Swimming with monks

An amazing week.

I woke up early on Saturday to take some pics of the monks collecting alms and came across a group of teenagers offering alms to some elderly monks. They filled their alms bowls with packets of crisps. Completely filled them so that nothing else would fit in them. Then took a blessing from the monks. They were delighted that I’d been taking their photograph and asked me in to their house. Once in I declined the offers of beer – 6am is a little early for me – but they carried on drinking, as they had been since the night before.

The That Luang festival was superb. On Sunday morning all the monks gathered around the temple, their alms bowls in front of them and thousands of people gathered to give food, money and flowers. Prayers were offered first – a gentle recitation through the loud speakers, then people queued to offer alms. The monks ended up with bin bags full of sweets and money. I was invited to the back of the temple for breakfast of chicken, eggs and sticky rice. I had been unwilling to eat the eggs I’d seen around the festival ground as they were embryonic – as in just ready to hatch when they were boiled, so basically you eat bones and feathers – nice! I ate with monks and some of the many police who had been drafted in from all around the country to help keep the festival safe. They were all sleeping in and around the temple so it was easy to find yourself wandering around a part of the temple where police were playing cards, their weapons casually propped against walls.

Surreal.

Later in the day people gathered for a candlelight procession. A continual river of people flowed around the stupa – some stopping to leave their offerings of flowers and candles. Some leaving through one of the side entrances to the festival. The monks took the best of the flowers to the temple to offer up to the Buddha images.

One of the novice monks – a lad of nineteen – had invited me to visit his family in Vang Viene. We had to leave early on Tuesday morning to get there early. We visited his grandmother, and ate a delicious meal of fish and papaya salad with sticky rice. They were particularly enamoured by the dressing in the middle of the fish. It took me a certain amount of questioning to establish exactly what this was. When I wasn’t totally clear that I had understood the expression he used of fish waste, he clarified by confirming that it was the fish bowel. Nice. I declined the generous offer of fish poo, sticking simply to the more traditional fleshy bit personally and found myself very quickly not wanting any more to eat. After dinner, we hired bicycles and went out and about. The scenery around the area is spectacular – mountains, caves and deep cool pools dotted around. We cycled to a durian plantation and one of the novices went for a swim, as the rest of us watched from a shady shelter beside the water. We then cycled on to a cave where we left our bikes and walked up the couple of hundred steps into the entrance. The novices – who are half my age and weight – took video on their phones of them running up the steps – then panned round to me exhausted as I struggled up the steps in the heat of the midday sun after the 25km cycle ride through mountains!

The cave was fabulous – it was stunning but had had a concrete floor and lighting put in. After leaving it we went for a swim in one of the caves. The water had a translucent quality from within the cave. As I was with the monks, I swam fully dressed but as I first got in the strength of the current surprised me and I was pulled towards one of them. It is important for them not to touch women so me landing fully against one of them wouldn’t have been good. He dived out of the way just in time.

By the time we cycled back to the town I was exhausted. I asked the novices not to cycle too close to me when we were going uphill as some of my involuntary language wasn’t going to be ideal for them to learn. We collected our bags from grannies place and then set off again. I assumed that we were heading for a tuk tuk but after a while of walking decided I’d better check. The plan was to walk the eight or so kilometres to his family home now. I assumed that they were teasing. I was wrong. Luckily we came across a form of transport – a paired down tractor attached to a cart into which we clambered.

His family weren’t expecting us and I’m sure that they were delighted to see us. I was, however completely exhausted and so, despite how terribly rude it seemed, I fell virtually immediately into a deep sleep. I woke several hours later to see the novice monk’s brother buying something in a black meshlike material. As he pulled the pieces apart four small yellow birds became apparent. They looked like canaries. He started pulling the feathers away. I drifted back to sleep wondering what he used the feathers for. Eventually I woke again and was invited to have some food. I ate the sticky rice balls that are the staple here with a selection of dishes. Later I realised one of these had been canary. I must start asking more what I’m eating – or asking less – or maybe just only asking before I eat or not at all!

They retired to the temple, leaving me too tired to try to converse in Laos so I slept early and awoke at around five am. I went out to the loo and as I crouched, cursing the muscles in my thighs that were suffering from the previous day’s exercise, a dog stuck its head through the gap in the door and watched me, fascinated.

I went back under the mosquito net till after dawn – it’s at dawn and dusk that the mosquitoes that most need avoiding, and read. Eventually I got up and, as everyone else was still asleep, I went for a walk. I met someone who was taking feed out to his ducks so I joined him. We arrived at the temple where the novices were having breakfast and I briefly said hello before trying to continue with the man, only to realise that the bridge he was crossing – or rather the three flimsy looking pieces of bamboo tied vaguely together to serve as a bridge would probably not hold me, even if I could manage to balance my way across. Which was highly unlikely. I went back to the temple just as the monks finished eating. The meal was then given to the people in the temple – someone I didn’t know, together with his father and grandmother. We ate breakfast together in the temple.

After a walk around the village, we decided to go to another cave walking distance from the house. I was asked for some money to buy a picnic (it didn’t exactly break the bank – they wanted $3). They bought a duck. I prefer not to get acquainted with my dinner before it has died but it was carried alive over to the house. And then we set off. Our group consisted of an abbot, three novice monks, the father and the nephew, together with myself. As we walked I asked what was in the bag the father was carrying. It was the live duck. One of the novices was carrying the knife. I guess at least dinner was going to be fresh. Didn’t exactly conjure up images of gingham table clothes though.

While dinner was slaughtered and prepared, we went up to the cave. The route up was incredible – jagged rocks to be clambered up. We met a few people coming down for whom it was just not their thing – you couldn’t really be afraid of heights, and had to be dressed for it. I wished my blouse wasn’t silk as I slid on my bottom to get over rocks.

Once we reached the cave entrance we were greeted by an incredible journey round the cave. I was glad I was with someone who knew the cave well. There were no lights and you clambered over and through stalagmites and stalactites.

Back down later we ate the duck, and I declined the papaya salad after watching the monks nephew reduced to floods of tears after eating some. The fiery chillies burning him.

We went on to the pool - a beautiful natural pond where butterflies danced, dragonflies flitted and the sun warmed the water fantastically. People swung from ropes and dived off tree branches into the cooling water. A couple of the monks swung in from the ropes but after a while some westerners arrived. Many of the women stripped down to their underwear which was hard for the monks so we went further away to a clearing and I lay in the water while the monks swum around.

Then back to the house for another evening with the family. Luckily I wasn’t so completely exhausted this time and so spent the evening asking them to teach me various Laos vocabulary and then slept deeply until 4am when I had to get up for our return to Vientiane.