The Mekong

This morning I did a really big sacrifice.. I woke up at 5.30 to see the monk procession..


It's morning procession by the little monks in the city to collect food from residents. They carry a little bowl and people, kneeling by the streets where they pass, would just put the offerings in. Rice, candy, cakes, everything but money. Really nice thing to see though, and it has such a vibe of devotion from the buddhist.

Then I headed to the market while waiting for the friends from yesterday to show up as we had some plan to cross the Mekong and take a stroll to the wats.

Here in the market, I saw all the things I was curious about... Frogs (normal sight back home), birds (hmm...), bats (!!!!!!!!!!!!!), worms (big and small...........), dead squirrel (so sad..), screwed live crickets..*check to photos*. However in general, it was such an interesting market to see..



Across the river Mekong (by boat 5000kips each), we just strolled down the road and enjoyed the tranquility of the place. Visited some wats and the wat inside a cave was a really spooky place. High humidity inside, we descended to the darkness of the cave. Some places had these "buddha" images/wood statue".. Another wat was the Wat Chom Pek in a spot quite high where from the above you could see the whole city of Luang Prabang and along with the Mekong view.. Just hypnotizingly beautiful...


We headed back to Luang Prabang afterward and after a little refreshment (fresh lemon juice, niceee..) and papaya salad, we went and continue our own programs.. Allison and I took a short walk to the Wat Xieng Thong, THE Wat of Luang Prabang. Actually it is really beautiful, I mean striking beauty of glass mozaics, wall painting, etc..
After re-confirming my flight out for tomorrow, I went to the boatmen by the Mekong, Mr. Kamphong. Actually I promised to go with him to the Pak Ou Cave yesterday but I didn't make it since we took the trekking. I met him earlier today and just couldn't break my promise anymore. So, here I go, alone with the captain of the boat to the Pak Ou Cave ($20).. We left at around 2.30 which was a good time actually.
Fell asleep for the first part of journey, I soon was be able to regain my strength. Mr. Kamphong actually taught me some Lao words, it was fun, really, during the journey. A part from that, the view and the journey itself was sooo nice and it was just awakening your senses...

So the 2 hours passed and there we arrived at the cave.Pak Ou Cave is, well, a cave. The attraction is that it housed many, like more than 4000, statues of different sizes of Buddha. Practically, all the people of Luang praband and vicinity are buddhist. And when they decided to change the Buddha statue in their house, to a new one maybe, they would put the old statue in this cave. This tradition dated back quite a long time ago, though.

The site has 2 cave, upper and lower. The lower cave has more statues than the upper one. While I was taking the stairs (and a lot of stairs, mind you), it rained, rained.. So sad...

OK, after like 15 minutes waiting up there accompanied by an old man who guarded the cave, I decided to walk through the rain and to the boat...
After like 15 minutes of boat ride, it was shiny, bright and nice sunset was coming along ahahahaha... poor me..
Anyway, Mr Kamphong even let me to guide the boat. Quite frightening at first but then it was OK. We arrived and I went back to the guesthouse to take a shower.. Now I remember that that's the first shower of the day. I didn't take one this morning!!!!...

It's dark again in Luang Prabang and tomorrow I'm leaving. Going to get something to eat now. Decent and good food. Tomorrow I'll go for the rice noodle soup for breakfast :-)