The first monk accepted the offering, neither impressed nor offended by Ray’s charm offensive. As Ray moved to the second monk, I saw him adjust his approach, becoming more reverent. The second monk examined the fruit part of the offering carefully, turning it in his hands before giving a small nod.
I held my breath as Ray continued down the line. Ahead of him, I spotted Adrienne and Fletcher being turned away by the fifth monk, forced to return to the preparation area. Had I arranged something incorrectly? My stomach tightened with anxiety.
The third monk accepted Ray’s offering without reaction. The fourth monk took longer to examine the water bottles, and I saw Ray’s shoulders tense slightly. To his credit, he maintained the proper posture of respect, not rushing the monk’s deliberation.
When Ray reached the fifth monk—the same one who had rejected the military couple—I nearly bit through my lip with nervousness. The monk took the candle from Ray’s offering basket, held it up to the light, and examined it for what seemed like an eternity. Had I positioned the wick incorrectly?
After a long moment, the monk nodded and accepted the offering. I exhaled in relief.
The sixth and seventh monks accepted their offerings with similar scrutiny. Finally, the seventh monk tied a white stringaround Ray’s wrist, chanting softly, and handed him a small envelope.
Ray made his way back to me, his face breaking into a wide smile as he approached.
“Challenge completed,” he announced, showing me the white blessing string on his wrist and holding up the envelope. “Those monks are tough customers. No amount of charm works on them—only getting the offerings exactly right.”
“That’s why I took my time,” I said, unable to keep a note of satisfaction from my voice.
“That was actually beautiful,” Ray admitted, his expression softening as he touched the blessing string. “I felt something... I don’t know... peaceful, I guess, when that last monk blessed me.”
“You did great,” I said softly, touching the string on his wrist. “What’s next?”
Ray opened the envelope, and we turned our attention to the next destination card, which told us to take a bus to the rural town of Ban Pong. We had to hike to the bus depot, and when Ray stopped to ask a very cute Laotian guy for directions I realized that in the past, I might have felt jealous. Now he was simply using his charm on behalf of both of us.
The local bus to Ban Pong was already crowded when we returned to the small Luang Prabang terminal. Adrienne and Fletcher were near the front, their purple team shirts making them easy to spot among the other passengers. Alex and Ross had claimed seats in the middle, while Zara and Maddox sat toward the back, looking slightly green around the gills from whatever they'd eaten for breakfast.
"Looks like we're all together for this one," Ray observed as we found two seats across the aisle from each other. The bus was old but functional, with vinyl seats that had seen better days and windows that didn't quite close properly.
A woman got on carrying a cage full of chickens, which she somehow managed to wedge into the overhead rack. The birds clucked nervously, and a few feathers drifted down onto my shoulder. Ray brushed them away with a gentleness that surprised me.
"At least we're all in the same boat," I said, nodding toward the other teams. "Nobody has an advantage anymore."
The bus jerked into motion, and I grabbed the seat in front of me to keep from sliding into the elderly woman beside me. The air conditioning was blasting directly overhead, so cold it made my teeth hurt, but sweat still trickled down my back from the humidity outside.
"This is going to be a long ride," Fletcher muttered from the front, loud enough for everyone to hear. Adrienne shot him a look that could have frozen the Mekong River.
Behind us, I heard Maddox groan. "How many more stops do you think there are?"
"According to this," Zara consulted her phone, "about fifteen. Maybe twenty."
Alex turned around in his seat. "Twenty stops? We'll never get to Ban Pong at this rate."
"That's the point," Ray said. "Everyone's on the same timeline now. It comes down to who can navigate the town fastest once we get there."
The bus wheezed to another stop, and an elderly monk in orange robes got on, followed by a teenage boy carrying a huge bundle of sugar cane. They worked their way down the aisle, the monk settling into a seat near Adrienne and Fletcher while the boy continued toward the back.
"You'd think they'd give us more to go on," Adrienne said, consulting their clue card again. "I mean, how many bronze Buddha shops can there be in one town?"
"According to my research, about fifty," Alex called out, earning groans from multiple teams.
The bus swerved around a motorbike, and everyone grabbed their seats. In the back, Maddox looked increasingly pale.
"You okay back there?" I called out.
"Motion sickness, again," Zara explained.
"There's some ginger candy in my pack," I offered. "Might help."
Ray looked at me questioningly - we were, after all, competing against these people. But something about the confined space and shared misery of the journey made the usual competitive barriers feel less important.
