I am in Laos now, and am officially exhausted. We spent the last two days traveling down the Mekong river (the 9th longest river in the world) to arrive at our new destination. Yesterday we stopped at a river village to see how they live. No electricity, no running water, making money by selling rice... yet they clearly have so many tourists come to visit that the children there knew to stick out their hands to ask for extra coins. It is hard to not give money to small children, even though we are not supposed to. Laos is a very interesting country, it's history is complicated. The people here are amazing, and a simple smile and wave does wonders here. Last night we slept in a villiage that only has electricity for 4 hours a day, all run by generators. Some of the people in my group were a bit freaked out by that, but it was nice to kind of be away from it all for a night. I walked for about an hour, down the main road, and was greeted by many people along the way. Turns out a tall, white woman, with blondish hair and blue eyes is not common in this part of the world. At one point, I had a whole troup of children following along behind me.
We are in Luang Prabang for a couple of night (and I get a room to myself!!!!). Tomorrow morning I am waking up at 5:00 am to watch the Monks do their walking meditation, where they apparently walk down the street with baskets and the villagers come out offering money to the Monks. A sight I can't wait to see. Life is good over here in SE Asia!!! Hiking on Monday, finally, to some waterfalls. It is official, I won't lose any weight over here, all I do is eat rice and sit around! Luckily there aren't many sweets, so hopefully I won't get in to too much trouble. But I do miss my spin class! Ha ha!!
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5 comments:
First of all, spin sounds like a nightmare, so let's be real, you don't miss it.
More importantly, I love your descriptions of the people you're encountering; I'm sure they think you're the most beautiful creature in the universe...and you are!
So, does everyone wake up early to do these Buddhist visitations? Or are you just extra inspired?
What are the other folks like on your trip? Is the landscape very beautiful? What is the weather like? Do you still love me? :)
xoxox
I agree with 'Beccah: the children no doubt are drawn to your beauty - inner and outer. In addition, they must sense how much you love children, no matter where they live.
It is almost 4:00 p.m. here, which means you are just getting ready to observe the Buddha monks. I imagine that will be a fulfilling experience on so many levels and can't wait to hear about it.
Take care, sweet pea. I love you so much.xox
Sounds like quite an experience!!! Love these blog updates!
Colleen,
We look forward to your blog! Again, it's so great to be with you on this trip! What was the boat like? Big, little? What is your favorite food so far? How did the cooking class turn out?
Lots of questions. Keep those blogs coming!
Wow, Collie. That's amazing. (I just got caught up after not having a computer for a few days so I'm still amazed by the elephants!)
Are you able to communitcate with the people you are meeting? How has that been?
It sounds like you have been sharing a room up until now. Are the people cool?...or do they know about this blog and you can't answer that?
I miss you so much!
Take it all in!
By the way, I think that the invention of the blog might be one of my favorite things. Sometimes technology blows my mind.
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