Waking up at 5:00 am, regardless of the reason, is never an easy thing to do. It’s easier for me, as the curfew in Laos states I should be inside and off the streets by 11:00 pm, but regardless, I like my sleep and therefore, it’s a difficulty.
However, this morning, watching the Alms ceremony in Luang Prabang made it worth it.
Being out in the street this early, there’s not many people around. The sun is barely up, and I’m finding it very hard to keep my eyes open, or stand up straight steadily. So there’s me, on a cross roads outside my guesthouse, wobbling and bleary eyed like a drunk guy, plus bedhair - i must look a right state. At about 5:30, things start to come alive a bit more. Men, women, and children - and the occasional “Falang” (the Lao word for “White Westerners”) - start to bleed out onto the street. The Lao people carry bamboo floor sheets, small rice pots and plastic baskets, and set up on the pavement along the Sakkaline road. By about 5:45, there’s about fourty people sitting on their sheets, with a few people walking around selling Sticky Rice to tourists. I don’t buy any; I heard that you shouldn’t take part in the ceremony if you’re not a buddhist, and I don’t want to be disrespectful.
By about 5:50, I spy a cloud of orange in the distance up the Sakkaline road. I check my camera to make sure I don’t need to use my flash, and set up on a small corner on the opposite side of the procession. As the monks approach, I get a very humbled feeling. Everything is quiet, there are no cars, tuk tuks or motos, and everyone is kneeling, eyes to the floor, handing out small balls of rice to the monks passing by.
By 6:00, the monks have passed and have turned west on the crossroads. Even though I’m knackered, an experience well worth the trouble of waking up so early. I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t slightly emotional. No wonder people love Luang Prabang.