The Chinese Connection! Hurray for Overseas Chinese!

We started our day with the Chee Cheong Fun! In laos! Grace raved about it and she brought me there to eat! Excellent stuff!the Chee Cheong Fun comes with Isan Sausages!Really Excellent stuff! Yummy yummy!

In a way, this breakfast actually symbolises what is to come for me in the next half of the day.
Chee Cheong Fun is defiitely Chinese in Origin. and Here in Laos, there is a chinese community.

One of my fave interest is knowing how Overseas chinese like myself are coping in their own countries. In a strange twist of fate, I stumbled upon one of the biggest events for the Laos Chinese community... But lets finish my breakfast with Laos tea and excellent chee cheong fun!




I decided to go visit some temples today. Grace does not have much interest in visiting temples perhaps due to her own religious beliefs.
So i went temple watching myself. I chanced upon this chinese temple beside the Mekong river the day before. So today i went to take a look at it.

I met a Professor Chen from Ji Nan University, Guangzhou by a chance encounter. Was paying my respects at the temple and I help him take some photos for his friends and we spoke in Teochew and Mandarin. Ahh how nice to hear people who can speak something you understand after so many days listening to strange languages I do not understand. Oh btw, Laotians speaks a language similar to the Isan Dialect I was told.

The Professor took a liking for me...i suppose. And he invited me to stay on to watch the day's festivities.

As it turned out this is an annual affair for the chinese community in Vientiane. They will invite a Thailand teochew opera troupe up to Vientiane to perform. Gods from other temples are invited over from other chinese temples scattered around the area to watch the Opera show. The gods are represented by their urns, they are transported over by a lion dance troupe.


Note that there are many many urns, representing the different temples they are from.


Took some pictures with some lion dance staff


Pics with the professor


Lion Dance Troupe



I stayed for lunch, which was free. I ate at the table with other members of the Chinese association. We had a standard chinese feast; roasted duck, soup, veggie dishes and stuff. Pretty good!
And The standard of mandarin is much better than Singaporeans! The lao chinese are amazing.Some of them can speak Teochew, Cantonese, Mandarin and Laos!
I stayed on to watch them lift the enormous bamboo which is about 3 storeys high!
The elders also lighted the candles to signify the start of the festivities.
There will be many days of teochew opera at night and the area will be busy with hawkers.


Opening Ceremony, The elders will light the candles


The Lantern will go to the highest bidder


The lantern high on the 3 storey bamboo tree!


The professor took me to the Laos Chinese Association and gave me a run down on the chinese community in Laos. Excellent stuff!



The professor gave me his book. The book is about Laos and also about the chinese community in Laos. He went thru the book with me chapter by chapter and explained to me stuff inside there. I do not read chinese books but from the way he explained it seems like I know what the whole book is about.
I gave him some "donations" for the book as well and he gave me his autograph. hur hur. how practical.
I felt very happy to witness a chinese event and also to have a greater understanding of the chinese community in Laos explained to me by someone who knows.

I guess thats why Grace said she is travelling with a Nationalist. haha