6/27/13
Luang Prabang-> Mekong River
Yesterday can be described with one word: Rough. We were up at 5:00 and out the door by 5:30 to witness the alms given to monks. Basically, every morning around 5:30-6:00, the monks from the local temples line up carrying bowls strapped around their shoulders. People from the community sit along the street and dish out food into their bowls. Women must sit and men can stand along the street. I bought a large bowl of sticky rice as my offering. Before they pass by and before you start to give them food, you make a wish or a prayer. After receiving their food, they al go back to the temple and have a breakfast prepared, as well as a lunch. All of their eating must be before noon because they don't eat any dinner.
We lined up and those of us that bought food put it in their bowls. They are not allowed to talk and really aren't allowed to make eye contact. It was very cool to see how many people come out everyday to give them food. It was also cool to see how young some of the monks were. Apparently, you can be a monk at any age as they offer schooling for monks who are of school age.
At about 6:15 we headed back to the hotel to relax for about 45 minutes and at 7:00 we loaded up a truck to head to the "pier" to pick up our boat.
As soon as we arrived, I realized why it might have been a good idea to bring a big travel backpack instead of a rolling bag- there were steep stairs going down to the boat. I thought I would be cool and try to carry it myself but I gave up and paid a porter to help me bring it down.
As we approached the boat, I tried to fully grasp what I was looking at. The boat is super long and skinny with no windows, just open air. There are a bunch of old car seats for the seats lined up throughout. The back of the boat literally looks like a little apartment because, well, it is. The captain of the boat lives there with his family. There's a kitchen, bathroom, beds, dressers, and even a clothesline in the "apartment." I really had never seen anything like it before.
We boarded our boat for our 10+ hour trip down the muddy Mekong. The scenery was nice- trees, mountains, goats, cows, sand, and water. But the novelty of it wore off about an hour into the ride. I had fully charged my Kindle and my phone but I knew I had to save some power for the 10+ hour boat ride the next day, too, as the village we were staying at had limited or no electricity. So as we made our way up the longest river in Asia, I read, slept, read, looked at scenery, slept, and looked at more scenery.
Finally around 5:30/6:00 we made it to the village. We brought our backpacks with us (instead of our big bags we packed smaller overnight bags for the homestay) and got off the boat to meet the chief of the village. He was a very kind and welcoming man. His village has 65 houses and 400 people living there. The name of the village is Ban Don Chen. We made our way up the steep hill through the village. There were little houses on stilts everywhere. There was no real pathway so we were just climbing on mud/rocks. There was livestock and animals everywhere. Cows, dogs, chickens, ducks, pigs, roosters were all just wandering around aimlessly. There was also a lot of poo that we had to watch out for. As we walked around the village, so many if the local children were staring at us like they had never seen tourists before.
We checked out the village school. There was a kindergarten wing being built with 4 small classrooms. There was also a primary wing and secondary wing. Apparently the teachers actually live in little huts by school during the school year but during the summer months they go back to live in some of the bigger cities.
After checking out the town we headed back to the chief's house. The girls then divided into 2 groups of 6 because each house could only accommodate 6 beds. I decided to stay in the chief's house with Paula, Kate, Charlotte, Sarah and Stef.
We headed back to the boat for dinner. We had chicken stir fry, chicken curry, sticky rice, morning glory and pineapple. I was so hungry so I ate a lot and really quickly. The pineapple here is so good!
After dinner, we hung out on the boat until it got dark. The lights were turned on in the boat which attracted a ton of bugs. They kept flying into my shirt, in my eyes, and all over me. At about 8:30, I was semi relieved when we were going back to the house.
The chief's house had a lower part underneath with a table and chairs. There was a squat toilet and a "shower" that consisted of a bucket of river water and a tile floor. There was no running water. There was no fan. There was limited electricity. Yikes.
We headed up to our loft that had flat mats on the floor with a pillow and a comforter covered by a pink mosquito net. We grabbed our things to brush our teeth with and headed out to the yard. We brushed our teeth amongst the livestock using bottled water. We then headed back to our mats and laid down. I noticed that I had bugs in my net already, along with a gecko that Kate very kindly captured and released.
We asked one of the guys in the house to turn off the light. As I laid on my mat, I could feel the sweat forming on my head, as well as bugs flying and crawling around on me. Considering I'm a person who hates camping for these very reasons, I knew it was going to be a long night.
I slept off and on for a few hours. I would wake up and hear dogs bark or a rooster crow. I also heard people walking around us on the creaky boards. We had to be up at 4:45 so I was praying that time would come soon because I had to pee and didn't want to use the squat toilet in the house.
When our wake up call came, I was so relieved that I popped right out of bed, grabbed my stuff and headed downstairs.
That was one rough day! Up at 5 to see the monks, 10 hours on a boat, bugs everywhere, and sleeping in a hot house on a flat mattress. Did I mention that I haven't showered now in a couple days?! It's funny how quickly your standards of cleanliness go out the window when there is literally nothing you can do about it. Let's just say the next shower I take may be the longest one of my life!
Until next time!