Northern Laos

Runnning so late on the blog! But to be honest, we have spent quite a few days in areas without internet. We stayed two days in Luang Prabang. My dad and I took a short cooking class one evening where we tasted pork laap: gorgeous! We went to see the morning ceremony where the monks walk through the town and the locals offer them food. It is an old and important ceremony as the monks rely on these offerings for eating. I got a little frustrated and annoyed by the VERY irrespectful tourists. There are posters all over the town explaining that this ceremony is sacred and should be respected and there are some short simple rules explained: If you just wish to watch- 1 - Stand at a distance from the ceremony (preferably on the other side of the road) and if you take photos, dont use the flash If you wish to participate- 1- Dress appropriately (ie-cover shoulders and legs) 2- Dont take photos or get your friends to take photos of you Seem pretty straightforward to me. And yet, flashes were going off everywhere, tourists participating in the ceremony were too busy taking photos (with flash) to give out the food they had brought. All the girls were wearing shorts and strap tops. I couldn't help but wonder if all these people had been blind enough to miss all the posters or had simply deliberately decided to ignore the rules. Anyway, we left Luang Prabang to go further North to Udomxai. Road to get there was hellish, potholes everywhere. It was like being on a rollercoaster. It poured down rain as well, so that when we got there our bags were soaked. First thing we did when we arrived at the hotel was to hang up all our clothes to dry. We rented motorbikes and went for a drive around the town. The scenery was just beautiful and we drove through some tiny villages where people still live in wooden shacks. We then moved East, towards the border with Vietnam. We spent one night in Muang La and one night in Muang Kuah, two small villages along the way. We had bought some children's books in Lao from an NGO called “Big Brother Mouse” and handed them out to the kids in the village.