When we heard the drums from the temple at 5:30 in the morning, we picked up the rice containers from the guesthouse and headed outside to wait for the monks. The containers were each full of very hot, sticky rice. The kids weren't quite sure what to do with it, so it was a good thing there were other tourists on the road to explain to them that they were to make a ball of rice and place it in each monk's container.
At about 5:45, the monks started to appear just up the road. There weren't too many at first.
The kids did their best to keep up with the monks. They walk at a steady pace, so if you aren't ready with the rice, you just miss one or two. For the most part, they were able to put some rice in almost all of the monk's containers.
By the time it was all done, there were monks as far as the eye could see. It was a very interesting event and one the kids really appreciated taking part in.
Once all of their rice was gone and the monks had made their way past the guesthouse, the kids relaxed outside our room trying the cool off their fingers. It seems that making rice balls with very hot rice is really hard on the hands.
