I'm in love with the beautiful quaint town of Louang Phabang. This town according to UNESCO is the most preserved town in whole of Asia. As if time has stopped and the village is still in the Indochine era.
Old French villas lay majestically beside each other on the quiet streets of the old town. All the sights are well within strolling distance, as the historical heart of the town is on a kilometer long peninsula.
I woke up at 5:30 in the morning to be greeted by this cool air around. I wanted to see the daily giving of food to young monks which is part of the town's charming daily event and has become a tourist attraction in itself.
Every morning at 6:00am, different monks would line themselves to get food from different families. At the break of dawn, it is an impressive sight to see the Buddhist monks from all the temples walking in the streets, elders first, and receive their alms from the population. They are not supposed to eat for the rest of the day, although rules are rarely observed rigidly.
It is expected from any young Buddhist man in Laos to spend some time in a monastary as a novice monk, preferably before his marriage. Because of that, there is a strong monastic life all over the country.
It was such a wonderful sight and it is very well participated by the whole town itself.
I pretty much just did nothing the whole day and just walked for hours watching as the laid back town unfold itself.
Armed with a good book I grabbed a good coffee in one of the rustic French colonial type coffee shop and let the day pass.
After lunch I checked out the century old palace turned museum and saw how important the small town was in helping the shape the country as a nation.
I'm really in love with this place. I might just stay for a bit for a few more days before I head south to the capital of Vientianne.
But before that happens, I'll just indulge myself a little and enjoy this little piece of paradise on earth... finish a good book and a good latte to beat.
No comments:
Post a Comment