Laos: Central Mountains

We spent the next morning at Buddha Park near Vientiane, located on the Mekong River and looking across to Thailand. Apparently this large park full of Buddhist and Hindu figures came from a guy who wanted to integrate the two religions and wanted all of the figures to look ancient. However, most were made of cement and were a bit on the creepier side.

The weather was gorgeous, so we decided to just play around in the park for a while...

Biggest Buddha EVER!

We left the Buddha park, wandered around the "morning market" (more of a massive mall) and settled down for a 5 hour drive into the mountains for the night. On the way, we stopped at a viewpoint to see the Limestone Forest.

and watch another incredible sunset over the mountains.

On Saturday morning, we met a "local guide" (a teenager who lives near a trail) who led us on a 3km hike to a waterfall deep in the jungle. While the waterfall was not so impressive, the hike was pretty awesome. It began in an open trail, passing a few cows and buffalo, and through natural butterfly gardens. The butterflies flew all around us for a good 10 minutes of walking; it was great!

The rest of the hike was mostly in the jungle; up and down rocks, avoiding roots and grasping trees. We were glad to have our hiking boots and a bit shocked that the guide was wearing flip flops. I guess he was used to it?

After hiking the 3km back, we drove to the Kong Lor Cave and ate noodle soup overlooking the Hinboun River. We then got into a boat (more like a motorized canoe) to ride on the underground river, which went through the cave for 7km cave. Because it is dry season, the water was very shallow at many points, and we actually got out to walk and push the boat several times. It was strange to be unable to see your surroundings; while we rented headlamps ("torches"), they didn't work very well to see much of the cave. Luckily, the guys driving the boat had much stronger "torches" and we could see when they shined their lights ahead.

We got out of the boat at at one point and walked through beautiful stalagmites and stalactites. It was interesting to see the water dripping down and actually realize how long it takes for these structures to form.

On the other side of the cave, we sat outside and watched water buffalo in the river while the boat guides relaxed for a bit. Then we rode the 7km back to the entrance and swam in the clear water at the mouth of the cave. It was stunning!

Afterwards, we re-sun screened for a 2 hour boat ride down the Hinboun River to the eco-lodge where were going to spend the night. The van with our stuff was going to meet us there, so it was perfect. We passed beautiful scenery, small villages, gardens, and tons of kids fishing and bathing in the water.

The blue tube is a local irrigation system that uses water from the river to irrigate the tobacco and rice crops.

The driver was pretty incredible, as he had to maneuver through shallow water, buffalo, and fishing contraptions that used bamboo and sticks to trap fish.

 By the time we arrived at the eco-lodge, we had sore legs and hungry bellies. After quick showers, we were ready for a BeerLao and dinner overlooking the river. Another spectacular day in Laos!

Laos last few days: Thakhek and "Home Stay"

Our second to last day, we drove to a small town on the Mekong River, Thakhek, stopping at a few Buddhist temples en route. As you've seen a lot of similar pictures, I'm only posting two cool ones (that I took [pats self on back]). The first is of a flower and a stupah (a stupah is the Lao version of an urn, where they put the ashes of their loved ones)
and the second is of a monk walking in the wind near the same stupah. Thailand, as always, is in the background.We then went to another Buddha cave, which was actually an active temple, so we couldn't take pictures inside, and Alison was require to wear a traditional Lao skirt. There were fewer Buddhas than in the other cave...but it was cool to watch people praying, as well as a monkey (likely a pet of one of the people administering tickets) play in the trees.Then we basically had the rest of the day to relax. We ate like kings, took naps, wandered around the town (which had lots of pretty European-looking architecture), and "enjoyed" what was advertised as an oreo smoothie but was really a bunch of scoops of random chemical powders blended together with ice.
Not gonna lie--it gave me diarrhea. But I recovered in time for delicious Thai street food for dinner.

The next day, we were picked up early from our hotel for a home stay and jungle trek. We'd used the same driver and van the whole trip, so we were a little surprised to be gestured to take a seat in the most ghetto Cho-Mo van (cho mo = child molester for those of you who didn't grow up going to Coronado with the cousins) ever invented, driven by someone who was 22 but looked 11. True to form, we got to within 2K of the starting point of our hike, and the car broke down. The driver took out a screwdriver and was poking the engine, located at our feet, which started sparking...so we decided to walk. It was in a sun-baked, barren setting, so we weren't so happy.
To be honest, we were actually very worried about the homestay--the one we did in during our trip to Kashgar in October was pretty awkward (10 people slept in the same room, and they basically ignored us the whole time) and we couldn't shower (and getting from the Lao village to Beijing required 17 hours of travel, including cars and layovers). So having to start the day sweating bullets was NOT good for our mood.

But then we started the actual hike through the jungle. We saw a lot of things we'd already seen--flowers, termites, caves, etc. But this was cool for two reasons:

1) The trail was pretty rough and required some impressive balancing skills in some parts:2) The caves we walked through were much scarier than the other ones...The pic below is blurry, but I wanted to show you guys what we walked DOWN (the left hand side) since our guide thought we were young so "needed adventure."But the cave was so beautiful it was worth it ;)I think that's one of my favorite pictures she's taken all year (side note: I think I'm going to make my future office into a gallery for Alison's pictures.)

10K later (no joke) we finally arrived in the picturesque village where we would be sleeping. We were filthy and looked disgusting. Here I am with Alison's dirty socks and a beautiful background.
And here are our feet--can you see the line of dirt? It's the most tan Alison will ever be!!Also on display are my impressive fingertoes--useful for picking up things on the floor, pinching people sneakily, and proving that humans evolved from apes. Anyways, we were delighted to be able to sponge bath in an outhouse and afterwards were ready to experience/explore a poor agricultural Lao village.There was a bocche set up in the middle of the village, so we went to watch our guide play with some town members. Soon a few children came to watch the game (and us).
And sure enough, within a few minutes, Alison had enthralled them. She has a gift ;)

We then returned to the "porch-area" for dinner. We were anticipating a super simple meal--our home stay in Kashgar involved a dinner of rice in water--but we had one of the best meals of the whole trip there! Beef laap (stir fried small chunks of meat swimming in fresh mint) and ginger-stir fried vegetables. I am salivating just thinking of it.
After dinner, the most respected people from the village came up to join us and brought this Buddhist prayer thing made of banana leaves and flowers. We participated in a ceremony of welcome that wished us a lifetime of health and prosperity. First we put an egg in our hand, representing long life, a wafer for sweetness/happiness, and sticky rice for prosperity. (This is afterwards, but the only picture that shows what we were holding). They then chanted some blessings, ending up taking thread and brushing away evil and brushing in good. They then tied the thread around our wrists. And we had to take a shot of the most vile hard alcohol ever made.
Writing about this makes it seem like the ultimate tourist hokeyness, but to be honest, it was a beautiful ceremony that made us feel welcome in the village. We were so apprehensive that the homestay would "ruin" the trip. But, it ended up being the perfect icing on the cake.

We then passed out in our improvised double bed......and spent all the next day returning home (or Beijing)...

And we're leaving to pick up my parents at the airport right now!! SO EXCITED :)

Luang Prabang and Vientiane

We started our final day in Luang Prabang by watching the monks on their daily 6 am walk through town, collecting alms (sticky rice) from residents. It turns out that across the country (and perhaps in all Buddhist communities?) monks do this, but Luang Prabang is particularly famous for this processional, either due to the fact that huge numbers of foreigners visit the area or due to the fact that 35 Buddhist temples in a small town means many, many monks.

Anyways, people unrolled mats and had bamboo-made containers filled with sticky rice to parcel out to the monks. We waited and waited when suddenly, we noticed a flurry of activity. Unfortunately, the first thing we saw was not monks but Chinese tourists holding video cameras running up and down the street to get action shots of monks walking. It was exactly what I imagine the paparazzi do to celebrities and was so classic Chinese tourist--culturally insensitive but out of good intentions. The government just does so good a job repressing information of the outside world that its citizens don't really know how to act "appropriately" (by our standards) when they travel. (Sidenote: You can't search for "Egypt" in any search engine now since the government is worried about a ripple effect in Tibet or Xinjiang!) Then, the monks finally arrived!
There were tons of them. Interestingly, there were children who were begging from the monks, so the monks would pass over some sticky rice to them after they got it from the tourists/villagers. After a few minutes, the monks left.We returned to our hotel for breakfast. Along the way, we ran into another procession of monks that escorted us back to our hotel. That was the coolest part for me. We then went to the largest temple in the city, Wat Xieng Tong. The architecture was really cool...
...and it was also neat to see how this culture also had a lot of dragons, though these ones looked different to the ones we're used to in Beijing. This dragon is used once a year, when they pour water into its tail. They put Buddha statues under the long cylindrical body, and water pours out, washing the Buddhas. This water is considered holy and is used to wash away impurities. I also loved the stenciled patterns on the wall.

We had to take a picture by this Buddhist tree of life as it was so similar to the Jewish tree of life. The painting we bought is actually this multi-religious symbol: we loved how this piece of Laos reminded us of our own heritage and can't wait to put it up in our future home. It was also neat to see so many Jewish stars as in Buddhism, these overlapping triangles represent the Lotus flower, or a progression through the mud of materialism (roots) through waters of experience (stem) and into sunshine of enlightenment (flower above the water). (Our guide was awesome and taught us a lot!)

After our flight to Vientiane, the capital of Laos with a whopping 700,000 residents, we went to Wat Sisaket, which is famous for having a ton of Buddhas, including smaller ones that are put in duos into triangles carved into the wall.
Our guide also taught us a lot about Buddha statues--there are 7 different poses that the Buddha has. Over time, the features of the Buddha's face have been influenced by the Chinese (more "Asiatic eyes," as the guide said) and Indians (a "hooked nose").
(Side nose (haha I wrote that when I meant to say note!): Lao people call white people "fa lang," which means long nose, as "all white people have long noses, unlike our flat ones, and we can't tell where anyone is from by looking at them." I thought that was funny as we say the same thing about Asian people...). We also went to That Luang Stupa.
It is ENORMOUS, painted gold, and is rumored to have once held the Buddha's bones...before it was destroyed once by the king of Southern Lao, once by the French, and once by the Thai..Did we mention that Laos is the Poland of Asia?

When we were inside, we saw a bunch of nuns from a minority group in China (minority "nationalities" can practice religion).They also have an imitation Arc de Triomphe (Patuxai) that was built with concrete donated by Americans that was left over from building an airport during the Vietnam War.
We ended the day by having another delightful BeerLao on the riverside, as we watched the sun set over Thailand.