It’s an early start this morning. Fahn and Touy (our driver) picked us up at 5:15 am to watch the monks and novices collect alms. The Buddhist way of life is deeply ingrained in Laotian culture. Some 80% of Laotian youth and nearly all of the children living outside the major cities spend time as a monk. The rural communities typically have large families where feeding and educating the children is challenging so most boys join a temple at age 8 as novices and remain at the temple where they are fed and educated until reaching adulthood.
Luang Prabang is the only place in the world where a Buddhist practice known as “Sai Bat” or “Tak Bat” occurs. Every morning at dawn, Buddhist monks and novices in orange robes set out from their temple to receive offerings of food from the local people. The offerings consist mainly of sticky rice which devotees wake up before dawn to cook. Sometimes the offerings may contain fruit or other sweet treats, a cooked meal, or even cash. All food given must be cooked and the offerings form the monks’ daily meal. Fahn recommended we not take part in passing out alms as it is not our culture or religion. Plus, Westerners used hand soaps and creams which can get passed on to the monks via the rice – not healthy.
All members of the temple participate from the abbot (oldest and leader) to youngest novice. With more than 30 active Buddhist monasteries in Luang Prabang, the long column of monks walking silently and barefoot to receive their alms from people kneeling before them is a sight to behold. The ritual takes about an hour. We observed one very special act where the monks gave some of their offerings to a child along the route who clearly needed help.
After the ceremony is completed, we returned to the hotel for breakfast and a little break before our next adventure.
We headed to Kuang Si waterfall, a massive three-tiered waterfall, which is one of the main tourist attractions in this part of Laos. In the park on the way to the falls is a bear sanctuary, run by ‘Save the Bears’. All the bears here are endangered Asiatic Black (‘Moon’) Bears who are orphaned or have been rescued. If the bears can be rehabilitated, they will be released into the wild. In dry season there are many pools where you can swim, however, with all the rain recently no swimming is allowed, but the falls are spectacular. We had a catered picnic lunch in the park after viewing the waterfall, complete with table linens and a 4-course meal involving soup (of course), steamed vegetables, several main courses, rice and a fruit plate for dessert. Too much food as always and all good. The woman delivered the food by scooter.
The road to the falls was quite entertaining to drive on, with numerous potholes and sections washed out. The cars all drove in zig zags along the route. It would have been interesting to see it from a drone. Apparently, they repair the road every year after rainy season is over. There is also a ‘goat hazard’ as they seem to free range all along the route.
On the way back to town we stopped at a stand where they are selling water buffalo ice cream. Hey, why not as we’ll never have this opportunity again. The ice cream was really good – I had the Baileys and Dick had the coffee flavor.
Did I mention it is very hot and very humid here? We arrived back at the hotel mid-afternoon and enjoyed the air conditioning for a while before heading to the street market for a look-see and to check out some of the city’s French architecture.
This evening, we booked a reservation at Gaspard, a fine dining French restaurant for a break from the Asian food. The meal began with the chef’s amuse bouche (not sure what it was), then on to a mushroom velouté soup, followed by fois gras (best I’ve had since France). I must have been in a mushroom mood and ordered the pasta with mushrooms and Dick had the duck breast. We split a piece of galette des rois, a flaky pastry filled with almond crème. The food was excellent! We return to the hotel happy and full.
Did I mention it is very hot and very humid here? BTW, I have given up on my hair!
Mary