Laos - Luang Prabang II

• A holiday in Luang Prabang -  Ancient capital of Laos

When I was in Luang Prabang, I was like living in a different world, slow internet, sleeping on wooden floor, eating natural fresh vegetables, roasted river fish, in a quiet space green mountains, mountain grass. Moreover, whenever I  looked around, everywhere I could just see the curved roof of the temple and the yellow of the tower, of the robes, where the gentle face of the Buddha is present everywhere from the temple, the street, in every house, on the image, cloth.

Here I have seen not many imprints of modern comfort life; people look small and austere but they are always cheerful but not noisy.

• The most Buddhism populous city in the world

 Probably I guess this might the most Buddhism populous city in the world as I knew that Laos was a country with about 90% of populations following Buddhism. I could see the color of their orange shirt. Every morning at 6pm there are pagodas floating in the drum (in this tiny city there are 33 ancient temples, not to mention new temples and surrounding areas).

At 6.30 am, the monks' union went in the alms round. Laotian people with a basket in their hands were sitting by the side of the road, putting rice in each basket. The tourists also imitate, buy a basket standing by the road waiting to put in the basket for the monk. When the bowl in hand near full the monks return to the temple, so if you want to see alms must get up before 7am. This is also the most beautiful and characteristic of Luang Prabang. The hotel is right opposite Sene Pagoda so spoiled for viewing, the street itself has more than a dozen ancient temples.

 I like the hostel is the right type of house made of teak, cool and beautiful Teak wood. From the hotel you can see the Khan River behind the house, or go straight ahead in about 5 minutes to the Mekong River. Two banks of river embankment stone, planted a lot of coconut, me and cotton stalks large, spike wrong fruit. Sloping down the river, planting all sorts of vegetables looked delicious.

• Luang Prabang - the early morning

In the early morning I went for a walk, because shops were closed at the time, and few tourists were in the streets. I watched the monks go alms and then I climbed the top of Phousi hill - who rub 350 stone steps high, not everyone can climb! Phousi Hill full of Champa trees but this season new flowers. dear. Phousi Temple on the top of the hill has a glittering golden stupa visible from afar. Standing on the railings of the tower can look out to the four sides of the city - beautiful as the dawn with white clouds floating in the middle of the mountain and fly on the red tile roof, Sparkling the golden towers of the temples.

View from the top.

• On the top of Phousi Hill- Golden Stupa

From the top of the foothills of Phousi Hill, there are many Buddha statues in the caves, niches, the altar, and the small ones, connected by a ladder system and the Naga Snake Handrail. Statues of all sizes, describing the legend in the Buddhist scriptures, the statue are also brilliant gold. Visiting the temple and down the mountain also takes about two hours. In the city there is the royal palace and the Xien Thong Pagoda is the largest, the massive architecture with gold sculptures, colored glass, and porcelain on the walls. The temple here usually has eight floors of curved roof, the fresco reliefs are directly touching the wall, but inside only worship Buddha because the Lao people follow the Hinayana. Every temple planted a lot of Champa flowers, white, pink and red, the scent is so tender.

Taking a photo with a stupa!!! 

The Stupa is the symbol of the lotus, built in front of temples, or of stone or gold. In every place where the pavilion is clean, guests have to remove sandals outside. The monks are mostly young, besides praying and almsgiving, they also work as ordinary people: cut down wood, make house, grow vegetable, inside the compound behind the temple. 30 km north of the city is the Pak Ou cave on the banks of the Mekong, which is famous for its huge statues of Buddha statues brought by local people.

• Pak Ou Cave - Buddha Cave 

30 km north of the city is the Pak Ou cave on the banks of the Mekong, which is famous for its huge collection of statues of Buddha statues brought by local people. I rent a motor boat to go there, also to admire the two banks of the Mekong. Mr. Vat, the owner of the boat, was very gentle, speaking English, on our way to the cave, he told me the story of cave.

He said that, hundreds of years ago, during a battle with the enemy ( I guess the enemy is Vietnam, I am sure because we used to dominate this region for about 200 years,)  Luang Prabang fell, to avoid the destruction of the enemy, the monks brought many Buddha statues, boat into the wild mountain asylum. When it came to this river, suddenly storms surfaced, the boat of the monks capsized and drifted to the hill. Assuming that this is the Buddha's mind, the monks bring all the Buddha statues to hide here. As time goes by, the number of Buddha statues increases.

• Pak Ou Cave - the sacred site of Buddhism

The second hypothesis he mentioned was that the Pak Ou cave was the sacred site from before Buddhism in Laos. This theory is derived from the belief in animism, or polytheism, which was very popular in ancient times and Lao people were no exception. And it is said that the Pak Ou cave is located at the confluence of the three rivers and here it was once used as an area for worshiping the river.

Moreover, I have seen the place where the wine is made, the container of wine, the drink, the weavers in the loom again, then buy wine and brocade as gifts. Hang Ou is crowded with tourists, but it is beautiful because the cave is on a limestone mountain, soaking down the Mekhong River, the villages on the surrounding hills look dreamy. Buddha statues of bronze, stone, wood are countless, on every rock niche, wall standing in the cave. In the afternoon go back to the city for night market. Luang Prabang has many ethnic groups, besides Laotian majority, H'Mong, Thai, Khmu, Lu ... so many marketplaces, silverware, wooden furniture, rattan and bamboo paper Or made into flower lampshades, all made of natural materials.

• What did I like about Laos people?

There is a special thing that I like in Lao people are light, quiet, even bars do not play loud but very gentle but very cheerful, even if you are not familiar. But look at each other laugh, say "Sabaidi". The sellers, performers of art always thank customers "khap lai hybrid" (thank you very much), hands folded in front of chest. And many guide tour people are very enthusiastic, although their English is not fluent.

Lao people are very humorous; I first came, wandering around the city, down the bamboo bridge across the river,

"Oh, you're so handsome, do you want to marry my daughter, she's guiding tourists in the village?"

This makes me happy smiled hihi! Lao children are very good and polite, besides the school they also sell souvenirs to tourists but not luggage sticks and also save money.

Most of the children look neatly dressed but cleanly neat and do not seem sickly sick. It is sunny that they do not wear a hat, at noon they can bathe naked for hours, play happily, fall out of the water without a child sure to be three or four. In the evening I watched the national fashion show, watching traditional music and dancing in the garden, playing in the garden, good fun, not cluttered. The Luang Prabang women are small and white, laugh very fresh, their voice is mellow. The casual dress of the ladies including the students is also a shirt and a darker brocade with brocade pattern in the bear looks very nice.

• Kuangsi Falls

Some local guys even jump down to swim in this waterfull. Amazing!

On the third day in Luang Prabang, I ride a tuk tuk to visit the Kuangsi Falls, 28km south of the city. Waterfalls are located in the mountain forbidden forest. I have traveled a lot but this is the first time I saw the true primary forest with tall, tall trees up to ten people hugging, lots of orchids and other kinds of honeysuckle flowers, birds chirping, orchids Wear each bunch on the trunk. The bear conservation area is also in this forest. There are more than a dozen fat black bears rounded, set up tents on the old trees, including hammocks for lying again. Each one is painted a portrait, including the name, on the large wooden boulders, set up at the entrance to the reserve. Now it's early in the rainy season so there is not much waterfall but still beautiful with four layers of water flowing. Each cascade falls down to a large, clear blue lake between bamboo forest, dip, silver fish swimming in flocks. Western friends jump down to the falls showered with interest.

At noon, I ate rice in Kuangsi, with sticky rice, grilled fish and grilled pork dipped in green paprika, and lots of fresh vegetables. I like food in Luang Prabang because of its fresh and raw vegetables, not too salty, spicy or fatty. Each meal tastes a few Lao dishes but most prefer the Luang Prabang salad and grilled fish dishes with grilled fish and sausage.

• Strange local products. 

In the morning before I went to visit the local markets, the best thing was the early morning market: a variety of greens, catfish like calves or more to hit the river, fruit and dried spices. Very strange, honey be broken in pieces, in honey, flying bees. Most are buffalo meat products: baked buffalo skin, buffalo tail, buffalo ears, fresh and dried buffalo meat, dried buffalo, you personally do not know what kind of cooking? My friends bought some dried buffalo meat and boiled sausage (made with pork) as a gift. Four days pass quickly. Leaving Luang Prabang shining bright yellow to come back Hanoi cold and dark.

Four days have passed so fast! Hope to return to Luang Prabang soon!

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