The Sabaidee of Sarah

Sabaidee. Hello in Lao. Another UNESCO World Heritage site, Luang Prabang has probably been one of my favorites thus far. With its French colonial architecture, street side cafes, ancient temples, and the most laid back locals living a slow pace in Laos time. There is just something so magical about it. Every morning Erika and I would wake around 5am to the sound of the temple drums, which starts each new day followed by the sacred ritual procession of monks who walk the streets to make merit, receiving rice and fortune cookies from the townspeople to ensure they don’t go hungry in their next lifetime.

Erika and I had a great 3 days in LP. The first day we explored the city, figured out the lay of the land, did a little bit of shopping and just enjoyed the laid back atmosphere. I was in heaven when we rented beach cruisers and cruised around the town and along the Mekong River. I felt like such a kid again. The weather was perfect, with the wind whipping us in the face, flying down the hills, doing silly tricks, laughing and hoot and hollering. I was pretty sure we would be renting bikes every day from then on. We climbed Mount Phousi to watch the sunset, which gave us a really nice panoramic view of the entire town of LP. On the way up, women were selling flowers and incense to give gifts to Buddha in the temple at the top of Phousi. One woman was selling birds (you let them loose as gifts), and Erika got suckered into buying two. We felt so bad, these two baby birds inside this tiny cage. It was very nice to set them free, but we were convinced they would just fly back down to the woman who would feed them and lock them up again for the next customer.

The highlight of LP (and probably this portion of the trip) was our Mahout Elephant Trekking Experience. A Mahout is the caregiver of the elephant. I was determined to ride an elephant bareback. The Elephant Village’s mission is saving elephants. The camp was beautiful, housing 9 female elephants. We learned how to mount them (tugging on their ear as they lend you their leg to pull up) and control them. We took a tour through the swamps, fed them, and bathed them. The water wasn’t the cleanest in the world (apparently elephants love baths but they clearly don’t care they are bathing where they do their business sometimes too). When you gotta go, you gotta go, I guess...? I tried to ignore it as we were on the elephants brushing their heads, ears and backs (which I really just think is a nice massage for them vs. actually cleaning), until my Mahout was being a funny guy and made my elephant sit down in the water and slowly but surely I slipped in. Ewww! I scrambled so fast to get back up. We were all dieing laughing. It was so much fun, such a great learning experience and new found appreciation for the elephants. For sure something thing I would do a second time if I had the chance.

We were not looking forward to leaving Luang Prabang, We still felt like there were things to see and plus, we hadn’t found Jude Law & Sienna Miller yet!! We got word from a girl on our elephant trek that they were in town and she spotted them at three different times the day before. E & I were pretty sure we probably passed by them at least once given we were all over the place, but I think we were just too caught up in the town to notice. We woke up early to give merit to the monks, which was very overwhelming at first. We were bombarded by a woman who shoved rice and cookies in our hands without asking or telling us how much we should pay. It really made to a very irritating start of the day –especially at 5:30am. I was not happy. We finally got away from her and we were able to walk the streets and truly experience the ritual, as well as take some nice photos. These monks are amazing to me. They walk the streets, ride in Tuk Tuks, talk on cell phones, sit on their laptops outside the temple. We often see them doing chores around the temples like cutting down trees, painting, etc. There is something so mysterious about each one of them. I guess it’s just my fascination with their dedication to their religion and their unknown stories on why they became a monk (even if for only a week).

Since we were up so early, we did a little more sightseeing and visited a few more temples. We headed to the Kuangsi Waterfalls for a quick swim before we headed to the airport. The limestone rock and bluish green water was breathtaking; just like the scene out of a movie. There were people everywhere diving in, jumping off the waterfall, swinging from the tree ropes. I only wished we had more time to spend there. On the way back from the waterfall, we got a nice taste for the festivities that were beginning for the upcoming Lao New Year celebration. The kids in the streets spray hoses and toss buckets of water at each moto or Tuk Tuk going passed and boy, do they get a kick out of it. Little stinkers. Let’s just say we were happy to be getting out of town... Last but not least, I finally got a chance to mail the infamous Buddha statue home. Took about an hour, but the guy at the post office used his small machete to work his magic and custom create a box for me. Then I shipped it off on the slow boat. My Buddha statue is “on a boat” and it will probably arrive right around the time I’m getting home to Chicago. I hope it makes it. I’m just happy it’s off my hands.

To Erika – Kawp jai lai lai for experiencing this amazing part of my journey with me! We heart Luang Prabang!!