I'm travelling in Southeast Asia: Thailand, Laos, Cambodia. My descriptions are very "wordy"...

Saturday, July 24, 2004

Laos : Luang Prabang : Wats; Currency

Incongruous amongst the colonial architecture were Luang Prabang’s many wats - sometimes low slung, sometimes shiny glam. One wat was a complex of tiny buildings nestled on a huge hill in the middle of town. Every intricate building, carved staircase or Buddha image you came across felt like a DISCOVERY!
The hill made all journeys much longer – to go anywhere the other side of the hill became a major mission.
Luang Prabang’s wats were alive, almost all had monastic communities thriving on the free children’s education. We heard drumming from one wat. It was pouring with rain and so we went up to listen. We got chatting to one monk, accompanied by a very bony mad guy. He wore only purple Y-fronts and would occasionally grin manaically – exposing his teeth and gums. The monk was amazing – he studied English from an ancient textbook from 4am through to midnight with rock-solid determination. He met the crazy guy whilst sitting on the temple steps and recounting the tales of Buddha in English out loud to himself. He spoke about education – some thing so taken for granted in the western world especially compared to here. Even where government schools are available, many kids have to stay home and help their families. This guy had left his village (30km outside Luang Prabang) to be educated at a monastery but couldn’t go to University because he couldn’t afford the two million kip a year fees. We had two million kip in our bag from changing £100 that morning. We almost felt like handing him the carrier bag of notes.
The currency here is daft – inflation runs at a ridiculous rate and the government can’t print higher denominations fast enough. We were given two million kip in thick bundles of five thousand kip bills. One guy we spoke to said he took out his carrier bag of notes to pay a bill in a restaurant, then the proprietress brought out her carrier bag of notes to give him his change. It’s not quite so daft for some locals – the guy changing the money for me parted with “That would last my family three months”…
Wat Xieng Thong was the most opulent – sited on an outcrop into the Mekong it was rich with intricate stencil decoration and shimmering glass murals on a deep red background. The monks were drying rice cakes along the wall in the sun.