By Way of Asia

Luang Prabang, Laos: Greetings from Luang Prabang! Luang Prabang, the old capital of Laos, is an absolutely charming little town filled with sidewalk cafes, old cars, and beautiful colonial buildings. It’s our favorite city/town so far, and we’ve enjoyed it so much we’ve decided to stay longer than planned. One of the first things you might notice when coming to Luang Prabang is all the monks - we’ve heard there are in fact over 1,000 monks in the town and you can’t go outside without spotting them in their bright orange garb - sweeping the temple stairs, sitting under a tree, or even bartering in the night market. At dawn every morning, the monks rise and walk the town barefoot in single file talking “alms,” small donations of rice, money, or other gifts from the kneeling townspeople. According to anyone who has witnessed it, it is a must-see site. So, despite the obnoxiously early hour (e.g., 5:30am), we got our butts out of bed to see the procession for ourselves. Although we did see many monks pass by - and it was definitely beautiful to watch - we think we may have missed something because we only saw about 50 monks, not the 1,000 or so that we’ve been told participate. Oh well - perhaps we’ll try again tomorrow.

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