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A Classic City
Entry 19 of 44 | show all | print this entry |
Travel is making us modest...we are seeing what a small place we occupy in the world.
Luang Prabang is one of Indo China's classic cities..it is very beautiful, situated around a large hill which dominates the city's skyline. There are beautiful historic temples and old French mansions in a gorgeous mountain setting.
We are staying with a local family at their guesthouse and they are fantastic. They continually say to make ourselves at home and make us feel like family members. We have eaten with them several times and the Lao food is wonderful.
The central market is very interesting and full of Hmong villager handicrafts. The weaving and textiles are remarkable, as is the old silver. The price without bargaining for a large hand stitched and quilted duvet cover with two pillow shams is about $25.00 US.
The family is very happy this week because a brother who has lived in Ottawa for 22 years arrived home to see his mother the other day. It is interesting for us to speak to him (he lives near Sue and Larry!)
We see monks receiving alms each morning. Most Lao people are Buddhists and most males choose to temporarily ordain as monks at some point. They may spend anywhere from a week to several months at a wat. It is fascinating to talk with them.
Our goal has been to get off the tourist path, so we hired a guide and driver to head north and east into the hill tribes. We were warned about walking in the fields because of UXOs (unexploded ordinances.) These are live bombs left behind by 100 years of warfare. The US-made cluster bombs pose the greatest threat and still account for some 100 Lao casualties a year. Eventhough the threat to travllers is very low, it's recommended to stay on well travelled paths even if nature calls. This was an easy decision for us... better to be caught in a compromising situation than to have a UXO explode and blast your butt to smithereens! Yep...we stayed on the path!
We visited a couple of villages both Khmuu and Hmong...many of the people are very poor. withe empty bamboo huts and dirt floors. We saw many kids and animals in poor health and the dry season has made it worse. Rainy season will not come until Pii Mai (mid April) which is Lao New Year. Our guide/driver suggested a few treats for the village children, but once we broke out a few candies and Canada pins all hell broke loose. There had to be 50 plus kids appear out of no where in a few seconds flat and it broke our hearts that we couldn't feed them all.
We had to be careful in some places since photography is taboo among some tribes, but here they loved to see themselves on the digital camera. We had been told that they may not have seen any farang (foreigners) before but we could not believe it. Then our guide asked one of the older women if it was true. She said that while some of them may have seen white people in town, others, particularly wuite young and quite old had not...making us the first farang they had ever seen! Awesome.
We have done some cultural stuff as well... we went to the Royal Ballet where the costumes and head dresses were phenomenal. The ballet was based on a HIndu epic about Rama adapted for SE Asia countries. It boiled down to the theme of good over evil and was really well done.
Although Phii worship has been banned, it remains the dominant non Buddhist belief system. Even the ballet started with the Basi ceremony in which 32 khwan (guardians of the spirits of the body) are bound to the guests of honour by white strings tied around the wrists. The performers came into the audience to tie strings on our wrists. Tradition holds that we must keep the bracelets on our wrists for three nights after which we will be in good grace with the spirits and have good fortune. There were also "minority" performances by hill tribes that had great Lao folk songs and bizarre bamboo musical instruments.
The food continues to be outstanding...we had our best meal at one of Luang Prabang's oldest family restaurants last night to celebrate our second anniversary...two months on the road that is!
We will head soon to Viang Vieng and then to Vientiane. We hope this finds everyone happy and healthy and enjoying the updates.
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