This morning we got up early to participate in the ritual of feeding the monks. every morning the monks just after sunrise walk down the street with heir food bowl and people line the streets to offer each and every single one of them some food, any food that they might have. in our case we offered some sticky rice, and as the monks walked past us we would put a little bit of rice in each of their bowls.
After seeing all the monks, we walked to the morning market where we tried some fried pastry with rice, before we grabbed breakfast and got on our journey to our next stop, the homestay in Pakbeng. we got on a house boat for our 8hr journey up the Mekong.
Our boat slowly sailed up the river for the next 8hr as we watched the scenery pass by, eating a curry on the boat that got increasingly hotter as the day went by. at around 5pm, we arrived at the village where our homestay would be, and disembarked the boat. we were given a tour of the village and learnt more about the people living there, 3 different tribes who live together in a village with a population of a 1000. following this walk, we were given a baccu ceremony, where the locals welcome us and wish us well by tying white strings around our wrists. One by one about 8 of them all tied strings on each wrists leaving our arms to have too many bracelets.
We then had dinner another curry and noodles, before we were bought to our homestay a very simple house with a single mattress on the floor covered in a mosquito net.