31st – Muddy road

This morning we had the option to give alms to the monks at the local monastery. You show up, the monks come passing by and you give a little to each one into their buckets until you run out. We were told that there would be vendors on location so we wouldn’t have to plan ahead with buying snacks or other things we would want to hand out. 

So at 0515 6 of us showed up in the reception and we were brought down to the main street. It turned out that this morning the vendors only sold sticky rice. Oh, well. We took our seats and soon the monks came walking by in a long procession. You had to be quick on your hands to hand every monk a bit of rice, and it seemed some of them weren’t too happy with the selection as they seemed to sometimes sneakily cover their buckets or slightly tip it away from us when they saw what we had to offer.

The locals giving alms.

We returned to the hotel and near by a smaller procession came by a small group of locals who also received a blessing from the monks. Returning to our rooms I managed to get an extra hour of sleep before getting up and ready to leave at 0830 for Vang Vieng.

The plan was to arrive at around 1500 at our homestay in Naduang village, but due to the rains there was a risk of mudslides covering the roads which ultimately would be slowing our pace. On our way we did pass a few slides but most of them were being tidied up so actual waiting time ended up being quite limited. Much of the road was a narrow 2-way street winding itself through some beautiful mountain landscapes, so due to the conditions it unfortunately wasn’t possible to stop and take some photos along the way.

View from our lunch spot.

When we turned off the main road and onto the small dirt road towards the village we were staying the road conditions dropped significantly. The closer we got the muddier it got. The minibus had no special drive system and we got stuck a few times on the way. Out driver was absolutely fantastic, though, and got us out of the deepening mud every single time to thundering applause (as thundering as it gets when you are 15 people). At 1700 we finally arrived at our destination and soon we were split up in groups of two into separate houses spread out in the village. Nice private houses, no AC, but fans which ended up being enough everything considered. An hour later we were shown around in the village for a short walk (short mainly due to the wet and muddy conditions) followed by dinner and the children of the village showing us a few local dances, in the end dragging us up and teaching us. Let’s just say it was done with varying success.

Slightly muddy.

Dancing.

A few of us stayed behind after the dance for a bit to drink and a chat, but soon after around 2300 everything had gone quiet.