Two amazing days.. First morning I woke up early with the intention of going to see the monks, but by the time I managed to get out of the shower (still a wee bit tender from the monkey incident) I had missed the main route, but undetered I still decided to head into town.. (ok so it's only one block over) but walking down our street I was ambushed by monks heading down towards me, so I ran back to the guest house only to find our hostess was preparing to give them alms directly outside our guesthouse... Every morning the monks also walk the streets back to their temples so you don't have to go to the main road to give them alms... I sat quietly to observe and she asked if I'd like to join in... Hell yes!!! and the really really really amazing thing was that the monks not only recieve but will give alms... I was given a wrapped banana leaf with filled with three sweets... Could've have cried it was just incredibly spiritual...
I told Dudu about it, and so for the next two mornings we were up with the larks, roosters actually to feed the monks... We emptied two shops of what the Lao call candies but are just individually wrapped biscuits... We were told by our host that to give alms, you wear a scarf over your left shoulder.. It's the only way the monks know to stop and when you run out take off the scarf.. simple really once you know, so then it was off to the market to buy some scarves...
Dudu's sleep has been broken with the call to rise that emits from the temples... It is done by the banging of drums or bells and it occurs at 4.30 in the morning.. From the age of 12 - 19 you are a novice and their roles in the temples are to rise first thing, to cook, clean and generally take care of the daily necessities of the monks.. In return they are fed, taken care of and given an education.. Many young men enter the monastery to gain an education, as all needs are taken care of by the people of the city... They eat twice a day (from that which is supplied at the morning alm giving) and whatever else they can grow for themselves, so it's not an uncommon sight to see monks tending gardens...
I was thinking that if a monk has to give 7 years of service as a novice before he can progress to the teachings of a monk, it reminded me of a conversation that I had with sensei.. He told me that between black belt gradings you need 7 years for our discipline... same same but different..
On the second day Dudu and I booked a day trip, and managed to talk the rest of our group into coming... We went mountain biking for 2.5 hours, went to visit a Hmong village where it takes 1 week to make a scarf, off to see monument built for the first European to visit Laos, kayaked to the "Wet season" waterfall which is the most beautiful one in Luang Prabang where you could have a ride on an elephant (not for me) and then kayaked back into town... Total of 9 hours..
My bike got tired, so had to push it up some of the hills, but the guides told me later that my bike set up was wrong.. Apparently if your knees are the same height as your earlobes when cycling the seats too low... and also with all the gears, the higher the number is not used for higher gradients... Now if only they'd explained all of that before I got on the sucker I'm sure my bike would not have been soooooo tired...
As for the kayaking, Dudu and I now rock.... I'm not sure what it is about the Ozzies but on our last kayak the only crew to go down under were the Ozzies, and it was the same again this time around... As for us two, we ended up taking a break in the middle of the rapids... You see we had it going on, and before we knew it, we'd left the rest of the group behind... We came upon a bunch of kayaks sitting on a river bank and not being sure where we were supposed to get out of the river we kept going, however the river split into two distinct streams both of which had strong rapids so we landed our kayak in the middle, pulled it out of the water and waited for the rest to catch up... Got another layer to our sunburn which the Laos people have likened to Cambodian black... woo hoo!!!!! 4 hours later it was time to get out of the boat, loaded the kayaks into storage, and then was told by the tour leader, we were cycling back into town... Bloody tired at the end of that day but was fun.... Would do it again in a heartbeat, with correct height adjustment to bike seats before getting on...
As for the photo of knives etc... All of these were reconstructed out of the shell casings from bombs... for a population nearing 6Million, 10million tonnes of bombs were dropped in the country, some are still live and have not yet been discovered... So warning, don't go too far off the beaten track in Laos... or Cambodia for that matter.
Tutu and Dudu :o)
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