Temples and English lessons

October 14th, 2002 at 12:00am

Second day in the ancient capital of Laos.

Got up early today, had an excellent French croissant and coffee at the Scandinavian Bakery, and then set out for a 3km walk out of town to a temple called Wat Pa Phon Phao. Nice walk in the early morning; it was cloudy (not hot). I passed a lot of temples, lots of monks, and many locals. Once outside of town I had a hard time finding the wat (the what??), so I stopped to ask 2 local girls Their English wasn’t very good but I was able to understand that they were willing to walk with me to make sure that I found my way. The wat was about a 10-minute walk away and on the way I found out that both girls were 18 years old and going to school to be English teachers. They were so sweet, watching out for where I walked and asking me if I was tired or hot from the walk.

When we got to the temple I wasn’t sure if they were going to turn around and go or not but they seemed interested to go in so the three of us went in together. There were 5 floors to the temple, the fifth having a good view of Luang Prabang and the Mekong River.

When we finally left it was 9:30am and the girls told me they had to go to school so we walked back to the turnoff together and then they went their way and I headed back to town. Wow, you just can’t get a more down-home true local experience than that. Lovely girls.

Back in town I checked out a few stores and temples and then popped in an internet place for an email session. Finally got some real news on the Bali bombings and I spent the better part of an hour scanning sites for info. I was shocked with the news of course and the realization that I was just in Bali myself 5 months ago and I was staying only blocks from the site where the bombing occured. English newspapers are really impossible to get in Lao and if you do get one (which you would have to find in a restaurant because they are illegal to sell), it’s at least a week behind. So internet is the only way to get real news.

I went back to the guesthouse and relayed the news to Peggy and Ron, the American couple, who, incidentally, had been planning to go to Bali as part of their trip. They were as shocked as I was to hear of so many killed. Not much desire to do any sightseeing after that; spent a few hours back at the guesthousejust hanging out, trying to read a bit. I still had plans to meet our new novice monk friend at 4pm, so Winston and I headed over to his temple, Watz Up (Wat Sop) to meet him.

I’m so glad we went. Spent about 1.5 hours at the temple, sitting with him, speaking English, asking questions, and going through his book on America and English vocabulary together. I think he was so grateful that we took the time to meet him and help him with his English, and we were equally happy to do it and have a chance to really interact with a real Lao person. Many of the young Lao boys from the villages becom novice monks at any early age so they have a chance to live in a temple in one of the cities and go to school, because more than often there are no schools in their villages. Novice Anousack (the monk) has been in the temple in Luang Prabang for 3 years already and only goes home to see his family once a year. After we learned about his family (his father grows rice and chillies in the fields), he asked about our families. Then he showed us around the temple, pointing out the classrooms, eating area, and main temple. We asked him if he would like us to come back tomorrow and he said Yes! very enthusiastically, so I think we will do it again. Personally I’m looking forward to it.

Two very nice future English teachers of Lao

Scenes from Luang Prabang

Novice Anousack

Entry Filed under: Laos,Luang Prabang