Luang Prabang, Laos: Riding Elephants through the River

December 30, 2010

Abraham is such a rip-roaring, charismatic, confident kid that he always surprises us when he gets scared. He refused to ride the elephant at first, announcing he'd stay back with our guide. Then, he'd only ride with me in the elephant riding seat. He talked often about how the elephant might drop us or he might fall. He watched Alice confidently slip in front of her mahout (human who teaches and drives the elephant) on top of the elephant's neck to ride on the actual elephant. Our mahout offered to do the same for Boom and he firmly refused.

Our mahout hopped off and helped urge forward Ken, Alice, and Griffin's slow-moving, 45-year-old elephant probably with arthritis, leaving us to ride our elephant with no one driving. So, I was forced to get on the elephant's head by myself to drive, at one point, although the mahout was really in command, yelling out "Pie Pie" to make our elephant, named Venn, move forward. Abraham refused to join me on the elephant's neck.

Finally, he slipped down and sat in front of me, talking a mile a minute, narrating the entire experience, eventually yelling "Pie Pie!" to the elephant to make him go faster. He loved the feel of the elephant's skin, and more so, of being in charge of an animal so much bigger than him.

In the end, Boom was reluctant to return to the elephant site, to hand over the reigns, or really the neck, to the mahout because we were about to take a tricky elephant trek through the river. At the end, Boom hugged his Dad, so proud that he was a mahout, himself, now.

Luang Prabang, Laos: Giving Alms to Monks and the Locals Receive in Return

December 29, 2010

At 5:45 am, I biked down to the center of Luang Prabang for the giving of alms to the Buddhist monks. The monks get fed by the locals in the early morning as part of a giving of alms ritual where locals give rice and more into the silver bowls the monks line up and hold out for alms. At lunch, local women bring food to the temple for the monks. Then, the monks are not allowed to eat the rest of the day, after noon. Our guide, the former monk, explained that he and the other novice monks always knew when a novice had snuck food, after the noon hour, because he went to the bathroom more frequently than the others in the evening. Sounds like they kept a close eye on the bathroom for sport and out of competitive hunger.

The giving of alms is quite a sight at 6:30am. It's actually become quite a tourist event too, with tourists jostling for position for the best camera shot, to the point that the government has signs up in town and the airport telling tourists how to be respectful at the giving of alms. I hesitated about giving alms, feeling like a fraud somehow, and decided to go for it. I was not alone in being a fraud. It's a business with lots of tourists next to me, with someone selling rice, letting me borrow a rice basket, and setting me up with a mat in line with the other tourists (where were the locals???) to give alms.

Then, over 200 monks walked down single-file holding out their silver urns for us to put the rice in. They made no eye contact. I stuck my hand in my rice and was immediately burnt by its steam heat. My fingers still hurt as I type now. So, I practically threw handfuls in as quickly as I could into each of their urns. In minutes, I finished my rice basket, looking to my left and seeing my more knowledgeable neighbor (who'd also coached me to take off my shoes) having only put little, dainty balls of rice into each monk's urn. She had loads of rice left.

I sat awkwardly with an empty basket, with each monk looking at my basket and quickly hurrying by. I felt like I wore a t-shirt named "Buddhist Tourist Fraud" and then embraced my role and took tons of photos and videos in position.

When the line passed me by, which took some time, I walked over to the market looking for the famous, bitter, condensed milk-filled Laos Kafe (coffee), and on my way I found the REAL local alms giving. Click here to see the locals giving alms and turns out they receive a set of chanting prayers in return. And, the locals drips little bottles of liquid onto the street as they bend in prayer in front of the chanting monks.

Ken joked that the official alms giving on main street is just a distracting ruse for tourist to allow the locals to give alms around the corner, in peace, to the sounds of heartfelt monk chanting.

Luang Prabang, Laos: Wat Xieng Thong Buddhist Temple Tour by a Former Buddhist Monk

Phong, our guide, who had been a monk at this Buddhist temple.

The temple music pagoda where they play drums and cymbals once a week, at 4am and 4pm, reflecting an important time in the lunar calendar. Click here for video.











December 28

Our guide, named Phong, had been a Buddhist monk for 8 years of his life, aged 12 to 20. He spent part of that time in a Buddhist wat, or temple, named Wat Xieng Thong, mostly renovating and painting the temple back into shape. He explained to us that Buddhist Monks in Laos are mostly made up of novices, who often agree to be a monk for survival reasons. Monks get free housing, food, and a solid education, including learning English. They can be a monk for as short or long a time as they please. And, they have over 200 rules when they become a full monk, but only 10 as a novice monk. But, they are a tough ten, including no interacting with girls, dancing or drinking beer. Our monk said that as a non-monk he can now have children, marry, and "dance and drink beer!"

His temple was glorious, with its many mosaics shining in the bright sun. The top temple pagoda included an urn of the king and his parents that was paraded on a float through town then the temple pagoda was built around it. Another temple had a buddha that was seen as very powerful but only taken out once a year when most of the city gathered to be near its special powers.

We ended the day by first fortifying ourselves with a nutella crepe then charging up a small mountain to another Buddhist temple and an outrageous sunset overlooking the Mekong river and the mountains surrounding Luang Prabang.

Luang Prabang, Laos: Paper Making

December 28, 2010

Luang Prabang is also famous for its paper making, with mulberry trees as the base. They also add Bougainvillea to the paper for fuschia colorful decoration. The kids saw them boil the mulberry trees, pound it out, got to try their hand at spreading the paper pulp in a strainer frame, and then lay it out to dry. They also showed us how they worked the loom to create gorgeous silk scarves.

I then bought up a storm of paper products and scarves. Gifts to come soon!