Hi Gram,

Sorry I haven’t written in a few days. It turns out that the last meal we had in Luang Prabang made me pretty sick. I felt my energy drain right away and thought it would be minor. I was lucky. My body was polite enough to wait until we were at the hotel in Vientiane before sending the food back out the way it came in, rather than when we were on the train. Nattiya wanted to stay in Vientiane until I felt better, but we had already purchased our bus tickets and hotel in Udon Thani, so I was stubborn. Once we got to our hotel there, though, my body had run out of patience. I took the next few days replenishing my nutrients, resting, and medicating myself. Nattiya’s birthday was the day after we arrived, so we went to a restaurant to celebrate but it was a much more subdued celebration than I had planned on giving her. One one of the evenings, we got out and walked through the night market and down a couple streets that were lined with bars. I’m glad that neither of us wanted to buy any knick knacks, nor were we interested in any drinking establishments. It was fun to do a little people watching, but keep on moving through and past.

This morning, I got up and did my morning walk as usual, then we walked across the street for breakfast the same as we’ve done the past few days. Their breakfast isn’t grand – it’s alright, just not grand – and a little pricey for local standards, but it’s nearby, it’s reliable, and they have the key components of my usual morning breakfast. Each day, I have yogurt, some oats, and a little fruit topped with sunflower seeds. When I’m eating out at buffets like the one across the street, I have them make me an omelette or scrambled eggs for the extra protein. Nattiya has a similar breakfast, with the addition of some SE Asian foods like noodles or fried rice. Anyway, after breakfast, we gathered up our stuff and called a car. She knew of a Buddhist temple near town with a blessed well, so we were off to visit this enchanted place. The driver was pleasant and skilled while we each played on our phones, and less than an hour later we arrived.

Now, you know I’m not a fan of organized religion. I envy people who have a genuine spirituality, a belief in some higher power or whatnot that helps guide them through life. I have a decent respect for Buddhism, as far as I understand it. From what I know, and I’m definitely oversimplifying things here, Buddha was a guy who believed that we should all treat every living thing with respect, try to do good in the world, realize that the self doesn’t really exist, and so we should all work towards the greater good and refrain from ownership or greed. Basically – and again I can’t stress enough that I am aware that I don’t know what I don’t know – but basically be good, do good, think good thoughts and this will build up some karma that will help you continue to be a little better when you’re reincarnated. I don’t share the reincarnation beliefs, but the whole “do good, be good, think good thoughts” sounds pretty sound to me. He was also like “alright, I appreciate that you all like what I’m saying, but I’m just a dude and not a god, so don’t worship me.”

This is where I find fault with temples in general and the one we visited today in particular. This temple was supposedly built on the site of a holy well that gave blessed waters. Nattiya brought an empty bottle to fill from the well so she could have some holy water. That’s cool – the water was free from the well and if she feels good drinking or bathing in it, there’s nothing wrong with feeling good. The issue that I have, and I seem to be taking a long time to get to my point here, is that the driveway to this temple was lined with vendor stalls selling holy items, shirts, water, food, and all sorts of other knick knacks. Once we pulled up and got out of the car, there was a spot where you could give a donation for some incense sticks to burn as you prayed. There was a very tall statue where you could pray, with a concrete serpent winding around the springs and wells. There were workers erecting more statues and buildings. From the little research that I did, it seems the well has been there for a very long time and known to be a source where people could pray and take holy water. All of the buildings and statues and infrastructure have been erected in the past couple of years, though.

So to recap, there are many opportunities with guidance and chance for donation encouraging people to pray to a man that tried to tell people that he wasn’t a god. There are vendors selling “holy” items to capitalize on the people who want to pray to the man who wasn’t a god. This wasn’t unique. We have seen many, many new temples erected in recent years in this vain. We spent two days touring very old temples which were built with slave labor then fought over back and forth for hundreds of years, destroying much of the craftsmanship and detail in the process. We’ve seen other such old temples that have been fought over in four different countries since I started this trip. Listen, if someone believes in something and wants to create art to commemorate it, or build something, or apply their craft to honor their belief, I’m all for it. It just pains me that people have died defending or destroying this art and craftsmanship in the past, and currently impoverished people are giving their hard earned money because some charlatan is telling them that their god wants their money. Real agents of a deity would build the followers up, show them how to feel closer to their god and save their money. That’s not what I see happening, though.

Anyway, we saw some beautiful artwork and statues, Nattiya got some water and prayed, then we had our driver take us back to town. We asked if there was anything else we should see in town, but the sun was getting hotter and he advised that we try any other visits early in the morning. Back at the hotel, we lounged around the room, a bit bored. She was scribbling in her notebook while I did some more reading on my kindle until the cleaning crew arrived to freshen up our room. We took that as a cue to go find some lunch, which we found at an English pub just down the street. It felt good to have western food again, although a bit heavy, and to be surrounded by reminders of the western world. After lunch, we tried being creative enough to find something else to do, but ended up back at the room doing some more reading and lounging about. I’d like to tell you that we came up with some great ideas that led us on more adventures, but honestly we just spent most of the day lounging in the room, went out for a brief walk, then returned to the hotel to get some sleep.