Luang Prabang, as the cultural capital, hosts a number of monasteries. Our hotel room opened up to the street where the monks do their every day parade in a single file stretching a few streets, starting at 5:30 AM to collect alms. The collected alms serve as the only meal for the day. It is a site to witness, starting even before the monks show up.
The neighborhood comes alive amidst the morning serenity – devotional buddist hymns music emanating from the houses, folks setting up the stool in front of their houses along with a container of food to dole out to the monks. Some sit and wait while others try to squeeze out the morning exercise with arms swinging in all directions in an exaggerated fashion.
The saffron clothe clad monks show up like a trail of ants in the horizon, walking in a single file, heads shaven, bare foot, uniform in being expressionless regardless of the age of the monks, patiently stopping by each ‘pit stops’ to collect the alms. This daily auspicious event lasts for about an hour.
It was a long drive of 12 hours for us to get to Hin Boun, a town in South East Loas towards central Vietnam. The roads in Laos are in a much better shape than in Myanmar. Apparently, much like in some African countries, the infrastructure developments like building roads and dams are funded by the Chinese government and contracted to Chinese companies. Hopefully the economy picks up to pay off the debt and not remain indentured forever. For now, the predominant commercial activity seems to be dominated by the ubiquitous Laos beer hoarding boards. We noticed a very similar commercial ads of beer in Myanmar and Cambodia. Supposedly, it is the key revenue generator for the respective controlling governments.
The drive was quite peaceful, and the cop stopping for document check didn’t hinder us much. The pocket wifi powered by local SIM and with Spotify kept us engaged. We started becoming proficient in communicating with hand signals, even managing to top off the SIM by a local mom & pop store. We kept the classic rock and the Indian movie 96 songs on the roll. We kissed the outskirts of the Laos capital, Vientiane, and proceeded towards our destination
As we were nearing our final destination, the adrenaline started elevating as we were hitting deserted and dilapidated single lane road that never seemed to end, with rising doubts as whether Google is taking us on an aimless spin. On top of it, we had not called the ‘resort’ in advance and didn’t have any reservation made. While the uncertainty lingered on, it was hard not to notice the scenery especially when everything is accentuated after a drizzle. Plus the intermittent crossing of villages was reassuring of human presence. The features of the surrounding mountains looked quite different from what we had experienced elsewhere in Myanmar. The vegetation on the surrounding mountains were quite dense resembling unkempt matted hair! After about 2 hours of ride in this surrounding, Google did take us correctly to the resort nested inside a forest at the confluence of Hinboun river and a natural Spring. A spartan eco-lodge with impressive amenities, costing $15 for a room – a diamond in the ruff.
At the reception cum restaurant, we ran into the inebriated militia looking gentlemen in their camouflage uniform, wrapping up their final rounds of beer. Unlike the Laos people we have met so far, they were warm and excessively friendly and it occurred that they were trying to invite us to their village. Just stepping into a new territory combined with inebriated nature of these men, we didn’t take up on the offer. In hindsight, it was a ruined chance to visit their village.
We settled in our units, a beautiful room with the laced mosquito nets over bed, opening up to the confluence of the river and the spring water – the pristine blue color water from spring water being corrupted by the overbearing flowing mud colored river water. The only thing left to do for the evening was to have dinner and hang by the bonfire. For the evening, we were accompanied by a bunch of millennial backpackers and the constant overpowering buzz of forest insects.
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