Lovely Laos

So far, every year, one South East Asia country has stolen my heart … and this year it was Laos. It is a country of beautiful, gentle people with big smiles and kind hearts. I loved every moment. We arrived late one evening and had only one full day here. Luang Prabang is a small town right on the Mekong River with a decidedly French influence left over from the Indochine era (i.e. most restaurants serve fresh croissants and café au lait). As Lily put it best, "Oh my gosh... normal food.. at last!!"

Bill (the event producer) timed it perfect so that we were in Luang Prabang on the last day of the New Year’s celebration which is the Water Festival. Talk about GREAT!!! The whole city rejoices by throwing water on everyone... it is one giant water fight complete with water guns, hoses, water balloon bombs, plastic bags loaded with water, and pans,-pails-cups-or-anything-handy filled with water to throw on anyone passing by. We spent much of the afternoon in Tuk Tuks in the countryside going from one bonus scavenge event to another … and we were clearly targets in every village we went by. They would see us coming and fill up every handy bucket or pail. And our Tuk Tuk driver (the stinker) would slow down so that the villagers had enough time to aim and fire at us. We were DRENCHED to where I could pour water out of my shoes. We had stopped and bought giant water guns but we were no match for the hoses and buckets. Heavily under-armed we quickly realized that we had bought a squirt gun to a water hose party! Lily was fully engaged in the battle.

In the early morning, we had to go and give alms to the Buddhist monks. Rainey and I bought a tray of rice and a stew like stuff wrapped up in banana leaves, knelt on the sidewalk, and put our offerings into the monk’s bowls. Such a beautiful sight with their saffron colored robes.

We decided to do bonus scavenges basically all day because (a) we were told that much of the stuff in town would be closed because of the holiday and (b) we can only do 5 scavenges a day with Heidi and Lily and the bonus scavenges take a long time and let us spend more time together. So, first we headed out to the Pak Ou caves or the Buddha caves. (Yes, Ben, it is true – we ended up here, at the Buddha cave… one of the places on your bucket list …I promise to bring you back one day as it is amazing). You have to take a boat over the Mekong River to the caves. There are two caves and they are filled with thousands and thousands of statues of Buddha (all kinds, shapes, colors etc). You rent flashlights for the larger cave as there is no electricity. We burned incense, lit candles and - because it is the New Year festival - we also bought blessed water and ritually washed some of the statues.

On the river banks I got conned into buying a bird in a cage for $1 from a tiny Lao boy (mainly because I am a softy for cute little boys). You then open up the cage and let the bird go … which has some religious significance that was lost on me .. but seemed symbolic of freedom. I later realized that the boy probably catches that same bird back in less than an hour and sells it again.

Then we took a taxi to ride elephants in the teak forest. We stopped on the way to drink scorpion spiced rice wine… no, let me be clear… we stopped for Rainey and Brian (from another team called “the Camels”) to drink nasty alcohol flavored from scorpion… There was no way that I was touching any of that.

The elephants were amazing: a slow swinging ride through the forest.

Then we went to the KiangSi Waterfall. There were thousands of people there because of the holiday and stalls set up all over selling the oddest things. I have now found where all of the feet and claws of the chickens that we eat in America end up … on sticks and sold as a delicacy in Laos. Rainey is armed and loaded for action – even at the waterfall (Men and their toys!!!).

We got back to town in time to go into a monastery and watch (very quietly) the evening prayers which involve soft candle-light, chanting and dozens of monks kneeling. The best visual memory – one monk was deep in prayer in this thousand year old temple – and besides him on the is an I-Phone…. The far reach of civilization!!!
Laos was a lovely experience . We are now on to Thailand – but this time to Chiang Mai, the capital of Thailand. I have never been before but it should be great.