Day 12 -- More Laos

Fanh met us at Maison Dalabua at 5:30 a.m. and we walked up the main road to Wat Mahathat, a temple that sits at the top of a steep staircase guarded by silver painted naga (multi-headed snakes) on either side. People began slowly gathering for the daily pre-dawn ritual of alms gathering: monks from all the local temples walk along collecting food -- mostly handfuls of sticky rice -- from anyone who offers. Fanh had discouraged us from actually giving alms. It’s clearly become a bit of a thing-to-do for tourists (there were a few vendors out before dawn selling little packets of sticky rice to aspiring alms givers), but it’s also a genuine gesture of devotion and we stuck to respectfully observing. The monks in their bright orange robes carry small kettles for the alms and the entire process takes place in silence. It’s both spooky and sweet, with unavoidable connotations of trick-or-treating. And having seen what a bunch of assholes the tourist alms-givers were, we were glad to have been advised against treating the monks like a petting zoo (or maybe I’m just cranky at 5:30 in the morning).

We went back to the hotel for a hearty breakfast before striking back out at about 8:30 for a trek to Kuang Si Waterfall, about 45 minutes’ drive away. We drove past ridiculously lush vegetable gardens, a few small homes and businesses, but mostly wooded hillsides and fields. We parked at the entrance to the park and walked past an array of colorful souvenir stands and little eateries displaying whole fish grilled on skewers, grilled chicken and assorted other fragrant treats and headed up the leafy trail.

First stop was the Tat Kuang Si Bear Rescue Centre, home to 16 Asian Black Bears (also known as Moon Bears). I know I committed to taking the high road, but what is it with the Chinese and their weird obsession with endangered animal parts as medicine? The bears are hunted for their paws and bile ducts, which are sold to the Chinese for their health benefits (though I shudder to think how one consumes either). The rescued bears lounge in hammocks, gambol around log jungle gyms, wrestle with one another and generally act like, you know, bears. 

Just past this ursine haven is the first of the series of waterfalls and aqua blue pools that make Kuang Si one of the world’s most beautiful places. Dave and I were immediately reminded of Krka Park -- not surprising because both rivers are travertine formations, meaning the calcium in the water contributes both to its ethereal color and to the beautiful, almost formal rock formations that contain the pools. It’s an absolutely stunning hike up the footpath past one little waterfall cascading into a cerulean pool after another until you reach the big falls at the top. A little bridge across the river provides an excellent view of the wedding cake falls above and the more tranquil progression of pools below. Plus a snack bar!

Fanh asked if we’d like to visit a workshop where cotton was spun and woven and we were enthusiastic. We stopped at a pretty house where we met a genuinely lovely lady who not only grows the cotton, spins it into yarn and weaves it into beautiful scarves and textiles, she also grows the seeds and fruits used to make her own organic dyes. Every bit of her operation is done by hand (I had a try at separating the cotton from its seeds using a little roller and it was tricky as hell). She showed us every step of her process (with Fanh acting as interpreter) -- I think we were most impressed by the little pot of bubbling pokeberry dye and the bright purple yarn she was dying in it. Several purchases were made.

Because we definitely had not done enough things before lunch yet, we moved on to meet some elephants. Elephant Village is definitely a tourist attraction, but it’s an extremely good hearted one. The elephants are all rescues -- elephants are work animals in Laos -- and are now permanent residents of the park. We were not interested in rides, but spent a very entertaining half hour feed big chunks of pumpkin to friendly pachyderms. It was a little startling to have an elephant open wide rather than snag a pumpkin chunk with its trunk. I will not use the word vaginal, but I was definitely thinking it.

Time for lunch! We told Fanh that we were interested in local food and we set off for a place he knew not far from our hotel. 

So here’s an important cultural tip. When your Laotian guide asks “is there anything you don’t eat?” do not assume he’s referring to gluten or peanuts. After having assured Fanh that we ate everything, we sat down for lunch and began realizing just how many things “everything” can include in Laos. As Holly put it, lunch was blood and intestines in somebody’s backyard.

It wasn’t actually as bad as it sounds. We had a noodle soup with a slightly liverish flavor to the broth that included little cubes of a dark red substance (think firm tofu) that turned out to be blood. It really wasn’t awful. There was a little plate of sliced giblet-y looking things that were in fact intestines. You could add them to the soup if you wanted or just dip them in hot sauce (Mary, Dave and I tried it -- chewy but not horrible). And a plate of a shredded meat stir fried with little bean sprouts and mint that I never did identify -- it was also slightly liverish but pretty good. Add big helpings of sticky rice (and a few beers) and no one left hungry. Plus lunch for 7 (Fahn and Phut ate with us) was about $9. 

We split up for the afternoon and Dave, Glenn and I walked through town to visit the Traditional Arts and Ethnology Museum. Tucked on a side street, this excellent little museum was a real education on the ethnic groups that make up Laos and its neighboring countries. Great displays of traditional clothing, crafts (like the weaving we’d seen earlier), traditional medicine and clever uses of local plants. 

We headed back toward the Royal Palace with the aim of climbing Phousi Mountain. See -- you’re not very mature either.

Phousi Mountain is really more of a hill -- you climb a stone staircase (328 steps) to a lovely little temple at the top with a spectacular 360 degree view of Luang Prabang. I slightly regretted not ponying up a dollar at the bottom of the stairs to buy a little bamboo cage with a sparrow in it to release at the summit. The empty cages were hung all over the trees around the temple and looked very charming.

We ambled back through town, had a swim and a regrouped for a walk through the night market to dinner. The night market is something -- every day at 5 the main street of Luang Prabang is closed to scooters and cars and dozens and dozens of vendors set up stalls selling an incredible variety of colorful, clever, enticing and ultimately not very practical stuff. Silk scarves, T-shirts, silver jewelry, bead jewelry, enameled jewelry, jewelry made from beaten metal scavenged from bombs dropped by the US, carved animals in sizes ranging from tiny to furniture, silk lanterns, lacquered bowls made out of coconut shells, paintings of Laotian scenes, stuffed animals, sun hats, ceramics, wind chimes, incense. It was unbelievably appealing in aggregate, but no one thing really seemed like the perfect thing.

After a slightly longer walk that we really needed through the press of people at the night market, we made it to Tamarind and took a table at the riverside. This required our waiter to cross a road to bring us our beers and food, but he was pretty adept at dodging the scooters and tuk-tuks.

We’d been a little surprised by how not hot the food had been on our trip. Turns out that the places where Western tourists are not uncommon tend to serve Western tourists milder versions of even the most traditionally spicy dishes. Tamarind offered to make your food to your desired spiciness level so we ordered a couple of dishes hot. Maybe we were unconvincing about our tolerance for spice, but even our zestiest dish wasn’t half as hot as what we get at Thip Khao in Columbia Heights. Still, this was a great meal -- Laotian fish salad, stir fried mixed greens, barbecued pork, green bean salad and some honey laced Lao Lao whiskeys for Glenn, Dave and Mary to balance out all the beer.

We took a tuk-tuk back to the hotel. This was a little covered wagon with benches down the sides attached to the back half of a motorcycle. It held all five of us, but definitely felt like it was struggling to make it up the one gentle hill we had to climb.