Once again, we have fallen a bit behind in our updates - it seems like when we have the time to write, we are in a place without internet access and when we are in a place with internet, we have no time to write. Since we last wrote, we visited Laos and the town of Luang Prabang. We began our time in Laos with a two-day journey on the "slow-boat" down the Mekong River from the Thailand border to Luang Prabang. The boat ride gave us a wonderful view into the life of the people who live along the river - children laughing and swimming in the water while their mothers washed clothes beside them and their fathers fished a bit further downstream. However, the tiny wooden benches on the boat were horribly uncomfortable by about hour three so after two, ten-hour days we were very ready to disembark the boat. Luang Prabang is a beautiful, French colonial styled town, with one of the largest Buddhist monasteries in the country. Although there are definitely tourists in Luang Prabang, we felt that Laos seemed far more undiscovered than elsewhere we have traveled and it was a nice change from Thailand. In Thailand, we felt like tourists and in Laos it is easier to feel like travelers - a distinct difference.
We arrived in Luang Prabang right in time for the Buddhist New Year, when all of south-east Asia celebrates the festivities with water fights (in honor of the washing of the Buddha statures that traditionally takes place at this time of year). The water fight was unlike anything we had ever seen. There seemed to be a little boy with a squirt gun or a little old woman with a full bucket of water waiting around every corner, gleefully thrilled when they caught some unsuspecting tourists with a face-full of water. Fortunately, with the extreme heat the water actually felt nice and our clothes dried quickly. Besides watching parades and having water fights, we also took a boat ride back up the river (gluttons for punishment, I guess) to see local caves that house thousands of statues of Buddha. The caves were incredible to see: filled with the heady scent of incense and packed with local people pouring warm oil over the statues as a form of prayer and respect. We also spent a day hiking in the hills behind Luang Prabang - we visited two different villages in the mountains that showed a rural way of life that is dying out with the arrival of modernization. We both felt a small sense of sadness at the knowledge that villages like those we saw are swiftly vanishing as Laos becomes more urbanized and modernized but we also found ourselves delighting in the joy that the children and adults in the villages seemed to take in the newly installed water pump and running water to their village. Altogether a thought-provoking and beautiful day. We left Laos for Cambodia after a week and definitely felt that we could have spent longer in this beautiful country.