We entered Laos in the southern capital town of Vientiane. Our hotel was very close to the night market, so we wandered around that a bit the first night. We weren’t far from a Scandinavian bakery and several massage places either, and took full advantage of both. Khmu massage was very similar to Thai in terms of all the stretching and the use of feet and knees to massage us, but it was more abrupt and less relaxing. (At this point, we’re feeling good about deciding to take the Thai massage class!)
We took a one-day tour of Vientiane which led us through the Laos version of the Arc de Triumph and several temples – including one where we were lucky enough to arrive when they were in the process of making more statues of Buddha and Phra Mae Thorani (the earth diety) for the grounds. While at the temple, five Chinese women waited patiently for Rachel to look up from a kitten she was playing with before finally saying, “Excuse me, ma’am” and pointing at a camera ready to take their picture. She quickly hopped out of the shot only to be called back in. “No, no, you sit,” they said pointing back to the floor beside them and back at the camera. It turned out that they were waiting to take a picture with her not without her! We’ve had lots of folks ask to take pictures of or with us along the way, but they don’t usually stop mid-worship for it.
The next day, we decided to rent a motorbike and drive out to Buddha Park – a large park filled with over 200 Hindu and Buddhist sculptures including a 390 foot reclining Buddha, a big statue of Rahu depicting a story we’d heard back at Angor Wat where a demon whose head is immortal (long story – ask us later) tries to eat the sun and moon, and a strange spherical building with a cement tree on top and lots of hidden chambers inside with graphic sculptures of heaven and Earth and hell.
Before leaving Vientienne, we went out for some traditional Lao food and ordered what we assumed was frog legs. The English translation was listed as “frog shins.” Instead we found that the ‘h’ should have been a ‘k’ and we were actually about to sit down to a plate of deep fried frog skins. There isn’t much to them really. They taste like crispy chips with a hint of fishiness. We used them to scoop up the papaya salad and got two enthusiastic thumbs up from an old local man at the next table.
Next, we made our way by bus through nauseating winding roads, 13 hours without a bathroom break to Luang Prabang. We were on another sleeper bus, but with less sleeping this time. We were on the top bunk and every time we slid around another hairpin curve, Colin, whose legs were already sticking out into the aisle, thought he was going to fly right off the bed. Rachel got a little bit of sleep early on until learning that motion sickness pills do wear off eventually. It was nerve-racking, but well worth the drive.
Luang Prabang is a cute little town in central Laos with a pretty low-key vibe. It seems that about half of the town’s population are monks living at any of the plethora of monasteries around town. We met a few of them at a place called Big Brother Mouse – a Lao-owned and run non-profit whose stated purpose is to address Laos’ illiteracy problem and turn Laos into “a country that loves to read.” They do this in part by hosting writing workshops to teach locals how to write stories and publish books. In the past 8 years, they’ve published over 300 books! (Interesting note: Each book has to be first submitted to the Ministry of Culture for approval before being published to make sure it doesn’t insult those in charge.) They also deliver books to schools all over the country. For some of the schools, these are the first books they’ve ever had! Can you imagine a school without books?!
Big Brother Mouse also has a space for locals to meet up with tourists twice a day to practice their English skills. We spent a couple hours here chatting with some of the young men about everything from homonyms and synonyms to how to address the country’s litter problem to how many children they wanted. (Many said they wanted 2 children unless they were both daughters and then they would keep trying until they had a son.) We also got to discuss the difference in dowry practices between the different tribes represented that evening. In one tribe the groom had to pay the wife’s family 1 million kip ($125) and some farm animals. Another tribe’s standard was 2 million, but if you didn’t have that you could work for the family for a few years to work it off.
Luang Prabang is also where we signed up to take a highly recommended cooking class with Tamarind cooking school. (Thanks Caryn & Josh!) Rudy, an expat from Holland, who had lived in the US for several years (including both NY and Pittsburgh), welcomed us and got us signed up for the class. However, the class itself was taught out in the country by a local man who was a good teacher and a bit of a comedian. His favorite joke was to refer to his “Laos-y English”. When we looked at the list of what we’d be making, we thought we were seeing an example of his “Laosy English” when it listed chicken stuffed lemongrass. We figured he’d gotten it backwards because how in the world could you stuff lemongrass with chicken? Well, now we know!
We met a lovely couple in the cooking class, Dave and Mer, who decided to join us the next day for our hill tribe tour where we got to visit several tribal villages and see how some of them live. Our guide told us the government has been attempting to move some tribes together so they can provide services like education and health care more easily. Those who refuse to leave their traditional land, are provided clean drinking water and help developing ways to support themselves without hunting endangered species or slashing and burning swaths of forest. Rachel spent some time playing with a group of local children that were alone in the one village while the parents were working in the fields. It turns out “monkey see monkey do” is not restricted by language barriers.
We also got to meet a shaman (one of the last in the area) who told us a bit about the process of diagnosing and treating various ailments. They traditionally start with a sacrifice and prayer and if that doesn’t work they’ll use herbs they find in the forest. It’s often weeks before anyone would consider going to a hospital and by then it’s often too late. The government is changing the laws to speed up the process to hopefully get people to a doctor sooner. We had also hoped to stop by a blacksmithing village, but there had been a death in the community, so we were told no one would be working for 3 days. We did, however, get to visit a small village making silk and paper.
After the market and some street food that night, the 4 of us went bowling. We got there around 9 and had the place entirely to ourselves. Luang Prabang has a curfew of 11:30pm and the bowling alley is just outside of town so when everyone has to leave the bars in town they head out to bowl. We headed back home before the crowds arrived and we got back to our guesthouse at 11:35. The gate out front was padlocked and there was nobody to let us in. We decided to put our climbing experience to use and scaled the gate. Unfortunately, Rachel got a substantial puncture wound in her leg from one of the gates metal spires in the process. We quickly cleaned it up and had our first opportunity to use the bandaids and bacitracin we brought from home.
Our final morning in Luang Prabang, we got up early to witness the alms giving ceremony. Every morning at sunrise, the monks from each monastery in town line up and walk silently through the streets with their alms bowls. Locals have prepared rice and bring fruit and other food to put in the bowls. Others are seated with their hands in prayer, and as the monks pass, some will take food from their bowls to share with them. We sat across the street and enjoyed the peaceful motion of line after line of monks in saffron robes passing by for a while before the crowds of other tourists arrived – many of whom did not respect the tradition and instead were running up and nearly jostling monks out of line to get ultra close-up shots with their giant telephoto lenses while others turned to take selfies with the monks in the background. The town is currently looking for ways to maintain the integrity of the ceremony, but the tradition is at risk due to the actions of disrespectful tourists.
