Amanda, Holly, and Jennifer are now starting their journey in Southeast Asia. Their first stop is Laos. They get great massages from a local forest temple called Wat Sok Pa Luang. They relax and meet the woman who works there, Noy. They get talking and soon they meet up with a couple of other tourists and eat out. After eating and talking to Noy Amanda wants to learn more about the how the spa was started so Noy invited Amanda to meet her aunt who started the spa. Her aunt Meekow lived at a Buddhist temple. Noy translated (since her aunt didn't speak or understand English) that when her Aunt was sixteen she was a nurse in the "big war" and had fallen in love with a soldier. Her family and the soldier's family didn't approve so, heartbroken, she decided to become a nun. After Meekow apprenticed under one of the monks, she learned about the medicinal properties of the plants growing in the monasteries' gardens. When the monk taught her all he knew she went off into the mountains and collected more plants with healing potential. These plants - lemon grass, eucalyptus, mint, rosemary, kaffir lime, and holy basil - were among the ones used to create the steam at the forest temple. After Amanda got all the information she needed on the healing elements of the plants she donated some money to the monastery because the nuns who live there only get the leftover food from the monks. After thanking Aunt Meekow she set off on a moder bike with her new Laos friend and set off to tell her friends all about she had just learned.
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