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| Boat trip on the Mekong River |
Sunday, February 25 Luang PraBang, Laos
After lunch we headed out to take a boat trip on the Mekong River to PhaTad Ke Botanical Gardens. We climbed down about 100 stairs, as the river is lower now, and boarded an interesting older wooden boat for a 20 minute cruise.
The river is interesting, as
it frequently overflows and floods. Lots of
vegetables were growing on both sides of river – now, it’s tomatoes, beans, etc. –
winter crops. In the summer, it’s
rice. Today its really hot and steamy– 95
and mostly no breeze, except when boat was moving on water.
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| Crops are farmed on both sides of the river bed |
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| Reception committee at boat dock area |
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| Thanks goodness for some shade on the boat, as it's 95 degrees today |
After our boat trip, we arrived at our hotel (Belmond
La Residence Phou Vao Hotel) around 5:30.
Mike took a quick dip in the pool and I washed up and changed before our
Baci ceremony. The Baci ceremony is given by the community as a blessing. It's a combination of Buddhist and
animist traditions and used for 5 occasions: if you move to new house, for having a baby, for a wedding, to receive important
visitors, or before you leave on trip. Tonight there was a group of 8 men and women – chanting the blessing and then each person tied white bands on our
wrists. The also served local food and brought flowers.
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| Our crew leaders - Eszter - accepted the flower tower gift on our behalf |
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| Mike receives another blessing cord around his wrist |
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| Coconut jelly cubes being offered to Mike |
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