That Luang Festival

This annual religious festival takes place over 3 days and nights over a full moon in November. Thousands of monks from all over Laos come to Vientiane and gather around the temple of That Luang. The city was literally flooded with the orange robes. It was almost comical to see monks as tourists...traveling around the different markets with their cameras, buying souvenirs. On the final day at dawn the public make offerings of food, flowers and money to the monks and in the evening there is a candlelit procession around the temple, with a firework show and big festival. We woke up early to get some pictures and eat kao lam... a kind of purple sticky rice cooked with sugar and salt in bamboo rods. I tried to take some pictures of the temple and all of the many people dressed in their finest clothes to make offerings to the monks, but it really became one of those moments where I just had to soak in the scene. As the sun was rising there was a calmness while the sanskrit sutra was being chanted. Everyone was filing into the temple grounds and lining up all around the outside. I think it was a holy moment for everyone present.

A group of young monks trying to stay warm in the cool morning air outside the temple. On the tables are their alms baskets where people put their offerings.

Vientiane Half Marathon

One of MCC's projects here in Laos helps to support the Lao Disabled Women's Development Center. And to support them and their publicity the other SALTers and I decided to run the 5K portion of the Vientiane Half Marathon. However, they told us that we had to run the 10K as only people over 35 are allowed to run the 5K. Which is funny by itself, but the story continues. We woke up super early in the morning to get down to the National Stadium by 6am. The race didn't start for a good hour and even then we weren't exactly sure if it was our turn to go until someone pushed us across the starting line. Then we ran for awhile on streets that weren't officiated in any way, so everyone was turning when they felt like it or getting tuk tuk's (motorcycle taxis) when they got tired. When we completed the course (known just by following the crowd) it was in a record breaking time, and although I'd love to tell myself I'm just that fast, we're pretty much positive that it was only a 7-8 kilometer run. The best part was getting cheered across the finish line by a group of women, some in wheelchairs some with canes, all wearing our same shirts. Unfortunately the people running the half marathon had the opposite problem. Someone had knocked down the sign that was the turn around point, so they just kept running deeper into the rice fields. I think by the time they made it all the way back to the stadium it was around 28 kilometers instead of the 20 expected!