When we walked down into this one- it scared the heck out of us. The guy in front looked pretty real and there was fake blood on his cheeks. I thought we walked right into one of those hidden camera shows and he was going to jump at us any second. Freaky!
The kids usually humor me when I try to direct them in the photos!
At the base of the steps- a woman was selling tiny birds in little wicker cages. You take them all the way to the top and let them go while making a wish. We bought a cage with two little birds and released them at the summit. 🙂 They thanked us by flying around over our heads for awhile. So cool.
Monks can have very few possessions in life. They are: 1 toothpick, an umbrella, a belt, a razor, three robes and an alms bowl.
Centuries ago -robes were made from “pure cloth” – meaning cloth that no one else wanted anymore. The monks would collect old rags, wash them, then dye them by boiling with vegetables and spices like turmeric and saffron which gave the robes the bright orange/yellow colors.
Monks in Southeast Asia still wear the spice colored robes today in shades of curry, cumin, paprika and saffron.
Good gravy! Over a month in and we’re still dealing with picky eaters! “I’m starving! I’m starving!” Then after they order food “Ew! I don’t like it.” We keep telling them that if they were truly starving, they would eat ANYTHING! Maybe by the end of the trip they’ll be eating pig’s snouts and chicken feet…
Feet are considered the dirtiest (lowest) part of your body – so you must always remove your shoes before entering anywhere (temples, restaurants, stores, hotels, homes.) At some temples, they have shoe, shorts and tank top “police” that will ask you to leave and come back when you have taken your shoes off and/or covered your shoulders/legs (or you can always rent some hideous getup!)
Some of you know and I think I briefly posted about the fact that L and M like to collect beer bottle caps from off the ground. We saw some men that made a checkerboard set out of bottle caps and chalk- now that is genius! The boys discovered the bounty at a restaurant and wanted me to blog about it!
We looked in this huge garage and there were rats and cats roaming around these beautiful boats.
The tree of life is used throughout Laos on many paintings, temple walls and even t-shirts. It has peacocks, angels and a transcendent Buddha on it.
marschmadness 