When the monks go marching by...

In Laos, monks are strictly vegetarian and only eat one meal a day before noon. So, every morning the monks from the local temples come into town at dawn to collect food for their meal. Laos people are very, quietly devout and so feeding the monks in the morning is a big part of their routine. And this morning, it was part of ours.

I was still feeling terrible but forced myself out of bed and full of drugs at 5:45am. I may have missed a lot yesterday but I wasn't going to miss this.

Local women were waiting at the corner to sell us food to give to the monks and we paid 10,000 and 20,000 kip respectively for a platter of fruit and biscuits or parcels of sticky rice. Never one to do things by halves, Paul had bought an entire backpack full of fruit.

The women lent us a mat and we knelt down on the road waiting to pop food in the monks' bowls as they filed by soon after dawn.

Photos: Feeding the monks in Luang Prabang

For some reason, Paul (pictured above) went a little nuts and, after he'd given away the contents of his backpack, starting somewhat obsessively buying from the women around him. At the end, they were all clustered around him forcing food into his hands. We were on the other side of the road in fits of laughter.

Photo: Our little group ready with our offerings

LtoR: Jola, Edith, Jay, Jo and Alex