Alms Giving Ceremony - Lao Monks

The family who owns the Guesthouse took some guests to the city for the alms-giving ceremony.  

About 200 monks walk through the town with a bowl and people put food in their, which they eat for breakfast and lunch.  They ask tourists only to participate if it is meaningful to them.  They also ask that tourists buy "good food" from restaurants.  Monks apparently have gotten street food and got sick.  

The guesthouse family brought baskets of sticky rice and biscuits.  Each of us put on a sash, knelt down on the ground and took little punches of sticky rice out of the basket with our fingers (which we washed first) and then put them in the bowls.  Women must be lower than monks (kneeling) though men can stand. If a monk touches a woman, he must spend days praying and cleansing himself.

The monks range in ages - some of them are so young!  I found out yesterday, however, that you don't have to be a monk forever.  My teacher at the weaving school was a monk for six years and then  left Monkhood to go to college in Luang Prabang.  Monks must go to special schools together and there is no "monk university" in Luang Prabang.  

The ceremony was really cool and I wasn't expecting to actually participate, so that was an added bonus. 

On a side note: a roach thing with wings crawled on my arm today by the bathroom sink.  This was early on the morning.  I screamed and like tossed things in the air.  I am now afraid to go back in aforementioned bathroom.  Ugh!!  Between that and the millipede...though this Guesthouse was awesome, I just don't think I could stay here again! Too many bugs!!!  

Also, I don't know what was going on this morning but at like 3 am people were ringing bells and pounding on drums.  Roosters were cockadoodledooing....!  The electricity went out and without the sound of the fans and things, I think it was just easier to hear more of the "atmosphere" around the river. 

I fly to Chiang Mai today.  There I'm staying in a real hotel with a front desk and things, so hopefully, I can calm down a little...

Ock Pop Tok

Hello!!

Today was a really rewarding day for me at Ock Pop Tok.  What was that, you say?  Yes, Ock Pop Tok, which means "East Meets West." It is a store and crafting center started together by a Lao weaver and an English photographer.

At the crafting center you can work with Lao weavers and dyers to learn their arts!!  This is what I did today and I'll walk you through how it went.

Disclaimer: photo heavy.

Second disclaimer:  I'm sorry for any typos/glaring or egregious spelling and grammar errors.  There's never an excuse but I am typing on my iPhone and yesterday's blog post was written at 2 a.m. when I woke up and found a disgusting black millipede type snake/bug in my bed - yes, IN MY BED !!!  It was pitch black, no one nearby, no phone to the front desk (in case it like morphed into a giant mutant millipede...so I couldn't go back to sleep and I blogged in the middle of the night).  Anyway, long way of saying, excuse me for not proof reading.

Okay, back to the day.  It started by meeting at the town store at 8:30 in the morning.  Here is some scenery from the city center on the walk there: 

This umbrella move on the moped seems to be popular:

Tuk Tuk: 

Store fronts:

Time to clean the dragons:

This is the Mekong River with mountains and mist in the background:

And this is the Ock Pop Tok city center store with some of their goods on display:

Goods: 

From the store, a tuk tuk takes you to the crafting center.  Sooo...this was actually my first tuk tuk ride so that was sort of cool!

View from inside the tuk tuk:

The road to the crafting center may be bumpy but once you get there it is oh so cute.  True to the name, there are Easterners and at least one Westerner, who I saw today, working there: 

I was given a "welcome drink" of bell fruit tea:

Then we (me and a Finnish girl with a beautiful accent) were given a tour of the premises. Hanging from the ceiling was this dragon made of fabric: 

Chan was our guide and he was awesome.  He was like my private teacher for the whole day too.  He taught us the silk making process, which starts with these silk worms!!!!  Here they are eating and getting ready to build cocoons:

Then, when they make cocoons, they are put in this configuration.  The cocoons (seen as the yellow fuzzies below) are boiled to get the silk.  Apparently it takes like 50 cocoons to get one long thread of silk so thousands and thousands of these guys are needed to get the job done.

Next, we learned about the raw materials needed to make different colors of dye (like the ones used in these gorgeous scarves): 

We saw some Master Weavers weaving:

On big looms!

Then we went to the dyeing portion of the day.  This is the colorless silk gathered before it is dyed:  

We chose our colors and then worked with the natural materials needed to actually make the dye.  I chose pink, orange and yellow.  For pink, we needed this bark: 

First we had to like machete it into pieces so the color would be easily released when boiled:

This is my cut up pile of bark:

Next, the dye was made by boiling the bark.  Often different things like a mineral or a rusty nail are put in the water to "fix" the color.

Seeds are ground to make orange, the color of the monks' robes in Luang Prabang and Thailand.  This is me grinding seeds, which was actually hard work!!!  

Lemongrass was used for the bright yellow:

Next, we dyed the silk:

Then we rinsed it and wrung it out:

It was then hung up to dry!!  These are my beautiful colors!!  

These are other colors made there that can be used for weaving, which is what I did in the afternoon:

After I picked my colors, Madame Phan and I spun the silk onto spools: 

Spools (I think I focused the camera on the wrong thing but you get it):

She then started up the loom for me and taught me how to use it.  This type of loom that is unique to Laos.  They have been using this same method of weaving for the past 1,000 years according to my teacher!!

Then it was time for a lunch break.  The food was so good!  I got the vegetarian lunch which included pumpkin and mushroom salad (bottom right), tofu salad (bottom left), squash soup and sticky rice.  Then, I got dragon fruit for dessert.  This was my first dragon fruit experience !

Dragon fruit:

Then it was back to work.  It took three more hours to complete this scarf.  This orange pattern here is really complicated to make.  I can't really explain it but think of the loom as a strategic game of Cat's Cradle.  Every time you move a string on the loom (which is made of nylon strings), it changes the pattern of your weaving.  It was definitely hard work!!!  I really came to appreciate this skill.

Now, this picture really isn't the best but, for now, this is the best I could do.  Here is the finished scarf.  Madame Phan hand rolled the fringe herself:

And, on a different note, as promised, the elephant pants that are all the buzz over in Laos.  These are from the evening market.  They also have fabulous elephant shorts.  Everyone is wearing these harem pants though!  It's like passing off pajamas as real clothes.  I'm not complaining:

So tomorrow the family who runs the guesthouse invited me to accompany them to the monks' alms giving ceremony.  I am really excited to attend because it's supposed to be beautiful.  I also think it will be extra special to go with a Lao family!  

Tonight, I'll continue to bathe myself in deet, crawl beneath the mosquito net and pray that millipede doesn't find his way back on the bed!!!

First Day in Luang Prabang

The day I first arrived (yesterday evening), I was pretty exhausted and jet lagged so I wound up going to sleep early and, not surprisingly, waking up early to get breakfast on the balcony (how cute is that?). I got homemade yogurt and muesli with coffee:

Here is the mosquito net around my bed.  It's my first one:

The gardens at this rustic sort of Guesthouse are really beautiful.  It's basically like a camping setting but in nicer thatched huts.  However, there are little creepy crawly friends that keep popping up in the room!  

The Guesthouse is a little way from the town so they drive us in.  I got dropped off in the morning and had to figure out the layout of this small city - without my iPhone!!  I haven't had to do much navigating or exploring in the past five or so years without a smartphone!!  

Of course the first thing I did was go to get another coffee. Lao coffee is very good, by the way.  The woman asked if I wanted my coffee iced and, thrilled by the thought,  I was like "sure!"  It is perpetually humid here.  Like crazy. Anything cold is a big plus. 

So I get the coffee, take a sip and then I have like a Home Alone moment where I wanna slap my face with both hands and scream "ICE!!!!"  I realized I'm not supposed to be drinking any ice or have any water, so I promptly (well not that promptly because it was hard to find a garbage can) threw it away.

I then walked down the Main Street.  It's kind of crazy cause that Main Street is just completely built up for tourists.  On the way to town though, in the car, I could see how underdeveloped the rest of Luang Prabang really is in contrast.

I found the temple where the monks are given alms in a ceremony every morning (super early) and it was really beautiful:

I then explored the National Museum.  On the way I found these floating flowers. They seem to be somewhat popular here.

Basically the first thing I saw at the National Museum was a monk using an iPad, which I thought was pretty hysterical:

Here are photos of the Wat at the National Museum:

My friend, the elephant:

This city is really into elephants.  Everyone is wearing these elephant pants they got from the market.  People have elephant bags.  I had an elephant stamp custom made!!  But I will have to wait until Saturday to meet one up close in Chiang Mai:

This is Luang, the Buddha for whom the city is named.  

There was a big pool and so many giant fish sticking their heads out to be fed:

He was there too:

Next I went across the street where there are like 328 steps up to visit another Luang and also to see beautiful views of the river and lush greenery.  

On the way up, women are selling things you sacrifice to Luang.  The flowers are gorgeous - the same bold orange color as the monks' robes.  However, they were also selling tiny birds in baskets!? I'm honestly not sure what you do with them!?  I kind of think maybe I should have bought all the birds to set them free.

Lady selling birds and flowers for Luang:

Isn't the Lao language beautiful?  I love all the loops! 

Steps up to Luang:

View:

Some things I found on the way down.  

This gorgeous smelling flower which reminds me of Hawaii:

Mr. Snail:

Another Wat (temple) that was closed for the day.

By now I was pretty hungry.  Without my smart phone, I couldn't even pick "the best" place to eat so I basically went to a place with some people, a menu I liked and free wifi.  Ironically, though I'm in Laos, I got pad Thai and a Thai papaya salad. 

Lunch, just because:

After lunch I decided to go see the Kouang Si waterfalls.  They were really pretty but since I did the trip on the fly without going back to my hotel, I didn't have a bathing suit to swim!!  It was soooo humid today that even putting my feet in the water felt amazing.  I can only imagine how actually swimming would have been.

I found this guy on the way out of the waterfalls:

There was also a bear rescue center, which I appreciated.  Apparently, in addition to the normal poaching they may be susceptible to, bears are also a hot target in China because bear bile is used for medicine!  So these rescued bears here are safe now:

Driving back I talked to a family from

Brooklyn Heights who actually knew someone I knew.  The mom also got her MSW from NYU so that was interesting too.  They were spending an entire month around Southeast Asia (like me) but have two sons, a 15 year old and maybe like an 11 or 12 year old.  I was impressed!  It was nice to speak to a fellow American/Brooklyn friend.  Even though I haven't been gone that long it kind of feels like I have!!  That's crazy cause the month long trip literally only began.  I can't even imagine how I'll feel at the end of it.

When we got home I went to pick up my custom made stamp!!  Since I love stamps, dogs and elephants, this seemed perfect.  This is NaNa, who carved the stamp, testing it out for me:

 The stamp has a dog on top and it stamps like this:

It's my name in Lao (supposedly - but whatever it says is so pretty!), an elephant and "Tina."  Cute!

The street market was also in full effect.  That is where you can buy all the elephant garb.  I'll take pictures of that tomorrow.  They also have shirts with Lao writing on it and since I seem to love Lao writing, maybe that is something to look into.  I wasn't very hungry so I got some fruit and these cute blinis?  I really wanted a crepe but the line was too long!  Maybe tomorrow.  I heard an American girl in line say, "I'm really sick of eating.  Like everything.  We've just eaten so much."  I thought that was funny.  I knew what she meant. Here is the blini in a banana leaf (it wasn't fully cooked on the inside, hoping that wont be a problem):

Tomorrow I'm excited to do a full day weaving class!