Alms/Walking/Thai Landings

One of the 'attractions' in Luang Prabang involves getting up early to watch the alms giving. This is a traditional daily activity where the local people give food to the monks for their daily meal. Some genius decided it would be a great idea to let tourists also join in, reading about this on the net suggested that its been turned into a bit of a circus, with people using flash photography, pushing people out the way to get pictures and chasing after the monks etc. This really put me off, and I thought it might be best to stay clear of it (I knew I wouldn't want to join in, but did also read that it was ok to stand on the other side of the road to watch). I had even read someone say they watch a monk discard the low quality food given to them afterwards and head to the market to get some better supplies!

Anyhow, on the last morning we did get up early and headed down the road to the closest temple (I also read that this was a good way to avoid the crowds on the main street). Just as we got there a group of monks had just left the Wat and started the procession, collecting food from the local people into their pots, before carrying on down the road towards the next stop. There were only a few other tourists around so it felt like we made the right choice (apart from one guy who did walk alongside them and follow them).

As we headed towards Mount Phousi we did see some more monks receiving alms, but this was on the main street and the behaviour of the tourists was as described on the net. I feel sorry that people have been allowed to disrupt this ceremony in such a way that, I wonder how long it will continue in its current form. On a lighter side some dogs also followed the monks which was quite funny. Also some children waited around one of the corners as the monks then shared some of the food with them (we presume they do this to help the poorer families).

Despite its name, Mount Phousi is only 150 meters in height, the rest of the town is flat though and a golden stupa sits on top which gives the town its focal point. There are about 250 steps up to the top, enough to make your heart start pumping a bit quicker. The views of the town are great, you can see both the rivers, the airport and the sunrise. It was a bit hazy, this is normal around this time of year in Asia as the farmers burn the remains of the rice paddies as they don't have machinery to cultivate the land.

Time for one last sock coffee before we got ready to leave for the airport to head for Chiang Mai - Thailand. The small piece of Laos we had seen was stunning, it wasn't on the list of places to go to last year but it always rates highly on peoples trips and you can easily see why. The rest of the country looks great too, we probably could have got there easier from Cambodia and then travelled up - but for now we were happy with what we did see, a highlight of the trip.

Propellor plane number 2 took us across the boarder to Chiang Mai - Northern Thailand. Seeing vehicles driving on the lefthand side of the road and being able to walk on a decent pavement was quite nice.

Dinner that night was a disappointing introduction; stir fried basil and chicken was lacking the same flavour that fuelled my Cambodian basil obsession a few weeks before. Tash had a local special that was fried noodles in a soupy broth. I've seen fried rice noodles before but never egg ones, it was too spicy for her to eat much so I found room for it (it was much better than my pick).

Hours travelled; 78.5
Bowls of rice; 42
Countries visited; 4