Funny "who's on first" story about the wat. Lallande to Bounmay "Do they have a name for this whole area?" Bounmay: "Wat" Lallande "Do they have a name for this whole area?" Bounmay "Wat." This could have gone on for a few more iterations had Moira not jumped in and said something witty that made us all realize what was going on.
- There are 33 monasteries in Luang Prabang.
- Monks typically come from the country and are sent by their families as children, as they can't always afford to keep them. They are then educated and housed at the monasteries.
- Monks only go home to see their families about once a year...and even then, they must have someone accompany them, like another monk, to help them avoid temptation.
- There are two career paths so to speak for monks. One is to be a teacher...the other is to be a linguist.
- As foreigners, we aren't really supposed to make eye contact with the monks but we can talk to them as they want to practice their English. We haven't talked to any yet.
- The monks have a long day. The first gong rings at 4 am to wake them up and let them know that it's time for morning chants and the walk to gather alms (which we are going to go watch tomorrow at 6 am) and another one rings at 4 pm to let them know their day is coming to the end...dinner and evening chants following that.
- There are different uniforms depending on which "level" the monks are. Novices are the young boys we are seeing everywhere.
- Monks get their heads shaved once a month.
- Disappointedly, monks are allowed to use cell phones and Bounmay told us that some are even on Facebook. I mean...we are all for technology but it's a bit ridiculous. We saw some teenage ones texting. Apparently, it's very cheap to have a pay as you go phone here...half a cent per minute for local calls.
- Our guide Bounmay was a monk twice...first, he was a monk for 7 days when his grandfather died when he was 18. The second time, he was a monk for 2 hours when the mother of one of his friends died. Apparently, this isn't uncommon...to shave your head and be a monk for the funeral ceremonies. The two hour thing seems a little crazy though.
Food is key here and in our short 36 hours here, we've had some pretty amazing culinary experiences.The key to all Laotian food seems to be two words...sticky rice. Honestly, this is eaten at every meal and also serves as dessert. You are supposed to eat it with your fingers, which we are doing. And we all love the stuff, but think we might be turning into sticky rice.
But back to our food experiences...we went to dinner last night to a place called Tamarind, which is owned by an interesting couple (thanks Kelli for the recommendation) who teach you how to eat food the proper Lao way (use your fingers for sticky rice, don't lick your fingers). The man, Joy, who runs the restaurant was sent by his parents with a few bucks to Luang Prabang to be a monk when he was a kid. Somewhere down the road, he discovered a love for food, left the monastery and met an Australian woman traveling here (can't remember her name...let's call her Caroline) who was also a cook. They opened this place together. It's only five tables but we got in and had their set menu which consisted of:
- Soup of young bamboo
- Sticky rice with dipping sauces, including eggplant, chili, and tomato
- Fish in banana leaves
- Luang Prabang sausage (different than what you'd get at, say, your local breakfast buffet...so good)
- Riverweed with sesame, sun dried tomatoes and garlic (like nori seaweed, if I'm reading Lallande's handwriting correctly)
- Chicken stuffed Lemongrass
- Purple Sticky rice with Tamarind Coconut sauce
- Sticky Rice cookies (crunchy with cinnamon sugar)
- Lao coffee with condensed milk
Two more things on this...we also discovered Beerlao, the local beer which is quite good and cheap. After a liter of this, Lallande proclaimed that she wanted her "Purpie stickle rice" instead of the above mentioned purple sticky rice. I guess you had to be there but it was funny to us. Second, Lao coffee is pretty damn good. Opinions are mixed as to whether it beats Vietnamese coffee or not (I side with Vietnamese...probably becaues it's iced). But either way you can't go wrong when you've got strong coffee and condensed milk. It's also led us to develop a way to measure how good our food is. At one end of the spectrum is Vietnamese coffee, meaning something very good. At the other end of the spectrum is the mystery meat they served on Vietnam Air on the way here...which Moira and Steph mometarily convinced Lallande and me that they ate. Most our meals have been on the Vietnamese coffee end of the spectrum.
And I can't leave the food section without mentioning that tonight we took a Laos cooking class at our hotel. Truth be told, the real cooks in our group, Lallande and Stephanie, did most of the heavy lifting. I did a mean job grating things and Moira was an expert spring roll maker though. Under the watchful eye of the chef at our hotel, we learned to make spring rolls, chili prawns and red curry pork....the secret seems to be adding sugar and having a very hot stove...which we then ate for dinner along with sticky rice and a dessert of sticky rice, mango (honestly, better here than anywhere we've ever been) and coconut milk.
Now that I've bored you with our food, this brings us to the "things we've learned" section of the post:
- Buildings in Luang Prabang can't be higher than two stories.
- Earplugs might be a good thing, given that rosters start to crow here at around 4 am (reminiscent of Easter Island).
- When taking a ricketedy tuk tuk back from town, it doesn't help to say "I think I can...I think I can..." when you get to the hill by the hotel. It can't.
- Motorbikes are cheap here...they buy the $500 ones from China. But they aren't as crazy as in Vietnam. Everyone is supposed to wear a helmet (but doesn't).
- Even though we aren't in monsoon season, some major rain blew threw last night.
- Hibuscus juice is a great way to be greeted at your hotel.
- The Lao language is very similar to Thai. And the Lao people watch a lot of Thai tv.
- Bounmay says that Lao PDR (People's Democratic Republic) really stands for People Don't Rush. It's not uncommon to be given two hour windows for things.
We're here until tomorrow at about 4 pm and then have a final day in the Hanoi area before flying home on Friday evening. I'm hoping to post one more time as we are doing a few more cool things before leaving (watching the monk's alms process and boat ride to caves tomorrow, perfume pagoda trip on Friday). I might have to pry Moira away from her Bejeweled game on her iPad to do the final post in the airport...so check in again with us on Friday or Saturday.
A final thing before I sign off...there have been a number of songs going through our head over here, or music we've heard in odd circumstances, and we thought we'd share them:
- Sweet Home Alabama: In the Red Piano in Siem Reap
- Crazy English language rap music we didn't even recognize (so no Jay Z, Eminem or anyone like that) in Hoi An at lunch
- Shakira's Hips Don't Lie being blasted from a Cambodian carnival disco after our sunset boat cruise
- "Follow the Ho Chi Minh trail" as sung by Robin Williams in Good Morning Vietnam
- "War is Stupid": The Culture club song (war, war is stupid and people are stupid)...probably because there are still so many effects of the American/Vietnam war here
- High Hopes: The prevalence of rubber trees and any mention of them sticks this song in our head. I think that Kiet and our driver particularly enjoyed all of us singing a rousing version the whole song for them as we tried to figure out the words. Picture it...two Vietnamese men, four Americans, tooling around the jungles of Vietnam, with "everyone knows an ant...can't...move a rubber tree plant...but he's got high hopes...he's got...high hopes...he's got...high apple pie in the sky hopes..." emanating from the van.
That's it for tonight. Early pick up tomorrow...5:45 am here or 6:45 pm in the US. And much more sticky rice to follow, I'm sure...purpie or regular.
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