An Asian Passover

After we parted from the Levine’s, my family made its way to Luang Prabang, Laos. People had been telling us that it was a magical city, but I didn’t know what to expect. When we first arrived we all knew that ‘magical’ was the correct term. There are little tiny French style buildings with friendly people and little tiny alleys. It is also right on a river, which just tops it all off. Because we arrived on a Friday afternoon, we explored that amazing and colorful night market and then, we decided to be good Jews, and went to Shabbat services at the Lao Chabad (Lao is what the natives call Laos). It was filled with mainly Israelis who were just out of the army and traveling. It was a lot of fun; we were singing songs and having Israeli food. It felt like camp. We talked with and met some of the Israelis (who, thank G-d, all speak English). When we were done with the delicious food, we took the walk along the river back to the hotel to get a good night’s sleep.

We spent most of our time in Luang Prabang hanging around the hotel. We walked around and visited some temples. It was all together pretty relaxing. One of the only things that we did while we were in Luang Prabang was go to the famous caves. (I wouldn’t let my parents take me to the waterfall.) We took a two-hour boat ride there and then we explored the caves. The caves are made up of hundreds and hundreds of discarded Buddha’s.

It was very interesting to learn about the different kinds of Buddha’s. One thing that we learned was that different Buddha’s in different positions, mean different things. For example, if both palms are out, it is the “stop arguing” Buddha. My mom likes that one. Once we had explored both caves we hopped back in the boat to make our way home.

When we were in Luang Prabang we also had our Passover Seder. It was a lot of fun. My family had seats at the English-speaking table. One of the people at our table was a Rabbi from Chabad in New York. His name was Saadia. He spoke English and Hebrew, so he was our translator, and he was a well-educated Rabbi and he taught us about Passover; it was all very interesting. Another group of people that was at our table was a 17 year old boy named Daniel, his mom, Shawna, and her seven year old son named Liam. They were a very strange family. Despite that we decided to meet up with them for lunch the next day. We ended up going to a little Thai restaurant that was on a pond. It was pretty good and I was trying to make last as long as possible because when we got back I was going to have to take my stitches out. The Surgeon that came to the hotel to take out my stitches did not have much of a bedside manner. I felt like Frankenstein was taking out my stitches. On top of that my mom was squeezing my hand so hard, that it was numb. I was so relieved to have the stitches finally out, even though I was in some pain to get there.

On our last night in Luang Prabang, we decided we would do all of our shopping and go to the Hindu/Lao ballet. I bought a colorful tote back, pants, and a skirt. After some shopping we went to the ballet. It was the story of a girl who was abducted by the demons and then the monkeys (the Gods) came to save her. She wouldn’t go with the monkeys, but waited for her husband who came to save her and battled off all of the demons. It was really interesting to watch all of the beautiful costumes and instruments. We grabbed a quick dinner and then went back, once again think about what our next adventure, Cambodia, would be like.