Erase una vez en Laos/Once upon a time in Laos

Llegamos a Laos hace tres días y en esta pequeña ciudad de Luang Prabang, el tiempo se ha detenido para nosotros. Después de abandonar la agitación de Hanoi hemos llegado al reino de los templos y las túnicas color naranja y azafrán. Estas dos palabras, templos y túnicas, son las que mejor definen este lugar al norte de Laos y a orillas del rio Mekong.

Es cierto que se trata de un lugar Patrimonio de la Humanidad y que por ello el número de “hombres blancos” para lo que es la media del país sea bastante elevado, pero el lugar sigue desprendiendo un cierto aire a santidad. Santidad mezclada con buen rollismo pues también esta ciudad es patrimonio de buenos bares con terracitas chulas…

Más de 20 templos budistas pueblan esta ciudad, templos de agujas doradas y tejados de formas sinuosas. Templos multicolor habitados por centenares de pequeños novicios budistas que envueltos en sus túnicas pululan de un lado a otro. Viven, estudian y duermen en el mismo templo, en pequeñas casas adosadas a él. Salvo contadas excepciones parece que la edad media de los habitantes de los templos a duras penas supera los 25 años.

Esta tarde nos hemos sentado a conversar con un pequeño grupo de ellos y durante más de una hora nos han mostrado su mejor sonrisa y ellos han podido practicar un poco su inglés. Bueno, en cuanto les hemos dicho que éramos de España enseguida han querido que les enseñáramos unas cuantas palabras en castellano. No sé, nos hemos quedado prendados de su inocencia y eso que el más pequeño de ellos tendría 19….Parece que destilan una cierta pureza …Claro, mis referencias en cuanto al budismo, como madrileño que soy, se reducen al Dalai Lama que siempre que aparece por la tele me ha parecido como una persona muy sabia y por otro lado, los “Hare Krishna” que cada vez que doy con ellos por las calles de Madrid, mas se refuerza mi opinión de que se trata de una panda de “colgaos”. Así que soy presa fácil en esto del budismo.

Volviendo al tema de las experiencias místicas, esta madrugada hemos vivido la más intensa. Al amanecer, a eso de las 6:30 de la mañana una procesión de monjes budistas recorren a paso ligero las calles de la ciudad. Llevan a la cintura una especie de bol de metal donde recogen las ofrendas que los lugareños les hacen. Ofrendas que consisten en comida: fruta, chocolatinas, arroz …..Lo que te apetezca ya que es su desayuno. Perdón por si se me ofenden los católicos pero no veas que diferencia con el famoso “cepillo” de la iglesia. En la procesión, claro, hay que guardar silencio y permanecer en actitud respetuosa, así que yo me he sentado en cuclillas y con la cámara en mis piernas he aguardado el mejor momento para tirar algunas fotos…hay muchas más..…

La Flaca, que es muy valiente, con el chaval que se ocupa de la recepción del Bed & Breakfast, se ha atrevido a hacer unas ofrendas. Este chaval, que es un cielo, ya había arreglado una esterilla para Diana y la había comprado arroz hervido y chocolatinas. La atmosfera era impresionante a uno se le encogía el alma y le entraban escalofríos apenas podía mirar por la mirilla de mi cámara sin que me temblara el pulso. Eso hasta que ha terminado el primer grupo de “penitentes” (no sé cómo llamarlos) y Diana se ha puesto a llorar como una magdalena (like a muffin como diría mi querido Juanma)…aquí yo ya lo he perdido…..

Bueno aparte de buscar nuestro lado más místico, hemos visitado innumerables templos, alquilado bicis y nos hemos relajado hasta más no poder.

Mañana empezamos una caminata de 4 días que nos llevará de un lado a otro a unas 4-5 horas al norte de Luang Prabang……Así que veremos que tal me sienta la caña de nuevo…

Esto es todo por hoy, como siempre muchas cosas se quedan en el tintero….

Buenas noches a todos!!!

PD: Se sigue notando la influencia colonial francesa. En esta ciudad en 2 notas: hay unos crepes que ni en París y por otro lado, mucho hippy francés que como sabemos no es el hippy típico (perriflauta…) no, este es como más de diseño….vamos que incluso huele bien.

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Before diving into the fascinating world of Luang Prabang, just a few final words about Hanoi… Upon our return from Sapa (again arriving at 4.30am!) to an abandoned train station, we spent the day wondering around Hanoi, including some viewing of locals doing tai chi, a visit to the surreal Ho Chi Minh museum, meandering through an even more surreal Christmas market (they need to change the kid story about the north pole and the reindeer stuff and make clear that all Christmas stuff and presents are produced in the Old Quarters of Hanoi (which in turn comes directly from China) It was very amusing…

Anyway it´s amazing how much one can get done when you get up at 4.30am! But the highlight was the semifinal football match between Vietnam and Singapore in the South East Asia Games… and Vietnam won! That night it felt like we were back in Madrid in its football euphoria…except instead of everyone walking and cheering it was all done on motorbikes. Picture a sea of motorbikes, no better yet, an ocean of motorbikes with gazillions of Vietnamese flags, all going round and round the lake, honking, honking , honking… it was a sight to see (well to hear). Pretty soon all the foreigners were totally hooked and we were all screaming at the top of our lungs the equivalent of “We are the Champions” (anecdotically and sadly enough Vietnam ended up losing the final to Malaysia) but since that score came later we were happy to join in the cheers of “Vietnam Vo Dyck” Such good energy this city has…

Anyway after another 5am wake up call (I swear i´ve never woken up so early in my life) we were off to Laos. I seriously had no idea what to expect. I only know two people who have been to Laos before arriving here so I had only the expectations created by multiple reading sources. Let me tell you that this blank slate was the absolute perfect way to arrive to Luang Prabang (sorry for anyone reading this that will later be going.. but you´re still in time. Stop now and skip this section ;))

I think this has to be one of the most incredible cities/towns on the planet. I´m not kidding. Luang Prabang is a UNESCO world heritage site because of its concentration of spectacular wats (temples). My god they are so amazing. And the best part about them is that they are live temples, meaning when you wander around them you don´t have a feeling that you are in a “museum”, you actually feel like they are alive. Each one is inhabited by dozens of monks and novice monks. The safron robes… there´s something about the saffron robes that immediately carries one into another dimension, even if you´re not actually Buddhist. So you have a feeling when you´re wondering around that you´re getting a glimpse, a good glimpse of a Laos monks life. It´s incredible. Really.

But that´s the “spiritual” part. The rest of the town is an incredible fusion of asian art, cuisine, architecture, culture with French cuisine, architecture culture. Let me say that for Aitor and I, it´s the PERFECT combination. Everything about it just has good taste, both literally and figuratively. The food is so incredible yummy, the buildings, the furniture, EVERYTHING… we were actually looking at for sale signs today on the houses.. no just kidding!

The highlight of our amazing time in Luang Prabang was actually today. Funny enough yesterday at dinner I was telling Aitor that I felt that yes the wats, the food and the houses and the market were all fabulous but that I felt that I hadn´t really been able to interact in any meaningful way up to now with any Laotians (is that what they´re called?) So I had this sort of strange feeling inside of on the one hand being absolutely dumbfounded and awestruck by this place but mixed with a sort of emptiness of not having really had the opportunity to interact with the locals..

Well all that changed this morning let me tell you. Rise and shine at 6am to see the sunrise and the monk procession (do I get cookies for waking up so damn early so many days in a row?? Come on, i´m spanish!). Last night we had told the man at the reception of our guesthouse that we wanted to participate in the offering ceremony to the monks. Apparently the procession is where the monks collect the food they are going to eat that day, from the offerings of the people in the town.

So like I was saying, last night I had told him that we would be interested but this morning I woke up feeling kind of shy and decided that I didn´t really want to partake in the offering since I felt a bit sheepish not being Buddhist or anything. Well naïve of me, it was a little too late for me to back down. Cause it´s not like you just hand out a couple of bananas and do a little curtsy. Oh no. The production consisted of a Laotian (sp??) man coming up to me and setting up in front of me a mat with a cushion and then putting some religious attire on me and then a bamboo like basket with rice and a beautiful silver bowl with chocolates. And after removing my shoes and kneeling down on the cushion, I was to pray until the monks approached me. And it wasn´t like three monks that you smile and then get up and dust your knees off. .. It was dozens of monks, in line waiting patiently to receive my clumsy made balls of sticky rice. And just having one monk after another waiting patiently to receive food from me was so moving, so beautiful that tears just fell down my cheeks as I offered them what I had. It was truly an incredible moment. Luckily my photography loving husband capture the moment to perfection (not so much my tears but the sensation of the monks in that morning light collecting their day´s food.)

And if that wasn´t enough, this afternoon after walking around a few wats, we made some eye contact with some monks to be who were sitting under a banyan tree studying (they go to school seven days a week!) and they invited us to sit under the banyan tree with them. And so there were were for like an hour doing a beautiful trilingual exchange between Laotian, Spanish and English. It was absolutely brilliant. The way their innocent yet intense eyes would concentrate on getting us to get the correct pronunciation of some familiar Laotian word or their nervous laughter while hearing Spanish for the first time and hearing their own voice trying to pronounce it “Como te llamas?” All this under a banyan tree. It was a gorgeous moment, a perfect day really (including an INCREDIBLE nutella crepe. Better than in France I tell you, and I know so cause I LOVE nutella!)

And as I sign off I have a blaring loudspeaker in the background of what appears to be a wedding somewhere nearby and what I think is a karaoke session cause who ever is singing should not quit their day job… but in this context it´s just fricken cute and awesome.

Tomorrow we head for our four day trek in northern laos including a hike to some apparently gorgeous waterfalls and boat ride down the Mekong river…. If it´s half as magnificent as our time in Luang Prabang, we´re going to have some good times!

Eat, pray, love in Luang Prabang