“Rubbish!” a 7 year old Lao boy shouts as the shuttlecock hits the floor. We are playing badminton with Don and Ben, my cousin Ivan’s two boys, in the fading light, when the mossies bite, on a court behind their school.
Ivan has lived in Luang Prabang for nearly 10 years and runs two gorgeous hotels here. It’s the place we have stayed in the longest, nearly 9 days so far. It’s mysterious and beautiful and there is so much to discover.
It is the old French colonial capital of Laos. They moved out in the 1950’s and the mixture of Asian and French culture really is quite something. Masses of crumbling old villas, countless glittering wats and a royal palace. A small town built on a peninsula with huge mountains surrounding it and the Mekong river running alongside.
We found a small, very noisy guest house in the old silversmith area. A warren of tiny, narrow streets that only the tuk tuks and motorbikes can comfortably fit down.
Apart from having a great time with my cousin and his boys, we have been very busy tourists. ….
A couple of days ago we went to the UXO (Unexploded ordinance) visitors centre.
We were all shocked to find that Laos is the most bombed nation on earth. Over 260 million munitions were dropped by the Americans between 1963 and 1973, every 8 minutes. More bombs were dropped here than during the whole of the second world war, so called carpet bombing….the Americans were fighting a secret war against the communists. They failed and when they withdrew in 1973, the communists soon took over.
At UXO, they have only managed to clear a minuscule percentage of the unexploded bombs and we were told on average, one person still dies every day when they go off…
We also visited the myriad of wats with ornate rooves that seem to sweep low to the ground .They house giant golden Buddhas in the big ones and in the smaller, lotus-shaped ones there are dark, cave-like, candlelit interiors full of Buddha figures in every pose, in every size in bone, glass, bronze, wood …All the kids enjoyed lighting candles and incense and meditating but Will in particular was completely absorbed by it all, sitting unprompted in the classic lotus position with his fingers joined, meditating for several minutes . He was in his element .Will even asked us for a piece of paper so he could copy the intricate glass mosaic figures that are stuck on the outside walls, of elephants, warriors, bears and holy men.
Ivan took us to the Nam Ou river 30 minutes outside the town where we visited another holy site, the Tam Ting cave. Approximately 2500 Buddha’s are crammed in here. I have never understood the significance of the Buddha poses but there I found an explanation of some of the important stages in his life .
‘Calling for rain’ is when Buddha stand, arms pointing downwards...
‘Calling the earth to witness’ when he is seated and one hand extended downwards…
‘Stop arguing’ (a pose, I think I’m going to be adopting a lot in the future!) where the figure is standing and his palms are extended outwards.
After the cave, we all went for lunch and a swim in the river.
It is going to be very hard to leave Laos but we are off to Cambodia in two days time.
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