We got up at 5:30am to go see the procession of Buddhist monks who walk down the main street to receive alms (offerings of food usually) from people along the street. We had read to stay across the street and not use flash when taking pictures or get too close to the monks. We had also read to please not participate in the ceremony unless it was meaningful or spiritual, so we chose to just observe. Unfortunatley there were hoards of tourists (mostly Chinese) that were lined up to give alms and were inches away from the monks snapping flash photos in their faces!! It was so sad to watch and I can’t believe how much patience the monks have not to yell at one of them!! We were able to get off on a side street and watch them take alms just from some locals, which was a much better experience. Unfortunatley it was foggy and pretty dark so we weren’t able to get any good pictures.
After alms we rented a motorbike to use for the day. It was expensive just like everything else in Luang Prabang but worth it to have our own transport! We headed into town to see the morning market and found the usual produce and meat in addition to some other tasty things….see the captions on the pictures below for more details!
After the morning market we headed out to the Kuang Si waterfalls which were about 30km outside of town. We got there and parked then headed up toward the falls. First is a sunbear and moonbear sanctuary, which was interesting. The bears are native to SE Asia and are often used at bile farms or for performing. Bear bile is believed to have medicinal properties and bear gallstones are used as art. We saw all sorts of bear gallstones for sale in the markets in China. It is horrible for the bears as they are kept in tiny cages and force-fed. So sad 😦 Anyway, this was a sanctuary for rescued bears of all ages. It was fun to see them up close just sleeping or running around and playing with each other. There were even some babies that were rescued and were very cute!
After the bears we headed up towards the falls themselves. They were stunning with turquoise pools (the minerals in the water make it blue sort of like Havasupi falls in Arizona) and we were able to hike all the way above the multiple sets of falls. There were some other people there but we got there before the huge tour buses showed up and that made it a much nicer experience. Unfortunately it was cold when we left Luang Prabang so we didn’t bring swimsuits and of course by the time we got to the falls the fog had burned off and it was warming up so were pretty bummed we couldn’t swim but it was still fun to see the falls.
After that we got back on the bike and headed down the hill. The scenery was beaufitul including jungles, small villages and farms growing rice, baby lettuces, corn and other things. We tried to stop at a large local market but couldn’t find a safe place to park our motorbike. We also had it skid out on us when we hit a patch of motor oil as we were off the road near the market but we were able to jump off before it fell over. It was scary but we were almost stopped when it happened! We decided to head back towards town and check out the slowboat dock to see if we could get tickets. The navigating was really hard since some roads were closed and there is no signage so we took quite the roundabout way to get there and of course found out we couldn’t bye tickets until the day of the boat! So we headed back to town. I went to find an agency to help us get advance slowboat tickets and Michael hung out at the hotel. On my way back from getting tickets at around 4pm there started sudden drumming/gong sounds from every wat on the main street! It was super fun to see and I tried to capture a video (see below) but it doesn’t do it justice! It was cool to see the monks having fun making music, even though I’m sure it was meant to be spiritual.
We hung out at the hotel for a bit before deciding to treat ourselves to a nice dinner at Blue Lagoon. The atmosphere was lovely with excellent service and a beautiful, quiet little garden to eat in. Unfortunately after we sat down and ordered a bunch of construction noise started up behind us. Worst luck ever! The food was still pretty good (the tomato and mozzarella salad was amazing!) and we enjoyed having a night out.
Mera and Michael Travel 