This morning, I got up really early (6 am !!! you imagine !!) in order to see the walk of the monks during which they get their daily food from the local population. Mainly very old womem are sitting on the side of the street with bowls of "sticky rice" - a local speciality which is REALLY sticky !!! - and they put a little bit of it in the little containers which the monks carry around their necks. Afterwards, I went to the food market. It is incredible what kind of fruits and vegetables they have here, but also other kind of somehow weird things, at least for European taste, especially living bats (for my German non English readers: lebende Fledermaeuse !!) tied together with their feet, moving around. As far as I understood they get fried and are considered as delicacies.
Afterwards, at 8 (time that I usually am not yet awake - even if I have to work...) I went for a boat ride on the Mekong river for 4 hours to the caves of Pak Ou, an old place of worship where people placed Buddha statues over centuries. There are thousands of them in these caves. Quite impressive. It was also nice to float on the Mekong and to look at the life in the villages on either side: Fishermen, people working on the fields on the terraces along the riverbank, other boats passing by. We also visited two of these villages, one specialised in the production of LaoLao, a Rice-Schnaps of over 50 degrees, and another one specialised in decorative paper production from mulberrytrees, with nice leaves in it, and in weaving of traditional cloth made from Lao cotton and silk, died with natural coulors. It is actually extremely difficult to resist buying things as they are all extremely beautiful and money goes directly to the local communities - much better than quite a lot of development projects going on here. Sounds like a good excuse, no ? I hear quite a bit of criticism here, especially about some of the programmes of the World Bank. The EU - fortunately - seems to be one of the best aid donors with useful projects, but there still seems to be quite some room for improvement.
In the afternoon I went to book a one day cooking class for Laotian cuisine for tomorrow and then I went to the Red Cross, where they have a traditional Laotian herbal sauna with massage. This does not only feel good, but you also contribute to the work of the Red Cross on the spot. The one hour massage was just great and very relaxing. The herbal sauna smelled like a dish that you would eat at a Thai restaurant: lemongrass, ginger and other things which I could not yet distinguish (the cooking class only takes place tomorrow...)
Tonight I went to the National Theatre which performed "The Golden Deer and the Abduction of Sida" (a local princess). While unusual for European years, the music was quite nice and the costumes extremely luxurious. I have however to admit, that at some point I almost fell asleep as the jet leg and all the "getting up early" is a bit too much for me...
Afterwards a nice dinner (a fish stew (Mekong fish) with lemongrass and chili and sticky rice). Food is extremely delicious and the best is to always get a cold and extremeluy tasteful BeerLao with it. It is THE national beverage. Heard enough of it, getting hungry ?? Wait until I post the pictures... ;-)
Tomorrow, I will probably not have the time to write as I will head to the airport in the evening to fly to Vientiane, Laos' capital.
2 comments:
Seems like you are starting to get accustomed to the local environment; although getting up at 6AM... you must be on holiday! Be sure to eat something strange, like the bats, i'm sure it tastes like chicken. Have fun in your cooking class and learn well so that you can cook us a nice dinner when you return.
Is the picture of the boat the one that you were on for four hours in the Mekong?
Your pictures are great. I look forward to seeing more of them (without the downloading problem).
Travel safely.
mo, the boat I went on is a different one. I will post a picture maybe tommorrow.
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