Temple Blessing & Silversmith Visit
We are really happy that TOMORROW we have no excursions to wake up to and even more significant we are sailing all day tomorrow! Do not take that as a disappointment or criticism of our current trip and/or itinerary....but one of the things we enjoy about a Viking cruise adventure is the cruising between stops. We boarded the ship and stayed overnight. Then sailed here, and have been here for three days. Visited many places, obviously if you've read the earlier journals, but still we are anxious to sail off to another spot!
We were out the door and on the bus by 8am this morning and what was billed as about a one hour drive was over two to get to the Udon Monastery - the largest Buddhism monastery in Cambodia. And a lot of the length of the drive was due to the fact that today was the beginning of a religious festival that will last five days. AND sooooo many people in the area were traveling to this same monastery. It was interesting to us that we drove pretty much along the river all the way to the monastery and we wondered why we didn't sail there, but to be fair there was an afternoon excursion locally. We were told we could not wear hats, and would have to take off our shoes inside the monastery, so because of the heat we were encouraged to take an umbrella for shade. Once we walked from the bus to the temple we ascended the nearly 40 steps and removed our shoes to find two monks awaiting us. They performed a blessing on our group and then we had photos taken with them. Exited the temple and explored the grounds before heading back to the bus.
On the bus we drove for about fifteen minutes to a small village. Stopped where we hopped on tuk-tuks for a short ride to a local home/shop where they created original silver items. It was a brief, about ten minute demonstration of how they create the silver and then, by hand, shape & mold it....then using fine tools decorate it. They also showed us how they could make silver plating look nearly identical to real silver. It was also interesting to me that in this particular home it was only our group of about 20. The other two groups were taken to nearby similar homes/shops. After the demonstration we could browse their hand-crafted items in their small shop. We'd been told several days that if we were looking for a keepsake from the trip we should look for a pumpkin or an elephant - especially the kind that opened up to store items in.....so we found an elephant, and decided to go with the "real" silver one (92.5% pure silver) rather than the plated one, despite the added expense. We also got a discount as Viking guests!
On the way home we were entertained by our Program Director Bob as he told the story of how he met his wife. And as a side note, we were all happy for our Cambodian guide, Tek because today his eldest daughter got the results of her national test scores which would largely determine her future. Not only did she pass, but of 100,000 plus Cambodian students who took the national test recently only 3,000 got an "A" and Tek's daughter was one of them! We all cheered for him. Once we returned to the ship we bid a fond farewell to Tek as we are returning to Vietnam for the rest of the itinerary (before we continue to Thailand on the post-extension). And we said good-bye to our bus driver who's been with us since we arrived in SE Asia - he has done a fabulous job!
No comments:
Post a Comment