As Jeff’s back was still not very good, he took it fairly easy today. This afternoon I took off for a walk to stretch my legs and get a bit of fresh air.
In the center of Luang Prabang I came across the Van Nong Sikhounmoung Wat. In the courtyard, over to the back and right, there was an open shed with two very large rowing canoes. They had obviously been stripped and were in the process of being repaired and repainted. I wonder for what? The head of the boats were adorned with nagas.
As I stepped back from it and over to the Chedi in the middle of the courtyard a young monk called out “Hello”. Monks love to practise their English and I was curious to find out what they were doing with the boats.
After the usual “Where are you from?”, “What’s your Name?” and a couple of other pleasantries and bits of information I asked him what the people were doing with the boats. He replied that they were getting them ready for the boat races in 2 weeks. Each year the temples hold a boat race, each temple having it’s own boat or boats in the race. The boats were being prepared by the locals for the upcoming race. The monks don’t work on the boats, nor do they row them. The townspeople do. It takes 48 people to row the boat. With 2 in the race, that meant 96 village people would be rowing this Wat’s boats. The monk was very excited as this was the first time in 3 years that it had entered the race.
That evening we went for a short walk through the night market. I was afraid Jeff would overdo it. Later we had too many beers and slept very well.
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