Luang Prabang - alms giving, night market and more

Left for Luang Prabang at mid-day, and arrived quickly via high speed train. The train took less than an hour, much more efficient than the 6 hour drive over poor roads that was necessary until recently!

Luang Prabang is a UNESCO heritage site, and I understand why. The town is a really beautiful mix of French colonial and traditional Asian architecture, located on a peninsula at the confluence of 2 rivers - the Mekong and the Nam Khan. And so many monks, including novices who are boys and young men who may or may not remain as a monk when they finish their education.

On our first evening, we visited the night market. Stopped at several stalls to taste the local foods, all so delicious. Really helpful to have the guide to bring us to the authentic and tasty places!

The local sausage and sweet & sour jerky here were phenomenal

Also did a little souvenir shopping before dinner, which for me consisted of a couple of these Lao Gin and Tonics, made with local gin served with lemongrass, kafir lime and their leaves, as well as a slice of pizza my trip mate Dan graciously shared with me. I was pretty full from the extensive snacking along the way.

  I need to replicate this G&T at home.

Got up at dawn the next morning to participate in the local tradition of alms giving. The Buddhist monks here are not allowed to cook, so walk the streets each morning to accept alms of food and money from locals (as well as many tourists like us). It was a pretty incredible experience. I was busy doling out sticky rice from a large basket so did not get too many photos the first morning, but went out again the second to take a few.

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After breakfast, three of us went to the elephant sanctuary, which I will cover is a separate post because it was so epic….but that evening, we also had a pretty epic send off. We went to the home of a local family, who taught us how to cook one of the best local dishes we’d had (minced pork stuffed and wrapped around a lemongrass shoot) to make floral offerings, and to weave markets used to designate ownership (deceptively difficult to master!)

Studious as always

Before serving us a delicious home cooked meal, they blessed us with another Baci ceremony, with the shaman (aka family grandfather) leading the ceremony and many neighborhood elders joining in. Beautiful tradition and a really special send off.

A great couple of days in Luang Prabang to end the SE Asian leg of the trip.