Blessings and blessings!
- Ruth Mcbride
- 4 hours ago
- 4 min read
Day 2 on the Avalon Saigon Mekong Delta River Cruise
We had the option today of climbing up 390 steps to the temple or take a bus. Humidity was 90% and it felt like 39C. We took the bus. We knew we would have lots of opportunity to sweat today, so why start out sweaty!
The bus dropped us off at an 8th century Buddhist temple compound where we were to experience a water blessing ceremony by the Buddhist monks.
I saw on the dashboard of the bus that there was a wrapped gift so I thought that somehow we must be giving this gift to the monks in exchange for our water blessing.
The temple was elevated over the Mekong river and we had wonderful views down to the river for photographs.
After wandering around for a few minutes it was time to take our shoes off and enter the large meeting space to be blessed by some ‘junior’ monks.
We were encouraged to sit cross legged on the floor, and if we couldn’t sit cross legged we had to make sure we did not point our knees or our feet towards the monks. We had to remove our hats as well. There were some chairs at the back of the room for people who had mobility issues and couldn’t sit on the ground.
The two monks started the water blessing ceremony by engaging in a chant and taking some water and gently throwing it towards us. Sometimes one monk would chant and then the other one would join him or sometimes they were both chanting. It was very interesting to listen to the chanting….nothing like I had ever experienced before.
I was asked by our guide with another passenger to present the monks the package on behalf of Avalon. Once the monks had their package, we were all encouraged to present our arms for the red braided cord to be tied by the monks on our arms. The left arm for women and the right arm for men.
I remember seeing Tiger Woods wearing a red corded bracelet on his arm. His mother Katilda was a Buddhist and he wore it starting in 2010 for “protection and strength’ after he had quite a bit of trouble in his personal life.
After we were blessed and had our red cords we walked around the temple area, saw where the monks were fed and generally learned a little bit more about the Theravada Buddhist faith which is central to the Cambodian lifestyle. Theravada Buddhists believe in personal enlightenment through conservative lifestyles. Since the 13th Century Cambodians have held Buddhist beliefs, with 97% of the Cambodian population practising Buddhism.
We got back on the bus for the short ride back down to the Avalon Saigon which looked like it was tied up in the bushes, and we were quickly on our way to our next stop.
It is nice that our ship is small enough that we can pull over on the Mekong into smaller venues to experience a more authentic cultural experience.
Lunch was served at 12:30pm and at 2pm it was time for a walking tour of a rural village of Angkor Ban.
As soon as we disembarked from the ship, the local children who were not attending school came to us to hold our hands, practise their English and walk us through their village.
The village was very, very rustic and we got to tour the bottom floor of a local Khmer homeowners home. The bed was a wooden structure with no mattress and the cooking was done upstairs. The home was completely open to the elements. And it was super hot! Some of the homes had the cows downstairs and the homes on stilts, since the mighty Mekong floods often.
As we got closer to the local school the local children said goodbye to us as they did not attend school.
We entered the open air classroom and the students were desperately trying to get each one of us passengers to sit next to them so they could practise their English. We had about a 5 minute chance to review their English primer and write sentences down in their workbook, before the teacher called the class to order.
Volunteers from the Avalon Saigon were asked to come and read a sentence to the class, so the class could repeat the sentence. Richard immediately volunteered and he did a fantastic job with the students as he was very engaging!
After a few students stood at the front and introduced themselves in English and told us their age and what they wanted to be when they grew up, it was time for us to walk back to the ship. We gave the teacher $20 for school supplies and many of our fellow passengers also made donations too.
Our village children were waiting for us to walk back to the ship with us and so by now many of the passengers had a child they were holding hands with and engaging with in English. My little boy had a fan and kept fanning me to keep me cool.
Once we got back to where the Avalon Saigon was docked I slipped the child $1 USD.
The children were so very happy and engaging but yet they do not have much. It felt good to be able to help them out in some small way.
We were doubly blessed today. Blessed by the monks and blessed by the children. It truly was a feel good day!
As soon as we were back onboard we set sail overnight for our next stop in the morning.