Day 5 Saturday 20 December 2014
An early call this morning as we are going into LP with guide and driver to observe the giving of alms to the monks. All of the many monks start at one end of town and steadily progress through the entire town to end up at the main monastery we had visited the previous day. So soon after six in the morning one side of the road, towards the end of the procession which is not so heavily populated, are ladies with bowls of rice (some have others items) and on the other side numerous onlookers like ourselves.
A gong sounds to give notice of the approaching monks and in groups, representing different monastries they steadily process past. Eventually the light improves sufficiently to permit photographs which are on the Flickr site.
https://flic.kr/s/aHsk6nWKYZ
Somewhere around the middle of the procession there is a break and the ladies then have the potential to refill their bowls of rice. At the end of the ladies in or group is a small child and she does not give the monks any food but instead receives and it is explained that it is known that she is from a poorer family and the monks share the food they have received with the poorer groups.
We later find that our guide was a monk for a number of years. If the land canot support the younger members of the family then joining a monastery provides food and a good education and is beneficial for all concerned. So Buddhism rather than a national dependence on the state – are we institutionalised Buddhists?
Heading back to the transport we walked through the morning market – it opens at 5 and the villagers from the surrounding area bring in all sorts of goods to be sold. This covers vegetables, meat, fish plus scarves and other goods of all descriptions. There are photos – but again there do not seem to be any shortages of anything important and indeed in terms of vegetables these seem to be excellent in quality and quantity.
Anyway back to the hotel for breakfast and to shed our overcoats. We have a big excursion today when we return to the town and the riverside to take a boat upstream for about two hours to visit a cave where the gold buddha was originally kept when brought to the country. After the climb the previous day we decline the visit to the upper cave as we are told it contains not only buddha statues but also bats!
We cross the river to a small village and we walk through to where they keep the elephants in a small reserve in winter. In summer they are used to move logs so are still working elephants. Fed with numerous bananas they seem quite happy and relaxed even if necessarily tethered.
Then we wander back through the village for lunch in a restaurant overlooking the Mekong river – the sunshine is brilliant and it is again a warm day. On the return trip to LP we stop at a village where they can show us numerous scarves and the wife is able to buy some items for a close friend’s impending birthday. Here we hear the almost universal request “Do you want to buy a scarf?” in a polite but slightly singing voice which cannot be done justice in print. This is repeated as we walk through the village as there are numerous sellers ans more scarves and table runners than the one village can possibly produce. However thy are all very nice pieces and each house appears to have its own weaving loom we do wondr just how much weaving can possibly be achieved locally.
Whilst the village is obviously organised for visits like ours it is also notable that most of the houses have huge satellite dishes (athough rusty) and therefore presumably some form of power supply and television. It may be rural but certainly they are not cut off from the outside world in any form. Even here there is a well decorated and maintained temple – it reminds me of Greece where there may be economic problems but the religious houses are well maintained.
Travelling with the current our return journey is a little faster than outward and so towards the end of the afternoon we return to the hotel.
The evening commences with a Baci ceremony for the four travellers where about 20 local people welcome us to Laos. About 10 ladies plus a couple of musicians sing a welcome and then a dancing group entertain us with their skills and a number of different dances. The end of the ceremony requires us to present our wrists and they tie pieces of string around each wrist to represent close ties between Laos and ourselves. We are also presented with a flower arrangement which I receive from the Village elder (Shaman / priest) and I have to present this the following day at the Watermelon stupa.
We were a little amazed at this being laid on for just the four of us and we were somewhat relieved when a Mexican couple joined us during the proceedings.
Our evening was rounded off by dinner in the hotel and I can report that yet another excellent repast was consumed by the travellers. The hotel kitchen can cook and the only thing we find difficult is that the concept of “courses” seems to be unknown as the soup arrives and the remaining food arrives almost immediately when the waiting team return to the kitchen! After such a long day we are glad to retire to bed.
Good night.