Sa ba dee
Dear Family,
After a two day boat ride down the Mekong I arrived in Luang Prabang, the historic capital of Laos. At first I thought I would only spend a few days here but already it's been five. It's a beautiful city right on the river. It used to be a french colony so you can see faded french architecture in many buildings, and they make good baguettes. The town is full of temples and monks. I woke up at 6 this morning to watch the procession of monks walking barefoot through town collecting rice and food for their daily meals.
Yesterday I went mountain biking. I signed up for the advanced offroad trip so not surprisingly it was only me and the guide. He was from a small hill tribe village in the area and had come, like most boys from the hills, to be a monk for four years in Luang Prabang. As a monk he learned English and studied. He was also able to speak some of the local dialects of the hill tribes. The bike trip was quite rigorous. We passed through a total of 9 villages, some were Lao Lum, and the others were Khmer. Although they differed in some ways, they all produced rice and hand woven textiles. The size of the villages ranged from 20 to 100 families and they lived in thatched wood and bamboo huts. Some villages had electricity and some didn't. We stopped in almost all of the villages to take a break and walk around. The Lao Lum villages were mostly Buddhist so there were temples to see. The Khmer tribe practices a sort of animal spirit worship. Everytime we stopped, people gathered around us. Women, lots of children, and a few men would crouch or sit a small distance away and just watch us. Sometimes my guide would speak to them and explain where I was from but mostly they just sat and watched and smiled. I really didn't take any pictures because I thought it would be awkward for me, the spectacle, to make spectacles out of them.
It was a great trip. Today I am relaxing and recovering. I am going to donate blood at the red cross and then mabye go to the temples and talk to the monks who want to practice their English. On Saturday I am going to head north to a small town only accessable by river, No phones or cars, and only electricity for 4 hours in the evening.
After a two day boat ride down the Mekong I arrived in Luang Prabang, the historic capital of Laos. At first I thought I would only spend a few days here but already it's been five. It's a beautiful city right on the river. It used to be a french colony so you can see faded french architecture in many buildings, and they make good baguettes. The town is full of temples and monks. I woke up at 6 this morning to watch the procession of monks walking barefoot through town collecting rice and food for their daily meals.
Yesterday I went mountain biking. I signed up for the advanced offroad trip so not surprisingly it was only me and the guide. He was from a small hill tribe village in the area and had come, like most boys from the hills, to be a monk for four years in Luang Prabang. As a monk he learned English and studied. He was also able to speak some of the local dialects of the hill tribes. The bike trip was quite rigorous. We passed through a total of 9 villages, some were Lao Lum, and the others were Khmer. Although they differed in some ways, they all produced rice and hand woven textiles. The size of the villages ranged from 20 to 100 families and they lived in thatched wood and bamboo huts. Some villages had electricity and some didn't. We stopped in almost all of the villages to take a break and walk around. The Lao Lum villages were mostly Buddhist so there were temples to see. The Khmer tribe practices a sort of animal spirit worship. Everytime we stopped, people gathered around us. Women, lots of children, and a few men would crouch or sit a small distance away and just watch us. Sometimes my guide would speak to them and explain where I was from but mostly they just sat and watched and smiled. I really didn't take any pictures because I thought it would be awkward for me, the spectacle, to make spectacles out of them.
It was a great trip. Today I am relaxing and recovering. I am going to donate blood at the red cross and then mabye go to the temples and talk to the monks who want to practice their English. On Saturday I am going to head north to a small town only accessable by river, No phones or cars, and only electricity for 4 hours in the evening.