What does that mean in Luang Prabang and out lying villages where there is no luxury of letting your land lay fallow or money for irrigation so you can get two crops in over 12 months?
Slash and burn the month or two before rainy season for more planting.
A month of going through the jungle and preparing more land for planting food to survive.
Evening skies show spots of fires in the distance.
Morning skies are heavy with mist and smog from the fires.
Day skies burn your eyes and create a covering that traps air flow and prevents the sun from burning through the pollution.
Early morning walk up 194 steps to 100 meter high Phu Si. At the summit is That Chomg the start of their New Year's procession. The sunrise peeks out through the heavy smog and shows a view of the old original communist bridge linking the penisula back to the mainland.
The burning has been persistent and the smoke is so heavy that the morning sun is a small orange glow in the distance and the view remains shrouded in misty smoke setting your imagination loose for the mythical stories of old.
Morning coffee watching the sun try and burn through the smog while journaling and enjoying a morning coffee. Brad and Anna? Still sleeping.
Reality: Brad is out early 5/7 days and me only 2/7.
Brad just doesn't take the camera.
Another early morning event is the monks collecting alms. This takes place every morning at 6 am to the sound of drums. Woman and sometimes men bring our their offerings of rice or other types of food and give them to the monks as serving them will help them earn rewards in the cycle of karma. The travel books remind you that this is an important part of their religious practice, and to be respectful especially with photos. Well like anything, tourism opportunities abound and the streets become filled with bus loads of tourists who then posture themselves with offerings of their bought rice and become part of the local atmosphere with other tourists crowding in with cameras in the monks faces like paparazzi.
As I quietly left the guest house at 5:45 in the dark I had hoped for a serene experience and instead had locals offering to sell me food to give to the monks and tour buses blocking my view that I had hoped to have from a quiet distance.
The first one out as the sun was lighting up the sky.
It's a little sad when a religious tradition/observance becomes one of trip advisors top tourist attractions and turns it into a side show.
Photos curtesy of Ross, a fellow traveller with a great eye and favor wherever he goes to take photos.
Morning markets set up for the locals and then brave tourists... Rats and eggs anyone??
I think vegetarian has never looked better!
Morning chores escape no man, or monk.
A quote I recently read on Facebook that I liked by Abraham Heschel
"Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement...
Get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted.
Everything is phenomenal;
Everything is incredible;
Never treat life casually.
To be spiritual is to be amazed."
I hope you are all amazed today.
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