Joey woke up bright and early to experience the serene giving of alms in the morning here in Luang Prabang. Each temple participates as a group and the givings are said to start when a monk sees his palm (this is just what we heard and are not sure if this is true, but seems to coincide with sunrise); today it began around 5:40am. Many tourists actually participate in the giving of alms, but we decided that we would just silently witness it, as it has unfortunately become somewhat of a tourist spectacle. If you do participate in the givings, please make sure to be silent, respectful, and hold off on the selfies. We witnessed many tourists trying to give while taking pictures and even holding up the entire procession to get pictures in action.
After this morning tradition, Joey came back to the hotel just after 6am and woke me up for another delicious, but final, breakfast at our hotel. Yesterday we scheduled a family weaving and dyeing course through Ock Pop Tok (which means East meets West) for today from 9am-12pm. We met a lovely mother daughter duo (actually from our slowboat journey) from the Liverpool area and Joey played her brother so we could do the course together with a family package deal…even though Joey seriously struggled pulling off the English accent. We met at the storefront in town at 8:30am sharp to be taken by free tuk-tuk to the weaving and dyeing studio just outside of town.
Once we arrived at the studio, we were greeted with smiles, beautiful views of the Mekong, and some tasty local bael fruit tea. After enjoying some tea, we learned about the silk making process, from the lifecycle of the silkworms to the harvesting/collection and weaving of the delicate cocoons.
We then explored the master weaver studio and were blown away by the expertise that these individuals have! Some of the patterns are so intricate and have so many different threads working simultaneously, it’s amazing the final product isn’t a jumbled mess. What’s even more amazing is that some weavers don’t even need patterns, as they have them memorized! Some of them are even passed on from generation to generation.
After spending some time with the master weavers, it was time to learn about the natural dyeing process. Learning about all the natural combinations of leaves (teak, indigo, lemongrass), roots (turmeric), wood (annatto, sappan, jackfruit), metal (rust), ash water, alum water, and limestone powder was so fascinating! After gaining an appreciation and understanding for these ancient methods and how each combination created a very particular color, we were asked to choose a color to create ourselves! How can you even choose?! Once we pondered a bit, we all decided on different color combinations and set off to the garden to harvest the indigo, sappan, and teak.
After we harvested our materials, we went to the dye studio to start mashing and boiling our materials. Two of us chose varying shades of indigo, one chose sappan, and the other chose teak. The indigos were a beautiful blue and green, the sappan was a deep purple, and the teak had a subtle pink hue, but kept a lot of the natural silk color. Our English friends were busy with the mortar and pestle, while Joey was boiling his teak leaves and I began creating my design. The history and information was amazing, but the hands-on experience of working with these beautiful natural dyes and colors, all while in their natural setting, was beyond words. It’s the experiences like this that we will remember for a lifetime.
After we sectioned off our scarves to create unique designs, we dunked them in the respective pots and hung them to dry. While waiting for them to dry, our guide (Sengjan) for the day offered us some fresh tamarind juice; it was beyond refreshing and absolutely delicious. After we enjoyed our juice, we were brought around the shop to learn more about the specific regions of Laos and how each produces a very unique style of weaving and even design/patterns. I have been really wanting to get a Hmong patterned article of clothing and they had a beautiful, one of a kind, handmade Hmong designed bag. After looking around the shop for a bit, we lounged on the deck of the Silkroad Café and watched the Mekong’s strong current pull local fishermen along.
Once our scarves dried, we collected our beautiful new works of art and headed back into town. It was lunchtime at this point and we decided to stop at the Bakery Café based on our friend Al’s recommendation. It was a cute little spot right on the Mekong River that offered local Loatian food along with lovely French style pastries at a very affordable price. We split a fried yellow noodle with vegetables dish that was more than enough for the two of us.
After our food, Joey slowly opened his daypack and pulled out one of the best surprises ever! He must’ve seen me eyeing that handmade Hmong bag, because he somehow, very sneakily, bought it without me knowing! I felt a rush of so many emotions. I was surprised, overjoyed, smiling, tearing, and absolutely speechless all at the same time.
After lunch, we went back to our hotel to collect our bags and headed out to find a tuk-tuk to the airport. We paid 20,000 kip ($2.50 USD) each, which is pretty fair for our driver and us, and arrived to the Luang Prabang Airport a bit early for our evening flight to Hanoi, Vietnam.
When we arrived, we caught an airport minibus for 30,000 dong (just over $1 USD) each. It’s a little secret that no cab wants you to know, because they often overcharge tourists. The only downside is that the minibuses only leave when full or at least four-five passengers, but it filled up after about ten minutes of waiting. It was a long day and a late night, so I don’t look the happiest, but it was a great deal and almost effortless!
We’re going to have a full day of adventure in and around Halong Bay tomorrow morning, so stay posted!