Luang Prabang Day 4, 30 January 2006

This morning I caught the sai bat ceremony in the street. It seems that this is a daily activity among the locals. Lining the streets were the Thais and the Laotians. But this particular morning I saw a couple of westerners also participating in the ceremony. It was over soon. I was in a hurry to get some breakfast and head back to the guest house because I am meeting up with Kaew.

I first met Kaew when I was looking for a guest house when I arrived at Luang Prabang. He had an available room in front of the house which I did not like because it was likely to be noisy. So I ended up not getting any room in the guest house where he is working. He seemed to be a sport about it because when I passed by the next morning to inquire about the bikes, he said hi to me because he remembered me. I was planning to go to the Pak Ou caves or the buddha caves to I pased by his guest house to enquire whether he can make any arrangement for me. He said it would be expensive. It cost $30 dollars. I figured, this would be the same cost as entering Disneyland in 2001 only the place I will see is probably better. We arranged to meet at his guest house at 9am.

So 9am on the dot I was on my way to his guest house and he was riding a bike from somewhere and he greeted me in the street. He led me to the boat pier and he told me that we are going in his half brother's boat. The boat is not bad. It was actually longer than the boat that Cocoy and I took to go around Tonle Sap and it cost the same for half a day per person. First stop was going across the Mekong river. The people were very busy with their morning activities. People were tending to their farms, washing their clothes, men were fixing their boats, some women were washing their onion leeks before these are sent to the market.









Then we went up to go to the temple. I thought that I would not be climbing up any mountain today but I was wrong. Along the way, we had to pay an entrance ticket to the abandoned temple. The the little kids were selling flowers or birds. One of them was a little girl called Muan. She was so persistent that she followed us up the hill. I told her that I can take her pictures and she obliged. Anyway she looked so cute holding the basket holding the birds in her hands. I hope her pictures come out nicely.






Then it was a walk downhill to go to the next temple and the temple in the cave. It was hot in the cave and we did not stop there fore long.






I was also in a hurry because Seng had been calling twice. So we had to cross the sand dunes in the middle of the Mekong to reach his boat and we were on our hour and a half trip going to the Pak Ou cave. The trip was quite pleasant. The scenery mostly green. Then with the constant drone of the boat, I was lulled into a nap. Until I remembered that I still have not yet updated my travel diary so I did some writing.

I think it was a good idea for me to hire the boat by myself because, I work slowly when I take my pictures. In fact a lot of people whom I have taken pictures of complain that I take too long a time. If I joined a group, the people I will be going with will not understand the time I am taking so in this way it was worth it.

We finally got to the cave. The cave was really small with the opening looking like the opened mouth of a dragon with the stairs zigzagging up to where the buddha statues are. I took some colored and black and white photos here. It is just annoying that some people do not care that they are blocking the light. So I have to patiently wait. Finally both brothers indicated to me that they were hungry. After all it was already 3pm. So we headed across the river.







The restaurant we went to belonged to an elder sister of Kaew. A younger sister is working with them. We ordered the usual fare. The surprise though was the somtam which tasted differently and was quite spicy. The two brothers ordered lao beer. Pretty soon both of them were turning red, not because of exposure to the sun. After our meal we have to head back to Luang Prabang. We stopped by the sand dunes where the rocks are because I wanted to take a picture of the mountains with the rocks on the foreground. I also asked Kaew if he wanted his picture taken. He agreed to do so. I asked if Seng wanted to do so as well. But then he had already taken off his clothes and was bathing in the river. So I continued working on Kaew picture and soon a freshly bathed Seng joined use and he also agreed to have his pictures taken. I think I took 2 pitures of Seng in Black and White and the other photo of Kaew was taken in color because the hasselblad already ran out of film.

After this we were on our way back to Luang Prabang and watching the scenery turning gold basking in the light of the setting sun.

I met up with Kaew and Seng for dinner. They led me to a very popular Korean barbeque place. In cold weather, this is actually a good idea because the charcoal is providing some heat to you as well as cooking your food. We ordered more Lao beer for both brothers. He was selling me the idea of going to his home town. I told him, I will pass by his guest house the next day because I will borrow a bike after I visit Bong's family to take their pictures. I went to the market to buy some oranges and tamaring. I am quite tired. I headed back using a tuk tuk who was trying to volunteering to take me to a disco. He was even trying to pick up more passengers along the way. When I got home, I changed to my jammies and went to sleep.