An early wake up call of 0400 hrs was necessary to ensure we were in position for Sai-baht.  Luang Prabang is known for its numerous Buddhist  temples and monasteries. Every morning, hundreds of monks  from the various monasteries walk through the streets collecting alms. Jim Curtis and I were the only two OCA reps as the others needed a lie-in after our travels. The Thai ladies in the party had come well prepared with the appropriate dress for the occasion. Our tour organisor made sure I too, was wearing appropriate dress.

We boarded the railway carriage style hotel pickups and headed off into town. We stopped at a street that was blocked to traffic and walked with others through to a central area. We were amongst the first to arrive which gained us a prime location for the coming event. We were even there before some of the street vendors who sell various kinds of refreshments. We purchased our alms for the Monks from the vendors, sticky rice, cakes and biscuits in the main. Eventually, Jim and myself got our cup of Laos coffee before the Monks arrived.

And then the Monks came. They were quite young, ranging from ten year old boys to teenagers and the odd twenty year old. The procession lasted for some time, maybe five minutes or even longer as they came through in pockets. Eventually our alms ran out and we had to stand as we could offer no more. The event was well attended by both Oriental's and foreigner's as we stood although groups of Monks were still passing, participants and onlookers were starting to make their way back along the street from whence we came.

Pockets of Monks were still passing through our location, as all our alms had gone, we stood waiting to make our next move. Taking group pictures ensued and two of them appear to the right. Jim Curtis was now adorned with a sash that he'd acquired from somewhere, so we all now had some authentic clothing to participate in the event. We walked back along the street, the Sai-baht is a very popular event and many people were up and about participating. Eventually our courier's gathered us in a group to stand and wait for the pickup.

Walking throught the market the group became fragmented as individually we each paused at vendors of a particular interest. I found myself alone and pushed on to the end of the aisle I was traversing and came out of the market into a side street. I spotted Cy who was waiting to direct us to the bus. Low cloud from the mountains meant it was quite damp by this time, as eventually we were all together and boarded the bus to journey back to the hotel. As we drove through the streets, we saw very long columns of Monks still walking and collecting alms from the residents.

The Captain sat in a small cockpit at the bow of the boat. His wife's domain was at the stern where there was a galley and toilets. We passengers sat amidships on either side of the boat. We proceeded along at what seemed a healthy pace. Periodically on the river banks people were cultivating crops where the geography allowed. After maybe twenty minutes travel we saw a much larger plantation of crops. On enquiring we learned that it was a prison. It would appear that prisoners in Laos (cont below)