I started my morning cycling over the pedestrian bridge over the Mekong to the small villages around LP. I stopped at a morning market and bought some fruit and continued my way towards the golden temple on top of a mountain. I reached the beginning of a dirt path that lead to the top. I left my bike on the bottom. I wasn't prepared for this impromptu hike up a steep but small mountain. On top i looked out to the surrounding scenery. It was still quite clowdy. The sun doesn't peek through the clouds and mountains until after 10am.
My next stop was Wat Mandolo (i'm not sure of the spelling). I arrived around 11:30am...and the monks were eating. Sitting on the floor and scooping rice and veggies with their fingers...out of large tin trays...they ate until full. Monks can't eat after 12 noon. I took some photographs of them, after asking for permission ofcourse, and then heading inside the Wat. A young monk followed me in and invited me to sit on the red rug in front of the Buddha alter. I asked him why he wasn't eating with the rest and he told me he's fasting today.
I made my way towards the main road and ventured to another village where I stopped to eat lunch. Noodle soup, the only thing they served in this makeshift restaurant, wasn't what i was looking for but it'd do. There were small bits of red meat in the soup. It was tough to chew. I asked the man sitting across me what type of meat it was...and wouldn't you know it i'd eaten buffalo meat...yuk! He ended up being the director of the Royal Theater...where we went at night.
After lunch I made my way to another temple where a young monk offered to walk with me and gave me some history of the temple. This temple was different then the rest in the town. It had hindu influences, and the painting and murals on the wall were of a different style. He showed me the spartan room where some monks were building a bed for a new monk. The young monk explained, that he along with the other "novices" as they are called the first 3 years they're studying to become a monnk, can not sleep in the same room as older monks. At the end of my tour I thank him and he looked all nervous. He told me "you beautiful girl" and ran away. That was very unholy of him...unmonk-like. Women are not allowed to touch or sit next to a monk, if they do the monk has to go into seclusion and bathe himself to remove the sin. But these young monks are just young teenage boys...like all teenage boys in the world...raging with hormones!
The theater was of a scene from the Ramayana where Sita is abducted. They had beautiful costumes. The director invited me backstage after the show... where i got to put on one of the golden tiaras the girls were wearing...and got a picture taken with it on too! Ofcourse i'll have to post it once it's developed.
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