Spatafora Family - The Thailand Sabbatical

Oct. 21. (Face of the reclining Buddha atop Mt. Phousi)

Today was our first full day in Luang Prabang. We had breakfast at our hotel and I am kicking myself for not taking more photos of the hotel itself. It has a wonderful open air dining area that is a perfect place to sit and eat. Between it and our balcony, it is quite easy to sit and watch the day go by. Ah, but no rest for the traveling Spats! We began today by walking up the Nam Khan River along the brick promenade. There are some great views of the river and river life. We very promptly got ourselves... well, I won't say lost, but we did end up at least a kilometer or two from where we intended. The result was a nice walk and quick tuk-tuk (taxi) ride to where we thought we were headed - the morning market.

The morning market is really the locals' market. All the exotic foods and products for day to day living are available. We simply do not know what over half the items are. We can usually get it to animal, vegetable or mineral, but after that you are on your own. Many, if not most, of the vendors at the markets do not live in Luang Prabang. Rather, they live in villages outside of town and represent about three ethnic groups or hilltribes. Some wear local indigenous clothing, which we really enjoyed getting to see. I think most do it for tourists, but some of the older women still dress that way on a daily basis.

After visiting the morning market, it was noon so we stopped and ate. The thing about SE Asia is that people are eating all the time. They rarely eat a big meal during the day, but having many small meals or snacks is not unusual. I really don't know how they eat all the time and still are not fat! They also are insulted if you finish all your food (insinuating that they do not have enough to share with guests) and bring more if the plate starts to run low. Just as we were getting stuffed, and were carefully leaving some on each plate, they brought out two beautiful plates of tropical fruit. It is also very rude not to eat at least a little, so we did what we could to avoid offense. Then we had to walk it off!
After lunch we visited one of the many temples in town. Luang Prabang has a lot of temples and it is easy to get "templed out" when traveling around this part of the world. Consequently we have begun working in "no temple days" when we travel. (Today was not one of them.) It is hard to capture the beauty and artisanship of these temples in a photograph. I am always impressed by the doors and the reliefs depicting important events in the life of the Buddha. The doors are typically adorned with guardian figures and the amount of gold leaf on some of the reliefs is impressive. The one pictured here is part of a door relief and is covered in gold.

After visiting the temple, we headed to Mount Phousi. This is a big hill in the middle of town with a number of temples scattered about it. None of the temples are ancient, most dating back to 1800s, but there is evidence that there has been a succession of temples on this hill for some time. The climb up the Mt. Phousi is paved and involves a lot of steps-many, many steps! Nick counted over 650 steps, for up and down, but fortunately there are stopping points with things to see along the way. For example, there is a Bodhi tree given as a present from India on the 2500th anniversary of Buddhism, (the current year is 2547, more on that later), a footprint of the Buddha, and even an old mount of a Russian antiaircraft gun. It still swivels so kids get on and play, as evidenced here by Nick.

The main attractions of Mt. Phousi are the temples on top and the views of the city and surrounding area. The temples are not particularly outstanding, as compared to other temples we have visited, but the setting added a special quality. Also, there were two statues of the Buddha, one in the Lao-style standing posture which is apparently fairly uncommon, and one of the reclining Buddha representing his achieving nirvana at the time of his death. (I think that is correct.)

The views from the top are sweeping and pretty impressive. You can see most of the city and the valley where the two rivers meet. As you can see from the photo, Luang Prabang is situated in a fairly large valley surrounded by some beautiful mountains. Although not particulary high as mountains go, these are significant barriers and it is only recently that good roads have been constructed through them. We stayed up top for about an hour, relaxing from our walk up, talking with other visitors and taking in the views. Very nice.

There are a couple of routes up Mount Phousi, so we took a different path down which turned out to come out very near our hotel. We took the chance to shower up and take a quick nap. I love naps! After our naps we had dinner and headed back to the night market for some serious bargaining and shopping. We have learned not to send me (Joey) to bargain. Older, Western white males are considered to always have money and thus no bargaining leverage. We do much better when we send Nick or the girls. Here is Anna successfully bargaining for and purchasing some pants from a local Hmong woman. We also bought some more textiles as they are just too beautiful to pass up.

After a tough haggling session in the market, we ended our day with foot massages for everyone. Depending on which family member you ask, it was either one of the best experiences they had ever had or something straight out of the torture chamber. Sorry, no pictures allowed in the spa!