There are a lot more things to look out for when pooing in the jungle instead of the woods

So the day started out really really early. The alarm went off at 5:30 am and after hitting it off twice, Tyson was out of bed and getting dressed. Sara rolled over and went back to sleep. At 5:45 Tyson was trying to figure out how to get out of the guesthouse because the gate was locked and the people at the front were asleep. At the same time Sara started a nice dream. At 5:50 the guards had woken up, let Tyson out, and I was walking towards downtown, at the same time I don't know what she was doing, but it had nothing to do with walking in the rain. At a bit before 6am Tyson was trying to be sold rice and bananas by two very agressively selling women, Sara was still in bed. At 6am the alms giving began down the main street in town, Sara was still tucked nicely under the covers.

The alms giving is when all the monks and novices in town walk single file down the main street in town receiving alms (in the form of food, mostly sticky rice) from people who line the street to give the food away in return for a prayer or something. There wasn't a lot of locals, maybe 5-10 on the street where I watched, but there were hundreds, of monks all in their orange, walking down the street, each with a jar for the food to be placed in. The people would give a little sticky rice to each monk. It was an impressive sight, well worth the early alarm clock. Sara is somewhat interested in going tomorrow. (Raised eyebrow by Sara in response.)

After the monks finished around 6:30am, I wondered the empty streets for a bit, then returned to Sara still sound asleep in bed. I read the wildly entertaining Life of PI until she woke up. We were slow getting going today and didn't make it to the Scandnavian bakery until 10am. We enjoyed the typical fruit, cheese crossiants, and somehow now a cookie too???

Then we went to the pier to inquire about going up to the buddha caves. We were too late to get on with everyone else headed that direction, so would have to rent a boat for ourselves. The price was too steep to do this, so we decided to get to the pier at 8am tomorrow to pay for seats, not the whole boat. We decided, well I decided and Sara agreed to just get a boat to cross the Mekong, and walk through a town and to some temples on the other side.

The other side of the Mekong, was a very different place indeed. We could tell they were well off compared to most villages, but it was just that a village. We walked up and down the main street in the village once, and then made our way towards the temples. It was so hot. The locals were sweating and taking cover. We were soaked in sweat from head to toe.

The first temple was on top of a hill and abondoned. It had a very nice view of Luang Prabang from it. This is were I needed to go to the washroom. I had to wait till a number of other tourists left before I made for the jungle. The difference between the jungle and the woods is how many directions you have to look. Not only down, but all around up and behind, this is due to the abundance of creepy crawly, bitting things that live in the jungle.

The next temple wasn't much to look at, although inhabited. The nice thing was there was about 25 butterflies resting in the sun at the enterance. Very calm, beautiful experience to stand in the middle of that number of butterflies of large size and amazing (by Canadian standards) colors flying around you.

The last temple was actually a cave, and a set of tourists we saw at the first temple (wat) said there was bats inside, so Sara decided to wait for me at the second temple instead of going in. While waiting she got cased by a giant stingy thing. She required the help of a couple of locals to bring the thing under control. The cave was not that impressive, but I did see at least two bats. Freaked the stink outta me when they suddenly flew through the light generated by my headlap. The cave I understood used to have lots of buddha images in it, but not anymore. I continued walking further past this temple for a bit, through some banana and papaya farms but the trail got small, I was getting very muddy, it was still super hot and thus sweaty, and Sara was waiting so I turned around.

We got back to town, and a bit of a snack of a late lunch and then had massages again. I went for the Lao massage while Sara went for the shower and aromatherapy one. She said it was great, full body, but felt sorta weird with only a towel on.

After that we retreated to our guesthouse for two hours, I read again, and Sara had a read/nap. Then it was dinner time, totally western this time, and then a bit more shopping. Sara has a bit of a sore throat and is looking very tired.

The end for today.

Tyson and Sara