"Where is the moon? Where is the moon?!" A toddler reaches her arm towards the sky, answering her doting father, the owner of our guesthouse. We are in Laos, and here they seem to learn from a very early age the importance of the moon. As it happens, our arrival coincided with the biggest full moon celebration of the year - the That Luang festival. Sadly, that was all happening in the north of the country, and we were in southern Savannakhet.
When you look at the guidebooks, they suggest Savannakhet has little more to offer than the road leading out of there - a handy stop over en route to Thailand or Vietnam - but we found it charming in a ramshackle sort of way. Its streets are dusty, and most of its French colonial buildings are in a poor state of repair, but after all the hustle and hassle you can find in Vietnam, it was a gentle introduction to a new country. And the people in Laos are as laid back as they come - happy to say hello without trying to sell you something.
Our first proper encounter was with a monk - who showed us around his monastery with a smattering of English, a few words of French - and an awful lot of Lao which we had no hope of understanding. He did teach us how to pronounce "khawp jai lai lai" (thank you very much), and we tried in return to teach him how to say "diolch". Later on, enjoying a Beer Lao as the sun set over the Mekong river, we made friends with Su and his sister Nan, who both wanted to practice their English. They were off to take part in a small full moon ceremony, floating a candle on the river - sadly we didn't have time to see it, as we had to catch the long, uncomfortable overnight bus north to Vientiane.
And so we arrived the morning after full moon - seeing rubbish on the streets and plenty of orange-robed monks who'd come here on pilgrimage still hanging around, taking holiday snaps on their mobile phones. The big attractions here are the Wat Buddhist monastaries - and having never been to one before coming to Laos, we've now seen at least six. They're all colourfully laid out, some with decoration that wouldn't look out of place in a disco. We'd resigned ourselved to having missed out on the big event, until we noticed some stalls being set up at one of the Wats. By evening, there was the sound of drums and high pitched screeching. When we wandered over to take a look - this is what we found...
When you look at the guidebooks, they suggest Savannakhet has little more to offer than the road leading out of there - a handy stop over en route to Thailand or Vietnam - but we found it charming in a ramshackle sort of way. Its streets are dusty, and most of its French colonial buildings are in a poor state of repair, but after all the hustle and hassle you can find in Vietnam, it was a gentle introduction to a new country. And the people in Laos are as laid back as they come - happy to say hello without trying to sell you something.
Our first proper encounter was with a monk - who showed us around his monastery with a smattering of English, a few words of French - and an awful lot of Lao which we had no hope of understanding. He did teach us how to pronounce "khawp jai lai lai" (thank you very much), and we tried in return to teach him how to say "diolch". Later on, enjoying a Beer Lao as the sun set over the Mekong river, we made friends with Su and his sister Nan, who both wanted to practice their English. They were off to take part in a small full moon ceremony, floating a candle on the river - sadly we didn't have time to see it, as we had to catch the long, uncomfortable overnight bus north to Vientiane.
And so we arrived the morning after full moon - seeing rubbish on the streets and plenty of orange-robed monks who'd come here on pilgrimage still hanging around, taking holiday snaps on their mobile phones. The big attractions here are the Wat Buddhist monastaries - and having never been to one before coming to Laos, we've now seen at least six. They're all colourfully laid out, some with decoration that wouldn't look out of place in a disco. We'd resigned ourselved to having missed out on the big event, until we noticed some stalls being set up at one of the Wats. By evening, there was the sound of drums and high pitched screeching. When we wandered over to take a look - this is what we found...
So the celebrations hadn't finished after all - apparently they go on for a week. So far we are really enjoying Laos, and we found the moon!
2 comments:
The music in the background sounds great. It's really nice to hear some authentic Savannakhet moon festival music rather than all that commercial moon festival rubbish that's around. My one complaint about this blog is that it is just too professional! You had me disappointed for you two missing out on the festival for a bit there, but you were just playing with my emotions so you could hold back your phone-video punchline. Bloody Alistair Cooke has a lot to answer for! Take care, Kevin.
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