As I write to you tonight, I am relaxing in our room covered with mosquito netting and my wrists are covered with about 20 string bracelets from our Baci Ceremony in Laos. We arrived in Luang Prabang, Laos this morning and checked into the La Residence Phou Vao Resort around noon. The stress and craziness of Hanoi just melted away the minute we set foot in this rural, quiet country. Thankfully, we had a rest day this afternoon and were able to lounge by the pool and catch up on some reading before heading out tonight to a local village Baci (welcoming) ceremony.
A Baci ceremony is the Lao ancestral ceremony that celebrates special events such as weddings, homecomings, births, or welcomings. It is the oldest and most traditional Lao ceremony, which gives blessing for health and prosperity. It is hosted by the senior village Shaman and special food and drink were prepared for us. The ritual involves the tying of holy cotton threads by all of the “welcoming committee” to give the blessings of the spirits to specific people or activities. We were told that the numbers three and seven are special in Laos and we should keep the cotton threads on for at least three or seven days for good luck and prosperity. As with most ceremonies, not only did we find there was much chanting but there was also the drinking of shots! For this ceremony, we all had to drink rice whiskey shots and, of course, had to accept all of the food that was offered to us. Although our ceremony was less than an hour, we were told that these ceremonies can go on for several hours with much eating and drinking of rice wine and whiskey!
We walked through a village to get to the Baci ceremony and were struck by the wide variety of housing. There were metal shacks built up next to colonial two -story “mansions” right next to more metal, open-door shacks. We asked our guide how they could have such a variety of houses in the same block and he said that it was because family always lives together. If someone becomes rich in the family, they stay close to their relatives but they buy the biggest house they can afford. They would never dream of moving away from where their family lives.
After dinner, we had a nice relaxing dinner by the pool at the resort and were entertained by the local dancers and musicians. We are all getting to know each other quite well now so there is much socializing and a little craziness especially after the shots of rice whiskey!!
We have to be up and ready to go at 5:30 am tomorrow morning to go into town to observe the monk’s alms rounds so I better finish this blog for the evening. Brad is already next to me snoring so I think I will it call it a night and give you a full report about our day in Laos sometime tomorrow evening!
Here are some pictures of Laos and the Baci Ceremony.
</Scenes around La Residence Phou Vao Resort
Baci Ceremony
Lisa and Brad's Travels 