feldmanlarry

Today has to be one of the very best of the trip. When I saw my itinerary included getting up before dawn to give alms to monks, I was not excited. However, once I got here and my wonderful guide strongly recommended I do it, I could not say no. I really respect the Buddhist religion, maybe more so than others. I like its focus on peace, forgiveness, and inner tranquility.

I had a question to my guide that I hope didn’t offend her. She told me that Buddhism does not require a tithe but that people are free to give whatever is in their heart. She said that whatever you give will be waiting for you in the next life. My question was whether it is selfish to be generous if the reason you are generous is to have a better next life.

Having said all that, I loved giving rice and other treats to the monks. The tour company had set up a rug for me with a stool and container of rice. I also bought some biscuits from sellers nearby. The guide put the sash on me. She told me to stand to give the alms but women are supposed to sit.

The monks came in groups of about 20, starting at 6 AM. Each group was led by an older monk followed by mostly young boys.

I was reminded of my 2 years on the assembly line in Montreal when I was in my 20’s. The monks came  quickly and I had to hustle to get clumps of rice to give each one. Occasionally I was too slow and a monk would close his bowl. They didn’t stop.

This is the only meal of the day for these monks. I’m guessing that it’s a good meal since there were plenty of tourists around. We then went to another street where there was a line of Laotians giving alms to the same monks.

I was surprised at the young age of the monks. Most looked to be early teenagers. Apparently, the older monks take the boys in and only a few decide to continue. They would have to be celibate if they continue.

I didn’t find this to be a spiritual or religious experience for me. I loved the pagentry of the ritual but it did not make me feel closer to any gods. This was a way for these monks to get food for the day. I’m sure it’s spiritual for others and if I was a religious person I might have sensed some higher meaning. None of that takes away from my pure enjoyment of experiencing this ceremony.

We went into a temple, with dozens of Buddhas in it. My guide prayed and I took pictures.

Although it wasn’t on my itinerary, the guide brought us to the morning market. This did not look like Giant Eagle in Indiana, PA. There were many types of rice to choose from.

There were many colorful delicacies.

I wish I could bring back some of these spices.

These are frogs.

Edible flowers, I think.

Birds for sale in the cages.

Fish were for sale at many stalls.

They sent me back to my hotel and gave me until 8:30 to have breakfast and recover. I was shocked to channel surf and find the replay of the Steelers – Raiders game. It looked like the NFL Network’s rebroadcast, since they skipped through most of the huddles, timeouts, and commercials. The US announcers could be heard softly in the background but there were two Laotian commentators. I loved hearing the occasional English word, such as “false start”, mixed in with the Laotian. Just a few minutes before I had to go, the Steelers kicked a field goal with no time on the clock to win 38-35.

Next stop was the Elephant Village. At first, I was disturbed about sitting on an elephant. Wouldn’t that be abusive to the elephant? In today’s news, they announced that the whale shows would end to a certain extent at Sea World. Was my trip here going to be just like a whale show?

As far as I can tell, it’s legit. The history they showed at the site said that Laos used to be known as the Land of a Million Elephants but there are less that 1000 that remain.  Many of these were used in the logging industry and are no longer needed. Since they had been domesticated, they could not easily return to the forest. This rescue group, called Elephant Village, has protected them and given them work with humans, much like horses are used in our culture. These elephants have a very close relationship with their Mahout, or handler, and are given full medical care. According to my guide (who worked here for four years previously), the elephants like the work of carrying humans, that it’s easy for them and almost feels like a massage.

The mahout for my elephant had been with the same elephant for over 10 years. The elephant belonged to his father who owned her and was her mahout before. The relationship is very close, much like someone who has a long-term relationship with a horse in our culture.

I felt a little nervous climbing on top of this massive creature but it was evident that the Mahout knew what he was doing. We started by going down a path, which was a little crazy because the zig-zagging made the side to side movement worse. The path was going towards the river and I assumed we were going to go along a path on the side of the river.

Imagine to my surprise, we started plowing through the river! They told me later that the elephant loves to go in the river to cool off and to be able to drink as much water as she wants. The elephants also liked the light rain we were having.

Elephants eat about 250 kg (550 lbs.) per day and leave about 65 kg (145 lbs.) as waste. They drink about 75 liters of water. They are also very intelligent creatures. And very beautiful, I might add.

Going in the water was a total surprise but I had a much bigger surprise coming up. When we got to a small island, the Mahout got off the elephant and asked me to move forward so I was sitting on the elephant’s neck. I had to ask him to repeat himself a couple of times to make sure I was hearing him right. I had to put my shoes on her neck then slide forward until I was fully sitting on her neck with my feet protected by her ears.

The sensation when she flapped her ears was bizarre. My legs felt a sudden strong draft of air when the ears opened then a sense of warmth as the ears closed again around my legs.

A scary moment was when he asked me to get back on the bench and I couldn’t get the leverage right. I needed to lift myself from behind to pick my body up and then sit up closer to the bench. I was only able to do it with the help of a Mahout from another elephant who was right nearby. I’m sure I would have gotten it eventually but it was a little unrattling.

From this view, I had been sitting just in front of where my shoes are here with my legs snuggled underneath the elephant’s ears.

It felt so safe now to be with a seatbelt and safety bar on a wide seat. We continued out of the water and these school children waved at the elephant and me.

When the hour ride was up, I bought 3 bunches of bananas for 20,000 kip (about $2.50) to feed to my elephant. They told me to keep the peels on and put 2 bananas at a time in her mouth. At first, i was hesitant, but they assured the elephant wouldn’t bite and I really enjoyed it.

My elephant didn’t like having the bananas put on the end of her trunk but the one next to her did so I tried that.

I gave some of my bananas to this child and he was very afraid but eventually tried it.

I felt a kind of spiritual connection with this beautiful animal, more so than with the monks although that too was a wonderful experience.

We then walked to a beautiful lookout to have lunch. On the way we passed a small boat made out of a US bomb shell. You can’t get away from the war even in this tranquil setting.

My guide on a swinging bridge.

I spent close to an hour just chilling at this spot. This was one of the best moments of the trip.

This is the view from that spot. There are three elephants in the second picture where I had been before. The island where I got on the neck is on the left.

On the way out, we passed the veterinarian’s station and saw information about my elephant. She was born in November 1975, which coincidentally is the same month and year that my guide was born. She weighs 2.432 metric tons, which is 5,362 pounds. As the guide said, humans riding on elephants’ backs are not a burden.

We moved on to Ban Phanom, which according to my itinerary is “a village steeped in traditional textile making with all the families in the village working their looms to provide goods for sale at the night markets. The methods, techniques and patterns used today are still those of past times. Some of the families work from their own small workshops with the whole village operating as a co-operative supplying to a handful of manufacturers.”

I got a demonstration of the weaving process and of the fabrics used, which I’m sure someone who knew something about this would have been able to understand more fully.

This young woman asked 50,000 kip (about $6) for this whatever it is. I asked my guide to ask if they would give me a discount and the price went to 40,000. I said 30,000 (about $3.65) and to my surprise she said OK. I felt bad as I always do because the price seemed so low for something handmade that was worth much more. They said it takes three days to make something like this.

I was back at the hotel by 1 PM from a day that started at 5 AM with breakfast, feeding monks at 6 AM, riding an elephant, and sitting with one of the most beautiful landscapes I’ve seen. When I’m home in the US, by 1 PM I have gotten up around 11, eaten breakfast and slowly had my coffee, then spent maybe an hour taking one of my MOOC courses or planning a trip. I guess there is a difference.