May the Force be with you

• Paya Soke

When you’re in the presence of a sacred place, I think you could feel it, I know it happened to me. I’ve been in many holy places before, but the one place that has such a strong force to me was the road to Vang Vieng and heading towards Luang Prabang Laos, and might be that it was the guilt that I feel, we didn’t stop to pay our respect.

This place was nothing fancy, it was a place that lies behind the curvy road, and as we drove up the mountain road of Hwy 13, I saw several cars parked along side of the road, and a group of people paying their respect to a spirit house. The smokes from their incense sticks were forming clouds above them, I asked my cousin what they were doing. He said it was Sarn Jao Pou (The Shrine of a Sacred Spirit), they’re paying their respect and asking him for a safe journey .

Our vehicle climbed up the road slowly and we passed without stopping since we didn’t have any incense stick with us, I was mesmerized by the image in front of me that I forgot to take some pictures. I silently said my prayers as we passed Sarn Jao Pou. The name of the road made me feel uneasy and might be that I grew up in the Western society where number 13 is considered unlucky, but I didn’t have a chance to ask my cousin if Lao People living in Laos feel the same way.

I’m a Buddhist, and why do I worry so much about Animism you might ask because worshiping Sarn Jao Pou is an Animistic belief. If I were raised in Laos, this would have made perfect sense because Buddhism in Laos is often closely tied to animist beliefs and belief in ancestral spirits. And here I was raised in the US, but the feeling and belief is equally as strong as Laotians living in Laos, and I’m not sure why. I often thought that having six senses is a gift, but to some that actually have it might think differently, more like a curse I would say, and at that moment as we traveled on this mountain road, I was glad that I don’t have six senses, Hwy 13 looks so treacherous and I couldn’t imagine what I would see along the way.

A long introduction to my next post, I found an interesting article written in Thai language titled “Be careful If you asked for a child from a Sacred Place.”

My Aunt’s Flooded Rice Paddy in Laos

• Bouangeun-Kou Lap Paksan (Paksan Rose)

I received a phone call from my cousin yesterday morning, it was a pleasant surprise, all the way from Paksan, Laos. I mailed my Aunt some pictures and my cousin called to tell me that her mom received the package.  This was the second time that I sent her pictures, the postage costs around $30 and it takes about 2-3 weeks to get there.  This time I sent her a photo album so it’s a bit more heavier than the last time, but I think it’s well worth it since my dad can write the description of the photos.  She asked me when will I visit again?  I wish I could, but it doesn’t look like anytime soon, I do miss Laos already.

When I visited them last year, I was hoping to see their rice paddy.  I read about the flood in Vientiane back in August of last year, but didn’t know if it also flooded Paksan or not.  As you can see the two colors river where Nam Xan and Mekong River meet, my Aunt‘s rice paddy is right next to Nam Xan, the clear water side.

My Aunt leases part of her farm to her neighbor, this section was leased out, and their rice paddy survived the flood.

Sadly my Aunt’s rice paddy was flooded, no rice plant in sight.

Education That Works

• Send Me An Angel by Scorpions

Have you ever wondered why there are so many young novice monks in Laos, especially in Luang Prabang?  Our Buddhist faith in Laos is not as strict as the Myanmar, where it’s their tradition that every Myanmar Buddhist boy average age between 7 and 13 is expected to enter the monastery as a novice for a period of a few weeks to months, it’s considered to be the most important day in the boy’s life.

But in Laos, we don’t have a tradition like that, but yet we see many young novice monks at the local temples.  Back in the olden days, temples were the schools, especially if you’re poor, as there was no formal education system.   This makes sense because the Buddha is a teacher, and monks provide basic lesson in both spiritual and secular subjects, and for some, this might be the only way to get an education, not just in the olden days, but also in today society.

During my visit to Laos and Thailand, after we got stranded at Suvarnabhumi Airport, we went back to Vientiane Laos to catch our flight back home, and we stayed at a hotel that’s not too far from Wat Mixay. I didn’t get to take a picture of the entrance, and this is a borrowed photo from here.

My dad and I passed the temple gate, and saw school children playing in the temple ground and thought that the school must be nearby.  We visited the temple and that’s when I realized that the school is at the temple, kind of surprised me at first because I didn’t expect to see this at all. The children are very happy.

Tuff-N-Lite: Futuristic Body Armor, without the ‘Alien Cyborg’ look

The last time I was in Laos, I didn’t get to ride the motorcycle, or even the moped, might be that I didn’t feel comfortable riding since I didn’t have any protective gear. When I was in Paksan, I wanted to visit the internet café and my little cousin was going to take me there on a motorcycle, I didn’t dare go with her since the motorcycle was bigger than her.

Before I went to Laos, I actually had an eye on a Motorcycle shirt that I thought of bringing to Laos with me. It is made by Tuff-N-Lite, and their motorcycle shirt, according to their website is like a road armor, made of Tuff-n-Lite material, which is one of the toughest, lightest cut and abrasion resistant materials known to man. Clothing made with Tuff-n-Lite is as soft as cotton and ounce for ounce 15 times stronger than steel. It’s lightweight, breathable, flexible and washable, and it looks just like the clothing you would normally wear. Unlike products made with aramids like Kevlar® or Twaron®, it won’t lose its strength from getting wet, perspiration, or from the ultraviolet rays of the sun.

I saw this picture at Tuffnlite.blogspot.com, and the shirt actually glows in the dark, people can spot you a mile away, and this is very important in my opinion if you’re out on the dark road. This made me think of the time when we drove back from Boun That Luang, one guy that we passed was riding a moped, and he didn’t even have a tail light on, sort of scary to think what’d happen if we were going real fast.

I think traveling by motorcycle is a great way to see the country side, whether in Laos or anywhere, and it is best to have protective gear because if you go down, you’re protected against the abrasion, and the best thing about their motorcycle shirt is that the air passes right through it.

Check out their website for their Futuristic Body Armor, without the ‘Alien Cyborg’ look.

Below are two great videos by Francis Van Kerckhoven of road trip on a motorcycle.

• USA the West, 19 day’s on a Harley Davidson P A R T 1

Part 1: Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Kingman, Sedona, Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, Capitol Reef, Zion

• USA the West, 19 day’s on a Harley Davidson P A R T 2

Part 2: Las Vegas, Lone Pine, El Portal, Yosemite, San Francisco, Monterey, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles

A Spirit House

It is very common to see a spirit house in Laos and Thailand, whether at a temple, in front of a house or place of business.  So who lives in this spirit house, most people might think a ghost perhaps.  Personally I don’t think it’s a ghost, but must be some sort of spirit for them to call it a spirit house, but in Thai and I believed Lao also that it is called Sarn Phra Phum, and the word Phra means monk or equivalent of a high being, and in this case, it is believed that Thape lives in a spirit house, which loosely translated as angel,  guardian angel, or a spirit of higher being.

Here are some photos of the spirit house in Laos and Thailand from my recent visit, and my next post will be a translated ghost story of what happens if you don’t respect this higher being.

Updated 2/9/09: The photo below is a spirit house in front of a restaurant in the US.

Spirit House, photo by Dallas Lao

I saw this one along side of the road near the Mekong River in Vientiane, Laos.

In front of a guest house in Luang Prabang, Laos.

At a temple in Ubon, Thailand.