Luang Prabang Lights Up The Senses
The Boston Globe - Travel - Sunday, November 4, 2012
Story & Photos by Joe Ray
The monks and novices appear a block away under a streetlight, arranged by age and, roughly, by height. In the early light, their orange robes glow near-fluorescent. The only sound is the padding of their bare feet.
I sit across from a pair of women, sashes over their left shoulders, one pregnant, the other elderly, seated on mats on the sidewalk. The monks chant together, then file in front of the women, each receiving handfuls of sticky rice in their begging bowls as part of a charitable act that is said to feed the spirits of their ancestors and build merit in a future life.
For a sleepy little town, Luang Prabang can light up your senses in a heartbeat.
Here, scooters, cars, and tuk-tuks — the three-wheeled motorized vehicles used as taxis — putter through town as if the speed limit were 20 miles an hour. Life moves slowly, and there’s an openness of emotion, from the nervous tug at the hem of a woman who is seeing her family off at the airport as we arrive, to the smiling children we meet one afternoon who, instead of making peace signs or goofy faces when they pose for a picture, put thumb to thumb and fingers to fingers, making a heart with their hands. If this town were a person, it wouldn’t have a mean bone it its body.
Find the whole story and photo album here.
