Laos between Wat and Buddhist monks

From Siem Riep I headed to Laos by land crossing one of the most corrupt borders of Southeast Asia. I did not dedicate the time I wanted and that certainly deserves this country but the memories of this magical land are still alive inside me. I chose to visit a few places and stop for several days and Luang Prabang could not miss them.

Foreword, on my journey to Laos, I found out with a lot of disappointment that some places, especially Vang Vieng, were famous for the alcoholic parties and that many young people were coming here to bust. Indeed, due to incidents and unpleasant incidents for the locals, the authorities decided to change politics and to undertake a fight to break, at least to limit it. Now, I do not pretend that all people come to Asia in search of a spirituality and unique atmospheres, but at the same time I never expected that there were people coming to Laos with the spirit of partying and getting drunk as they are in Ibiza! In any case, if you are not looking for parties, and therefore you do not enter those laps, you will not notice much of these dynamics.

Rent a bike and explore the areas surrounding this Country calmly: mountains, green hills, cows, children in a bible will be waiting for you… Don’t miss the sunset sitting in front of the river in the center of Vang Vieng!

Many people have asked me where to go to visit rural, tribal communities, where there are not many tourists, here it is clear that Asia is changing faster and faster, and one gets the feeling, that you must push further and further away, to get away from the most touristic places and find themselves in a more rural, more remote environment. But if you search well, and you have the right approach you are able to live unique experiences even in less remote places.

Luang Prabang is one of the places that I carry in my heart, a very unique place, the city of temples, the city of monks. In fact, I decided to stay there a week, to appreciate and enjoy deeper the atmosphere. When you travel for a while you learn to have a certain instinct, to recognize those places where you know you could spend some time, with others who may not have hit you much.

What struck me in this city of Laos, were the temples, to visit at dawn, at sunset or in the evening, and the monks, who take care of the gardens or pray. I still remember when one evening I returned to one of the most beautiful temples ever seen, the Wat Xieng Thong; the day before I had talked to a gentleman at the ticket office to whom I had asked how to meditate with the monks and so he had invited me to introduce myself the day around 6 pm. That day, unluckily, I could not participate in any meditation session, but I was lucky enough to find myself almost alone in the whole complex. I was there, in one of the most beautiful temples in Laos observing the light of the stars and the moon that was reflected on the mosaic roofs of the main pagoda; at that moment I felt inside me an immense positive energy together with a sense of profound gratitude. So I stopped in a room and I started meditating or at least I tried… at that moment the only thing that mattered was the silence, the peacefulness. Then, after a while, I realized a novice was waiting for me to finish meditating to close the doors, in silence.

That same evening, as I continued to wander in the wat, I saw monks intent on taking care of plants and flowers. That was a beautiful, magical evening I will never forget; as I will never forget the evenings walking back home, along the river when I used to see monks crossing the bamboo bridge illuminated by the light of the stars and the moon.

I think that if there were no Buddhist monks to frame this landscape, my experience in Luang Prabang would have been different. Perhaps it is because of that sense of the exotic, of the image we have of a place. Observing the monks, imagining their lives, so different from ours, it has been the thing I liked most to do, for which I always felt a sense of curiosity. In fact, I counted on spending some days as a guest in a temple as it happens in other places in Southeast Asia, as in Thailand. Instead, informing me a little, they told me that here in Laos, there is no possibility of doing such an experience, and even if there were, as a woman I could not participate in it.

I respected that detachment, that sense of mysticism, of a distance that I perceived when I saw them walking the streets. I was aware that among those monks, only a few, were thereby vocation, but many others have taken that path for lack of other opportunities or as a shortcut, while others still consider the period spent in a temple, a period of high formation and enrichment personnel. Already in Cambodia, I had seen monks who didn’t behave as such and it was soon clear that they were not real monks but they were only pretending to be. Even in Myanmar, it happened to notice some rather ambiguous attitudes on the part of some monks, who did not they had no modesty in observing me and winking at me. Here, however, was different, because the air was imbued with spirituality despite the presence of tourists, although the city tells me has changed a lot compared to the past, it seemed that this does not touch the world of monks.

As a foreign visitor, I felt a little guilty towards this community, for example, the gift ceremony held before dawn (thanksgiving ceremony), it became a tourist event with masses of tourists who present themselves not respecting either the basic rules, with people approaching the monks to photograph them, some even using flash, with people who do not respect silence, scenes to say the least shameful.

On more than one occasion I could try an approach with them, but I decided not to do it, it seemed disrespectful, but it happened to me on more than one occasion to see young monks, probably novices, talking with some foreigners. And the thing initially seemed quite natural to me. I soon realized that there was a desire for a comparison between different cultures and worlds.

It is really true that wealth in a journey is to meetings made and experiences lived rather than to the places visited. It’s a concept that I think of more and more often. And even on this occasion, fate has led me to fulfill a desire just before leaving Luang Prabang and Laos. I had decided to take part in a group conversation in English organized by an association of local volunteers, Big Brother Mouse. I had come to know this association just one morning at dawn when I wandered through the streets of the city to understand where I could attend the ceremony. And so I presented myself at the headquarters of that association where I had the opportunity to meet several interesting people waiting for the locals to arrive. Suddenly a young novice entered and sat at the table of my group of foreigners, he was our only student of that day, with him we talked about a lot of things and we realized that the curiosity was mutual, we foreigners to him, but he towards us; it was a fantastic experience that filled my heart with joy and gratitude. It was also a beautiful way to greet that city and that country that many emotions had given me.