Day 314 - Early Morning Alms - Swimming at Kuang Si Waterfall

Friday, May 17th, 2019

Today Gregory and I actually got up at 5:20am to see the alms giving procession. Every day the monks walk down the main street and receive food donations from people. It is amazing to see how many people sit outside ready with food to give the monks. The rice and fruit are what the monks will eat for breakfast. We saw the monks wearing their orange tunics walking barefoot with their food pots. Many people give them sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves. We read that it was better not to give food if you were a tourist and just to watch respectfully from a distance.

I shed a tear when I saw the monks giving their food away to a poor lady with two children. I realized that even those who had nothing were giving away their breakfast. I'm sure the monks get plenty of donations, but the fact that they can easily give away the little they have just breaks my heart. I felt selfish and realized that everyone always has something to give no matter how little they have. [Gregory's note: actually, I think it's easier to give something you got for free. More importantly, though, both of us agreed that you can give if you want to give. Period.] 

Walking back to our hotel, we saw a lady selling an offering made of orange flowers and banana leaves. We had seen her two kids begging on our way down. We thought about buying them food but we thought that they probably needed the money more, so we ended up buying some flowers just to help them.

Later we visited the Tat Kuang Si Waterfall. We took a minivan 45 minutes over bumpy roads to the waterfalls. It was definitely worth it! We didn’t know what to expect. [Gregory's note: Lili didn't know what to expect. The kids and I had looked it up and we knew exactly what to expect.] Right by the entrance, there is a bear sanctuary and a butterfly sanctuary a little farther. We first stopped to see the bears. They wear puffy and super cute black bears. The bummer was that we only had two and a half hours so we couldn't stay as long as we wanted.

We rushed to see the lagoons. The kids were anxious to get in the water. Sunshine was thrilled to see the amazing photos that we could take for Instagram. It was absolutely stunning! We took some pictures and we got in the cold water. The best part was the feeling of all the little fishes nibbling our feet. Sunshine and I went deeper and were able to take some great pictures.

Gregory went to explore more paths while the kids and I swam in one of the lagoons. He came back and told us that there was a huge waterfall to see. Sunshine and Daniel just wanted to swim so they went down to another lagoon and I went up with Gregory to see the waterfalls! We found the famous one that we saw in the pictures. The whole place was paradise. I sent Gregory to get the kids so they could admire the waterfall and the bridges over the large lagoon. They came back to see the amazing view. We sat and had some snacks and before we knew it, it was 12:15 and time to go find our van. We got distracted on our way taking pictures and me of course, going to the bathroom. I was 10 minutes late. I felt embarrassed with all the people in the van waiting for me.

The van dropped us at our hotel at 1:30pm. When the host asked us how it was, we told her it was too short! We could have spent all day there! Next time, we said. Later we went out to grab delicious sandwiches for lunch. [Gregory's note: Laos was part of French Indochina, along with Vietnam and Cambodia. While the influence has been watered down in Vietnam due to the American presence, it's still very strong here in Laos. You see a lot of official signs in French, and there are crepes and baguette sandwiches all over.]

At night we went to l'Etranger Cafe to watch a free movie (Papillon). I love this idea of a free movie but you buy food or drinks. The movie was good but even better was the people we met there. We met an interesting woman from Colorado, a  French girl living in New Zealand and a Malaysian girl traveling solo! I like Sunshine to see how fun and adventurous life can be. I may regret it later when she comes to me and says, bye mother, I'm traveling to South America with my boyfriend, gulp! [Gregory's note: yup, we're encouraging that.]

Anyway, we had a great time. After the movie, we stopped for Indian food. Not quite the same but the Indians serving us were happy to hear that we had been to India!

For pictures please click here

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Fn1dYysX5jWCVUcu7