(as my friend Irene Chua says)
English lesson
What’s your favourite country?
Laos, the lovable sleeping beauty between its famous neighbours Thailand, Myanmar, China, Vietnam and Cambodia.
PDR doesn’t really mean ‘Please, don’t rush’, it’s a common joke of the Laotians themselves with a slight touch of self-irony. So as a visitor I, too, relax and enjoy their kindness and generosity, as an older person I am pleased with the respect and consideration they show me, and as a European I simply hope that all their positive character traits will stick with me.
You don’t have to be rich: 1$ is 21.937 kip. Mental maths: forget it, I don’t distinguish 20.000 from 200.000, even 2.000 is a problem.
Wats everywhere (ladies, cover your shoulders and your knees, gents, too. Fellow Europeans: this is not the beach or the gym!)
Wat Ho Pha Bang with an important Buddha statue inside, but … no photos. It’s part of the Palace Museum. Climb up the stairs, take off your sandals, peep inside, and shoot a mental photo.
Call it forest, call it jungle, nature is abundant. The really cool people go ziplining through the treetops. I prefer to go photo hunting and all I catch is a butterfly. Where the heck is the Indochinese tiger?
Kuangsi Waterfalls: take a bath there. It’s refreshing after the climb up to the top of the mountain. Make sure your arms are strong enough to pull yourself up to scramble out of the deep pond.
Buddha statues everywhere: don’t count them and don’t go looking for unique design and style! Forget art history, meditate!
What’s your favourite town?
Luang Prabang with a silent “r” is NOT the capital, the name means “Royal Buddha Image”. The town centre on the peninsula between the Nam Khan and the Mekong River is so pretty and picturesque with its numerous wats, with its traditional and French colonial houses that it was declared a World Heritage Site in 1995. I love this place.
From Phou Si Mountain you overlook the whole town, if you are able to get up there at 35° C and 96% humidity, chastely covering your shoulders with a blouse. That’s where I started to put electrolytes into my waterbottle.
Nice cafés and restaurants everywhere, particularly along the Mekong river. And the coffee is sooooo good.
What’s your favourite job?
Teaching, even without the Dharmachakra position of hands and fingers, is extremely gratifying.
As teachers from all over the world, we are working together with our lovely Lao counterparts, enjoying each other’s company and learning from one another. The lady teachers wear a Lao skirt, very elegant and quite warm.
“Sabaidee!” ສະບາຍດີ
Education is improving! In Luang Prabang the situation is quite promising. Students of all ages take English courses after school, employees before and after work. Many of them have smartphones (even here a lesson starts: “Please, put your phone away!”) and the kids have little motorbikes to travel home with their siblings after lessons. Courageous parents, traffic is abundant but not rowdy. There is a huge difference in access to education between the city and the countryside.
What’s your favourite language?
ehm …. English
The monks and novices come in for English lessons in the morning after having meditated since 3 or 4 o’clock. Little wonder, they are a bit drowsy. Singing and moving usually helps activate tired students but the monks are not supposed “to do sports”.
Instead of “Stand up, stand up, sit down, sit down”, we play engaging word games and do a little geography using the inflatable globe I brought along. “Where’s Italy?” “Where is Laos?” We are having fun!
What’s your favourite river?
The Mekong is 4.350 km long and a large part of it flows through Laos. Its water is muddy brown, a natural fertiliser. And fish thrive in it.
How about a swim in the Mekong River?
Rather, travel upstream and visit the Buddha caves!
Or go on a sunset cruise with your friends!
Included: spring roll, mojito or beerlao, and music.
What’s your favourite colour?
Orange: like the monks’ robes, like the light, like the flame (of the Buddha’s teachings)!
Feeding the monks is a ritual. Or call it almsgiving. It needs some preparation: get up at 2 o’clock at night to cook sticky rice. It’s a long and tricky process, but sticky rice is convenient because it comes in one big lump, from which you take off small chunks to put into the monks’ alms bowls. Bring along 60 or 70 small packs of biscuits. Dress decently (long skirt, shoulders covered) and go to the street where the alms round takes place. In the dark, you see the monks in their bright orange robes approaching, bring your food bowl to your forehead, and when the monk is in front of you, lift a handful of food to your forehead and gently place everything into his bowl, without touching either robe or bowl. And this goes on for about an hour. Don’t be surprised when some ill-informed tourists in shorts and belly-free top get in the way to take pictures of the monks. They don’t know any better.
On my first night in Luang Prabang I went to see the Festival of Lights. A long fire boat parade wheels through Luang Prabang to the riverside where the boats are carried down to the Mekong River and float away going up in flames. They are made of orange coloured paper and bamboo with candles inside. You can buy offerings to the Buddha, to the river Mekong “the mother of all things”, or to the nagas. That way you ask for forgiveness for having polluted the river and you avert bad luck. The fire boat behind me represents the nagas. I love nagas (serpent spirits) and take pictures everywhere I see them!
I was so fascinated that I lost my group and not yet having a Lao sim card I couldn’t use the gps or call someone.
Luck is when a tuktuk driver understands what you are saying and knows the place you want to go to.
to be continued
cheers Gerburg
gerburgkamm 
Gerburg, sono molto felice per te. Quando ritorni dobbiamo trovarci (voglio sapere tutto,tutto).
Un beso,
Georgina
einfach abenteuerlich schön!
viele liebe Grüsse
Karin🤓
Super! Eine sehr interessante und bereichernde Erfahrung! Viel Spaß noch. Liliana
Awesome and captivating memories of your inspiring travel to Laos with a purpose and for a purpose… both goals which you have achieved. 👍🏻👏🏻
lovely thanks for sharing your trip as i wait for more pics and infos. You have not aged at all from your Visit to kenya.
Take care stay safe. Jitu Haria Kenya
Thank you, I’m working on the follow up,Cheers Gerburg
Yahoo Mail: cerca, organizza, prendi il controllo della tua casella di posta
Hey Gerburg,
das ist ja ein toller Bericht!!! Und eine tolle Initiative!!! Schreibst Du mal ein paar Details, wie man Organisatoren kontaktet? Oder vllt reicht es ja, “travel with a purpose” zu googeln, versuch ich gleich mal.
Vielen Dank auch für die spektakulären Fotos von den spektakulären Plätzen!!! Dir eine wunderbare Adventszeit, frohe Weihnachten und guten Rutsch!!!
Lauter liebe Grüsse von
Chris Nolte