New Year in LPB

On our first morning here, we witnessed the early morning alms giving to the monks. I also partook. I bought bananas from a woman in the street to give to the monks - only to discover later that day that is not advised by the authorities to buy from local people in the street to give to the monks - it is advised to go to the markets to purchase food for the monks.....ooops!

Yesterday was apparently Hmong New Years Eve .... New year's eve in 3 places this year -Cambodia, Vietnam and now Laos. So today there were great celebrations. Also to note was the 15th anniversary of Luang Prabang being made a UNESCO city. Big parade this afternoon, so our plans for the day changed yet again and we took up residence at an alfresco cafe on the main street, so we could watch the fanfare. It was gorgeous. We got to see and take photos of many different tribal groups and their style of dress...without feeling like we were intruding on these people and their homes. One doesn't usually get to see elephants prancing down the main street either...unless you were in Luang Prabang today.

 This is the momks procession down the main street on our second day - there were many more on this day as it was the celebratory day for the 15th anniversary of Luang Prabang being a UNESCO world heritage city.

 I feel sorry for the little novice monks at the end. They only eat once a day - it must be in the morning before 11.30am. They get so much food in the morning I am not sure what they do with it all....give it to the poor?

 That afternoon we went to the street parade and these two ladies sat opposite us, the little old one was a scream - organising everyone.

 We were sitting opposite the school and the kids were originally really excited at the gate - the teachers kept them in check - with bamboo canes!

The parade was really colourful - these characters were part of the "Ramayana" play - when the devils came along the kids actually got frightened and ran away.

 Christina giving alms on the morning of the New Year and parade. The lady next to her was really hoping for a lot of good Karma - she was giving out LOTs of 1000 kip notes (about 12 cents) plus when she was running low on them she kept shouting out to her son to get more - she was just as entertaining as the procession.

Visited the Royal Palace - now a National Museum. The curators have tried to restore it to the glory of  1904 - 1975 (from when it was built to the "revolutionary success"). It looks like they have gathered whatever furniture they could from any decade and put it in, there are lots of wonderful period pieces, but it is not over done. It does not compare to the opulence of the European palaces or even the Thai Palaces.

PHOTO above ... The front of the Palace -where international dignatories arrived-not very special at all. Furniture inside was "nice", but the polished floors were wonderful.
 (right)...The back of the Palace, where all the locals came to meet for an audience with the king. This entrance leads down to the Mekong River - it is a much more interesting entrance.

 Wat Ho Pha Bang...this is at the entrance of the grounds to the Palace - it was built to house ONE chair and buddha statue - which is still currenty behind locked grills. Apparently is is sacred and worth too much to allow people to go too close to it. It is taken out once a year -for New Year in April parade.

 Some of the Hmong people in the street parade.

Naturally the end of the aprade was brought up by 3 huge elephants...they were gorgeous (as far as elephants go)