In one day we do buses, bikes and boat whilst managing to leave a teacher behind. Waking up from what we call a sleep in these days. We came down to the biggest breakfast we have seen in days, defiantly a step up from our last morning’s meals. We even got specially made pancakes! Heading onto the buses we ventured off to yet another temple. On arrival to the temple the group spread out looking at the several ornate buildings with handcrafted walls, holding the past kings golden funeral carriage. As we sat and took a short break from looking around the temple, we were introduced to a 13 year old boy. He had pledged his life to that of a monk. We learned about his daily life and the rules that came with the lifestyle. We found that one of the rules was that they were not allowed to touch a woman and we mean not touch at all, including his own mother.
After saying thankyou to the monk and bidding him farewell, we travelled to the royal palace. Since Laos is governed by communist regime, the palace has been turned into a museum. The group saw the countless private rooms and a golden throne. The palace was surrounded by beautiful gardens. Within the garden there was a large pond, which housed some enormous coy fish. We gazed at the fish for a while then gradually strolled through the gardens to our meeting point.
We walked down the street to collect our bikes for our second bike ride on the trip. Now experts in bike riding in Laos, we travelled along the busy chaotic roads with some intersections frightening the majority of our bicycle convoy. Once we rode over unconventional bridge we discovered that we might have left one behind teacher (not mentioning any names). We sent out our trusty tour guide to search for our missing member. After being reunited we got to our destination at the silk and papermaking village. Where we saw how many amazing artworks are made in this location.
Then on our third type of transport for the day we got onto the long boat for an exciting 4 hour journey and had the best lunch so far. We stopped at some caves that consisted of many Budda statues and 250 plus steps under the incredible cliff face located along the Mekong River. After spending some time there our group got back onto the boat to travel back to the Pier where we boarded the bus to hotel for a quick swim.
After a well needed shower and some rest we headed out to the night markets for the second night (which we all love) and had a ‘choose your own destination’ dinner. Overall it had been an exciting and eventful day with all of us looking forward to the elephants tomorrow. It’s day 14 and our Big Experience is drawing closer to the end.
Blogged by Charlotte Hayward and Eleanor Chadwick
