Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang was a quiet French colonial country town. It is now a popular tourist destination, someday you can see more tourists than locals. There are many temples. The unique sight of the morning alms giving is very special to the buddhist side of me. This tradition is brought forward from the time of Buddha. We are so honored to be allowed to join in by the locals to gain merits through the way of giving.

Unfortunately, this tradition is being threatened by tourism. We saw tens of tourists poking their camera and disturbing a sacred practice. It felt like an animal in a zoo.

In addition, some tourist would unknowingly buy bad alms and give the monks food poisoning.

We came prepared. Thru reading on lonely planet and other website, we requested our guesthouse to prepare alms for the mornings. The owner of Vanvisa kindly brought us with her in the mornings and corrected what we did wrong. Doing it this way has made it memorable.

Apart from temples, there is the quiet life of Laos. It has been a privilege to stay here for 4 days and not rushing around. There was the incident of Sansan being sick from stomach flu.

However, all is well and we are now waiting for our pickup to go to Udomxai, 4 hours on a local bus because we had to cancel our previous day minivan. On it's own, it will be an interesting journey. More on that later...

Recommended: Vanvisa Guesthouse, near Wat That, alway from the main tourist busyness but still near enough to be close. A fan triple beds is 150,000 kip. A family run guesthouse, so if you preferred the formal hotel accommodation then it is not a place for you. Book through a phone call. Contact: +856-71-212 925 or mobile 020 5 408 133
Mrs Vandara spoke fluent French and English and is always willing to help.


- Posted by Mich using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Luang Prabang, Laos