Gentle Luang Prabang- Laos

Buddhist monks everywhere you look: young men novices

very French -the former  colonist: hence great baguettes

crossing one of the bamboo footbridges in Luang Prabang on the Nam Khan River- to reach some semi-rural villages; good walking

Whereas the trip to the Elephant Conservation Center was filled with tranquility in nature   and the "gentle giants", Ariel and I have returned to Luang Prabang, our first entree into this very small Buddhist country with a low population. (rare for Asia)

My first and continuing impression of this country is how gentle, soft, and timid the Laotian people are.

There is a saying," The Vietnamese people plant the rice, the Cambodian people watch the rice grow and the Laotian people listen  to it."

Monks are everywhere as there are many many temples.  It is part of their education as a male Laotian.  Each boy  comes to a monastery for a minimum of  3 months for their spiritual experience as well as educational.

Even their second largest "city" is a very small, slow and languid kind of experience.  
Set between two rivers, the Mekong and the smaller Nam Khan the waterways are still used for transportation, commerce as well as tourism.  

the entire landscape is gentle.......it's the dry season now...the river's low .. and the roads very dusty!

the long boats for travel ..   down the Mekong...into Thailand....or Vietnam........or rural Laos

Ariel and the woman we bought an offering from .  Ariel and I have been dear friends since 1974; we met at Bennington.

monks are people too (ask me about Sri Lanka?!)

Tuk-tuk

walking along the delightful Mekong River

I felt immediately safe here bicycling around the town as the traffic is tuk-tuks, motorcycles and small busses. Everything is small scale (including the people.)
 Among the population are well-fed and tended dogs, not the usual scrappy and mangy creatures one avoids.

vegan buffet at the night market


 Originally part of the Thai kingdom, the people are comprised of several ethnic groups being the Lu (dominant tribe- Thai origin) Hmong (the highlanders, Chinese features), Khamu (Austro-Asiatic, Magyar features+ very white skin). The range of how people look is broad, but we all agree that the Laotian people are very beautiful.  

The Buddhism they practice is Theravada (as is Sri Lanka,Cambodia +Thailand). The emphasis is 3 teachings: all is impermanent,
life is suffering and there is no "self". It is the oldest form of Buddhism.  This philosophy is deep and quite prescient for the times. I just give a small glimpse into it, but there is so much more.
  

Our days are filled with walking and exploring;easily done.  People are very friendly and still not used to seeing Westerners (not jaded). The rhythm is very slow and the cadence is a nice change from the usual hustle-bustle.  It's hot and the river(s) are always close by to catch a breeze and observe men repairing their fishing nets, painting their boats or children splashing in the rather brown Mekong.
The old city is completely taken over by hotels, inns, guest houses, restaurants, stores and of course temples.   It is the hub of the tourism trade and westerners.  Outside of the old city you are more apt to see Laotian people going about their lives.  It's pretty charming and certainly less impoverished than I witnessed in Cambodia.

young monks playing with the well appreciated Man's Best Friend

well tended garden by the river

travelin' woman