Laotian sunsets and sunrises plus a few more Liebsters

Before my post, I would quickly like to introduce three more of the  six bloggers to whom I forwarded the Liebster award.

Jenny has a delightful blog called the The Lime Walk. 

She moved from South Africa to Australia but also spends time in her house in France.  She has got the travel bug like I do but writes about a wide range of interests.  She is a lot of fun!

Ruth from Clothing Fixations is a Brit who moved to Sydney and gives me my dose of the good life down under with a healthy helping of fashion and well edited outfits.  Her posts always make me have pangs for Australia and it makes me laugh when she now thinks 18 degrees Celsius is cold!

Chinwags and Tittle Tattles is a London blog by MsMadge that covers many topics and you never know what she is going to write about next.  She has varied interests and writes meaty posts so I am sure she will have something for you to be curious about.

All the ladies are super friendly so do pop in for a bit of a gander.

I think you will really enjoy the ladies' answers as well!

Don't forget that my giveaway ends Tuesday morning so let me know if you want to be entered in either the scarf or perfume raffle.

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The last time I left you in Laos, I was hypnotized  by the sunsets.

The sunrises seemed far too ambitious at the time but the reason I had to get up early was to behold the legendary sunrise alms giving that Luang Prabang is known for.

But the first two nights I was alone, I had full intention of getting up to see this ceremony but I had the best nights of sleep I have had in years! If you have any sleep issues then you have to go there!! I thought it was a fluke but I slept well the whole 4 nights I was there plus my friend said he hadn't slept that well in ages either.

My friend who was supposed to see me in Angkor Wat was finally going to join me in town for the last two nights and I was so pleased. Between you and me, I was completely fine wandering solo but being alone finally hit me in Laos.  The last time I had seen a familiar face was in Bangkok which was two weeks earlier.

On the day he arrived, I moved hotels as I normally do when staying anywhere for more than a couple of nights.  It gives me a new angle and perspective on the town and a chance to experience a different neighborhood and meet more local people.

I got on the tuk tuk to go from Xienthgong Palace to my new base in Satri House.  The conservatism of Laos is much more enforced than in Thailand. Standard backpacking attire is not accepted.

But as you might guess, this ride to the other hotel was not smooth!

This place is not even a city. It is a small town. You can walk from one end to the other in about 20 minutes.

 This is a map of the main bit of town!

 So I just assumed that he would know where he was going as the other hotel was also well known.  

Oh no he didn't!  

He didn't know where it was supposedly and 
we had to stop twice and ask directions.  

Next time I go to Asia, 
I am going to say a daily rosary for the 
patron saint of useless taxi / tuk tuk/ boat drivers. 

We stopped the tuk tuk coming and he gave us the directions...

I finally checked into Satri House which was a former residence of one of the Laotian princes.  Think the equivalent is Clarence House.

 I loved the bamboo against the French colonial buildings.

One of these is "Do not disturb" and the other is "Please make up room."  I can't remember which was which now nor could I remember then! How convoluted...

But the hotel was lovely and had a proper pool that provided everyone with panama hats. 

I had no pictures of myself until my friend came.

I had an itinerary planned for my friend so I went out and borrowed a moped so we could explore outside of Luang Prabang.  I didn't have a driver's licence but in Laos all you need is money and a helmet.  So I paid my rental fee and borrowed a helmet and I did a female Jack Kerouac impersonation in Laos.

She was a beaut!

The country side was so serene that I went once alone and 

once with my friend to the famous 

Kuang Si waterfalls about twenty miles outside town.

That's me below swimming to put my head under the waterfall like 

the monks do to seek enlightement. 

PS Didn't work.

There was a rope where that girl in the center is trying to reach.

It was the tarzan rope where you would swing into the pool.

I did it but ripped my nail but it was so worth it.

There was also a bear refuge center.

The bears were very comfy now indeed!

Considering bears can climb trees, 

I really didn't see how that fence was meant to protect us...

Sometimes, it isn't the thought that counts. 

But hopefully, these bears were metaphysical.

The countryside was a very comforting landscape; perfect for driving through as it isn't too distracting but gentle on the eye.

Gentle mountain ranges that eventually lead to the 

famous peaks of the town, Vang Vieng. 

Great lattice work that forms walls of a hut.

Young teak forests were everywhere.  

My friend was the one who knew his botany.. 

We stopped at a Hmong village on the way back to town.  The Hmong people are an ethnic group that has suffered discrimination since they moved from Southern China in the 18th century. But it got exacerbated when they allied with the Americans and fought against the communists in the 1970's.

A four year old babysitting his baby brother.

The people have a rich culture in arts and crafts.

There's always one in every village.

This poor chicken had the worst case of alopecia.

We returned to the hotel where there was a petanque center just by the hotel where men gambled and drank all day and night.

We went to join the other tourists watching the sunset as I did every single night I was there.

I know you are not meant to play with fire.

It seems so civilized and proper to say thank you to the sun for 

all the work it did that day.

 (I have been told I must have been a Druid in a former life.)

I loved this deconstruction / reconstruction of a carrot leaf top. 

( It was salad stuck into a hollowed out carrot.)

The next morning we planned on seeing the alms giving ceremony but we were a little late.  We saw the monks but I didn't want to go too close or make noise with my vespa and be disrespectful. 

So we head out to the river again to see the sunrise instead.

That's me and my friend!

I don't know many places where you get both 

an amazing sunrise and sunset. 

We then went to the temple in Mount Phousi to survey the town from the highest point.

There are live birds in the straw cages.  

You buy them to set them free to earn karma points.

That's me walking back down from the summit.

I told myself that the next morning I would get up early enough 

to see the alms giving ceremony.

It was the last morning and opportunity to view it properly.  

But my hotel didn't wake me up in time. 

So I drove the scooter to the relevant area but only saw it from afar.

Then when I thought I would go to see the sunrise, 
I saw another line of monks receiving their daily portions of rice given to them by devout Buddhists.  

Those tourists are being extremely rude by being so close and flashing their cameras at the monks.  There are signs everywhere that ask that tourists keep a polite distance and not to use flash during this ceremony. 

I was upset by this and decided to have a coffee at my first hotel and commiserate that I didn't get a good vantage point nor the gumption to act like paparazzi.

Just as I was about to park my bike I saw the monks getting the last few portions of rice from the public that is the only source of food they receive all day. ( They only eat once a day.)

I watched and was touched by this most humble of gestures; 

monks asking for help and being at the complete mercy of the population to feed them. 

 Poor children pick up food for their family that the monks pass up.

I waited until the monks returned to the temple and 

as I sought to park my scooter elsewhere,

 I saw a sight that is now a beautiful memory.

They were monks from a temple on the other side of the river who came to town to beg for their daily rations.

That had to be the most stunning morning commute 

I have ever come across.

I think this should be in the next editorial of Vogue or 

the subject of an Hermes advertising campaign, don't you?