28th Mar, Luang Prabang

morning market in Luang Prabang...

the daily night market with all its buzz and makeshift tents materializing out of nowhere

yummmy... i get this fantastic fruit shake almost everytime i see it. breakfast, lunch, dinner =P

a 10,000 kip "buffet" in a side street where you put as much food as you can possibly stack on a plate and tuck in!

woke up really early around 5+ to pack up and get ready to see the famous and very popular alms giving ceremony in Luang Prabang. its a daily ritual where monks will walk thru the the streets in Luang Prabang and ppl would be kneeling on the floor to give food to the monks when they pass by. they mostly travel in groups of about 10 or so depending on the size of the monk population in that particlar temple, usually with an elderly monk in front whom i think is the head abbot of that particular temple. i only see ppl giving sticky rice and bananas and nth else. wonder if there is other kinds of food that they give but didnt see any other than these 2 haha.

Heard that because the alms giving ceremony is so popular with tourists, there are some cunning locals who actually sell bad food that are leftovers from days before so as to earn more profits. this has resulted in some monks getting food poisoning and many of them want to stop this morning alms giving practice but supposedly the government ORDERS them to continue at all cost, prob because it brings in so much tourist dollars... in case you are not aware, the govt is still very much in control of everything and its not exactly very open yet...

the locals...

the farangs...

and even the monks participate in this morning routine!