This morning we were each assigned to a tuk-tuk, given a map and a series of questions to respond to and sent off into Luang Prabang to find our way around and respond to the questions on the form. We had our list of Lao phrases so that we could communicate in a rudimentary way with people in shops, the market etc. but there were moments of confusion when the tuk-tuk driver didn’t understand our instructions and we didn’t have the Lao words for places we needed to go! We first hit the morning market, the went to Ockpoktok where silk weaving is done. We saw women working the looms and the exhibit explains how silk is made and dyed. Then we found a monument to a former president of Laos. I’ve included a picture of Sam in front of the statue which was one of our assignments. We also visited a couple of temples. We went to an exhibit that explains a lot about the various ethnic minorities that make up Laos and they showed a fascinating video of an ordination ceremony among one of the groups that follows Taoism. The ordination ceremony takes 6 days and involves the entire village. It makes our ordination ceremonies look very simple and bland by comparison. When we emerged from that stop we discovered that the tuk-tuk we had been riding in had broken down and our driver handed us off to another tuk-tuk and driver to complete our rounds! We then went to a couple of temples which are very old and quite ornate. I love watching the monks float about the complex. When you get to a temple there is a whole campus there – the temple itself with the Buddha statue(s) but also a stupa, a dining hall for the monks, residence halls for the monks, and somewhere either a bell or a large drum or both.
We had lunch in a little French restaurant just down the road from our hotel. The food was all Lao food, however and it was excellent, as has been consistently the case on this trip. I tried the famed BeerLao, which is the local brew for which Laos is well known. It was good and refreshing and cheap! No wonder folks drink it like water here!
We had some free time in the afternoon and so I strolled down the main drag near the hotel visiting a couple of the temples along the way and browsing through the shops. It was raining heavily today so walking around outside got to be rather sticky and damp so I came back to the hotel and rested for a while before our evening adventures.
In the early evening we went to the Children’s Cultural Center where local school children did a puppet performance of the classic tale Ramayana (a Hindu tale but one that has been adapted even in Buddhist Southeast Asia as a classical religious myth.) Then the children also performed dances from the three dominant ethnic groups in Laos, the Highland Lao, Upland Lao and Lowland Lao. The children were dressed in the traditional costumes of the various ethnic groups. It was great fun and they invited us foreigners to join them in the dancing, which was amusing to say the least!! We were a clumsy lot compared to those kids!
After the session at the Cultural Center we went to dinner at a nearby restaurant, again enjoying delicious local Lao delicacies. We walked home through the rain by 9:30. It has truly been a soggy day here and it feels good to get into the air conditioned splendor of our hotel. Walking around outside in the rain and humidity becomes stifling after awhile!
More tomorrow!
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