Lao

Tuk Tuk Tour

Posted on by Laughingnomad

After the Lao Cotton Company party, Villa, the driver, took a nap in his tuk tuk while we rested in our room. Later that night we toured the city under the lights.

Villa, it turns out, is not just a tuk tuk driver. His other job is finding unexploded ordinances that had been dumped onto Lao by the millions during the Viet Nam War by CIA pilots dressed in T-Shirts and shorts. Of course at the time Nixon insisted we weren’t in Lao or Cambodia during the war. We weren’t…officially. But ask any Lao whether we were and you will get your answer. Before any new thing can be constructed…like a new dam that is being built now in the south of Lao, unexploded bombs have to be found before people get their bodies blown to bits. This will be going on for years and years to come.

Villa’s father fought in the war against the French and he was quite knowledgable about his country’s history. “As long as we are not disturbed by any other country we will be able to develop economically,” he says. “We are at peace now, he adds and I think the future looks good.” I agree.

I spent two days on this trip trying to find the old neighborhood in the city center where I had stayed two years ago and couldn’t figure out why I didn’t recognize anything. It turns out the streets have been paved, street lights put up and new businesses put up by the dozens!

Sabaidee Pi Mai Lao!

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Lao New Year (and in Thailand) is a time to encourage young people to absorb the spirit of cleaning their temples, houses, stupas of their ancestors and apparently the bodies of anyone, especially the foreigners they come across. The purpose of cleaning is to create new and better lives for the new year…making stronger health and prosperity while all the bad elements of the past year are washed away with the dirty water. Using hoses, buckets, pans and water guns young people soak anyone within reach…hoses often aiming for the crotch…buckets poured over the head. Our wet T-Shirts are definitely iffy looking.

Westerners accomodate the cold onslought with enthusiastic screeches which delights the kids. Then comes the white sweet-smelling powder sprinkled all over the head and face.

Leila and I had made a deal with a Tuk Tuk (pronounced Took Took) driver to spend the morning taking us to visit nearby silk and cotton weaving projects.
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The UN sponsored “Lao Cotton Company” had closed for the day and the many water-soaked employees were all outside partying…drinking free wine and beer, eating soup, seaweed, pork and fish and dancing to a Lao band. Leila and I were kindly invited to join them so we fetched Villa, our driver, and made him join us. A table was set up for us and food brought. One after the other of the many younger boys wanted to dance with us…many making us drink a glass of beer first. To his delight Leila taught one young guy the swing…kids turning the hose on all of us all the while.
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After many beers and much dancing and soaking, the head of the Project offered to open the store for us. We crazily piled up ridiculously inexpensive hand-woven sheets, pillow slips, fabric for curtains and table cloths to take home with us. Now to get it all on the plane I am having to throw away half my clothes which I didn’t have many of anyway. But my cozy little home in Mexico will look beautiful.

President Khamtay wishes the people of Lao a good new year in the English language Vientiane Times. “The year of the dog will be a great year; we have already begun the year by implementing the resolution of the 8th Party Congress, state five-year plan and we will continue to carry out the 10 year strategic plan for developing the country,” he said. Plans. Communist bureaucracies apparently not much different than democratic ones.

Thai Rock Band

Posted on by Laughingnomad

After dinner with Susan, Leila and I looked for some music and found a night club with a terrific Thai band playing Rod Stewart, Eagles and Pink Floyd’s “The Wall.” Leila turned into a 15 year old…singing along with great passion! 11:30pm and the club closed.

Leaving the club I noticed a cute young guy in charge of parking motorbikes across the street sporting a T-Shirt with “Perfect Man” on the front. He had spent three years as a novice monk so his English was pretty good. He laughed when I explained to him that I thought the reference was to the “Perfect 10” that a model/actress made popular a few years ago in the U.S.

Vientiane

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Seeing the Mekong in Vientiane during dry season was a worse shock than seeing it in Luang Prabang…down hundreds of yards from the water line in the wet season. Leila, my Australian travel mate, says she thinks the dam on the Yangse River in China has also effected the water level on the Mekong.

Last night we checked out the many food stands under lights along the river offering BBQ chicken, Mekong fish and prawns and a nice hotpot but it was so hot we really didn’t feel like eating…opting for a beer instead while some raggedy children and a few adults came by begging. A young woman with pretty good English at a table full of prosperous looking Laotians next to us asked Leila where she was from. “Australia,” said Leila. “Oh, your English is so good for an Australian,” the woman said…leaving Leila laughing but speechless. After a few minutes the group left the table and a group of three little girls descended on the left-over food eating ravishly.

We wandered along to a street-side restaurant to order something a little less filling and ended up giving some cold table water to two more little girls which they guzzled down quickly, fended off a guy weaving along like he was on glue, gave our left-overs to another guy that seemed mentally ill. I don’t remember street people like this when I was here before…

When I was in Luang Prabang, I met a lovely Philippina next to me at an internet cafe. Susan works for a British non-governmental organization that delivers medical care to a rural area in SE Lao and will be here a month. She gave me her cell phone number and we promised to meet in Vientiane so tonight we will have dinner with her and her niece along the Mekong.

WARNING

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Never come to Northern Thailand or Lao during the dry season which is now. Slash and burn fires send smoke against the mountains and beyond. You won’t see anything and the Mekong River will be down to a trickle.

Vang Vieng

Posted on by Laughingnomad

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Beside the Nam Song River, against stunningly beautiful limestone karst mountains that remind me of Guillin China, is the small town of Vang Vieng…a backpacker haven. Well, the mountains would be beautiful if you could see them but the haze and smoke all but obscures them from view.

The main attractions here are the activities that are available….tractor tubing, kayaking, rafting, rock climbing, trekking, caving…

Leila…an Australian woman I hooked up with in Luang Prabang to travel to Vang Vieng and Vientiane…went tubing while I adjusted photos on my computer
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The whole town is full of 20-30 year olds sitting in one of the many little “TV Bars” on raised tea-beds (like in Central Asia) lounging against pillows and pads…watching blaring videos of “Friends” reruns.

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Leila and I chose to go to the market for BBQ chicken…tipping a bit of Lao whiskey with three older Lao men tickled to invite us to sit with them.

Two days was enough.

Road South To Vang Vieng

Posted on by Laughingnomad

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Slash & Burn! The mountains here are obscured by the smoke from slash & burn fires as in Chiang Mai so unfortunately the sunset over the Mekong isn’t as clear and beautiful as it was when I was here two years ago.

The road south from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng is reputed to be incredibly beautiful but you would never know it as our minivan chugged around five hours of consecutive curves in smoke-filled mountains!
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Stops along the way gave us a chance to swallow, get some air relieving car sickness and to take some pictures of village life.

Meat Market
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BBQ Pork Fat
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Sticky Rice in Banana Leaves
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Mystery Eggs
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Phousi Market

Posted on by Laughingnomad

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I discovered today that the Talat Dala Market that used to be up the street toward the river has moved to the outskirts of town and is now called the Phousi Market (pronounced “poosi I say it carefully.) After a short ride in a Tuk Tuk, I watched the women from the countryside sell their fruit, vegetables, palm sugar, sheets of seaweed and other items, many unidentifiable, while having a leisurely Lao Cafe…strong Lao coffee in a little glass poured over sweetened condensed cream…served traditionally, as in Viet Nam, with a glass of green tea on the side. DSC00501.JPG

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Mystery Message
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I haven’t been able to figure out what happened in Lao in 1983…anyone have any idea?

Then after a breakfast of delicious noodle soup I purchased sweet dried beef, lao cookies, seaweed and a bag of cherry tomatoes for snacking.

Lao “Disco”

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Last night a lively 50 year old woman that teaches kindergarten in Alberta Canada, a young woman from California who is a consultant to a California educational testing company, an even younger woman from Germany, Gabe a thoughtful young guy who is translocating from Washington D.C. to China to study Mandarin and two charming Lao trekking guides and myself all piled into a tuk tuk to go to the local Lao disco.

Traditional Lao dancing looks like a cross between Western line dancing, folk dancing and sometimes a slow salsa except that the hips don’t move much. In fact nothing moves much. Very Asian. Little feeling showing up in their bodies…but they are having great fun. We try it…stepping all over ourselves. Then suddenly…old fashioned DJ techno starts up and we are all on the floor…the Laos not changing their moves much. They are very sweet and refreshing…feels like a middle school prom in the States. I suspect that in years to come this will change.

We walk slowly all the way back on the dark road to our guesthouses…sharing travel experiences and insights.

The others walk me to my guesthouse first…I protest but I guess they are deferring to my age. Good grief! It is only 11:30pm and the metal gates to my guesthouse are closed. Oh F___k! This happened to me one time in Hanoi and I had to go find another guesthouse for the night. Look, the gates aren’t locked one of my friends says! Thank goodness…I pick up my key…the last one left in the bowl on the table in the darkened entry. After a CNN/BBC check on the Thai election results I fall into bed. When traveling in Asia, after fighting heat and humidity and noise, I am usually finished by eight pm. This morning my knee hurts. I am afraid we might have made a spectacle of ourselves last night.