Leaving Luang Prabang

Novice Van and Novice Bee accompanied me to the Luang Prabang airport, where we posed for a final picture



Novice Van and Novice Bee in front of their temple at Wat Nong

Nothing seems to happen the way I think it will in Luang Prabang. Yesterday and this morning, my last, were no exception. Yesterday, I straggled out of bed late, but managed to get to the Pak Ou caves and the rice whiskey distillery. (Not bad stuff!) I even succeeded somehow in getting some decent pictures. Back in LP after my Mekong cruise, and despite almost constant light rain throughout the day, the sun came out quite suddenly while I was having a late lunch in town and I immediately zipped up Mount Phousi to catch stunning panoramic views of Luang Prabang, the swiftly flowing Mekong, and the Laotian mountains. It was hard to leave the summit and I straggled, so that as dusk fell, I found myself on a back path--an unlit one, alone--stumbling blindly, but excitedly, into a wat complex of Budhas--golden Buddhas, reclining Bhuddas, sitting Buddhas, and Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday Buddhas, Thursday and Friday, and Saturday and Sunday Buddhas.


The main street of Luang Prabang


View from the summit of Mount Phousi



A typical Luang Prabang Tuk-tuk


Sampling 100-proof(!) Rice Moonshine along the Mekong


Just a few of the thousands of Buddhas in the Pak Ou caves


On the summit of Mount Phousi


Alone on the step-path down from Mount Phousi


Reclining Buddha at a Mount Phousi Wat

I thought I'd ended my day with 2 1/2 hours of manicure, pedicure and massage (total, $20). Walking back to my hotel (with Nescafe, Equal and boxed milk for the morning!) I passed an Internet cafe whose customers included...Novice Van! He beamed a beaming smile and a long chat ensued before he suggested we return to the temple to talk more. I showed him pictures of the Thousand Pak Ou Cave Buddhas on my laptop. (As close as it is, it's still a $35-boat-ride away, and so almost none of these very poor novices have ever been there, so I funded an excursion, a pilgrimage, of sorts, for as many of them as I could.) Eventually, Novice Bee joined us and then another and then another. They would be up at 4am (and I was feeling really sick), but we talked and talked and talked until after midnight. I promised to return today at 12 for an hour to say goodbye. Novice Bee walked me to the gate and, as I walked away, I turned several times to wave until his orange robes faded into the misty dark.

As I write, it's 9am in Luang Prabang and I'll be leaving in a few short hours. It's raining lightly (again) and I'm sad to be leaving this peaceful and elusive and delightful place and Novice Van's warm smiles, sad to end my trip and to begin a two-day journey home, returning from the road in yet another travel-induced existentialist struggle with myself and my life and my values. I don't want to wear shoes again or walk down streets of impoverished wealth, devoid of ubiquitous clusters of bright orange cotton and golden temples and stupas and Buddhas and lush jungle and "sabai dees". But I have to go, as surely as the rain falls in Luang Prabang in the wet season.

"Kop jai", Luang Prabang--thank you.