Feb 8 - 16
Laos
From Vinh, Vietnam, we have a long bus ride to Vientiane, the capital of Laos. Along the way we see huge logs loaded on trucks - somewhere there is less rainforest than there was before. Although Laos is one of the world's 20 poorest countries, it seems far less littered than Cambodia. And the people seem just as friendly and welcoming as in Cambodia.
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| Rural Laos |
We pick up Mr Gi, our local guide. In Laos, tour companies like Intrepid are required by law to hire local guides (our trip guide Noi is a Thai). Mr Gi is a good guide, but some of the later local guides turn out to be hard to understand. Nonetheless, it's important for Laos to build it's tourism industry. We're told not to be seen wasting food, and that we're unlikely to see begging due to strong family structures. The official name of Laos is the Lao People's Democratic Republic, or LPDR. This is commonly said to mean "Lao People Don't Rush". My book says Laos is more a conglomeration of ethnic groups than a country, and Mr Gi confirms there are 47 languages in use. We see rice paddies, and tea being grown for export to China. China is involved with quite a few development projects here, including gold mining and hydropower, both for export. We also see corn, cassava, coffee and rubber trees (for latex).
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| Lao family |
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| Lao convenience store |
Most Lao families make their living through subsistence farming. The government provides 5 years of free education, but there appear to be areas with no schools. Our guide Noi says boys seeking more education typically enter a monastery, where they receive both religious and secular education. Noi himself is from a large, poor family in Thailand, and spent 7 years in a monastery.
Other career options include farming, if the family has enough land, or entering the military, which has a large presence. The military is self-supporting, meaning it must run businesses to make a profit. Professionals with a college degree, such as teachers and police, earn around $200/month in Laos.
Mr Gi points out a long flat area planned with rice. This is a former military runway - American. It was used in the "Secret War" in Laos and Cambodia, largely concealed from the American public at the time. This part of Laos included the Ho Chi Chi Minh trail, and was very heavily bombed. US pilots were told not to return with their bombs, even if they did not locate their targets. They dropped a high volume of cluster bombs, which are designed to open up in the air and spread "bombies", as they're known to the Laotians. Bombies are like landmines and the 260 million dropped here have maimed 12,000 Lao since the war ended. Later, we learn of a Lao woman who works as a demolition expert. She says the work is less dangerous than farming her family's field.
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| Lao riverboat, made from jettisoned US bomber fuel tank |
Vientiane
Vientiane, the capital and largest city, has a population of around 700,000, making it a small, mellow city. We like it right away, it's quieter than anywhere we've been in Vietnam, and not smoggy. The food is great, including not only Lao, but French and Indian restaurants. We visit a temple (cover your shoulders and knees, no shoes or hats), and a stupa ( solid construction, often with a relic inside). We also climb up the Patuxai Arch, modeled after the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, and dedicated to those who died in pre-revolutionary wars in Laos. The arch was finished in 1969, with cement donated by the US to expand the airport. Some call it the vertical runway.
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| Pauxai Arch, the victory gate |
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| Vientiane |
We go to visit the COPE Center, a non-profit dedicated to victims of the bombies and other, larger unexploded ordnance. A blind boy with no hands is using a laptop computer - it has an audio program, which he is operating with his nose. We watch a documentary on the international effort to defuse the bombs and bombies. In addition to the problems of finding the bombs, rural Lao are poor, and the value of the scrap metal in bombs is a big temptation. Once again, I don't feel so hot about being American. At least USAID is one of the supporters of the center.
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| Used artificial limbs, many home made, at the COPE Center |
Doug and I have a great meal at an Indian restaurant, and meet a professor of English who invites us to tomorrow's Culture of India festival, at the cultural center. The next day we wander for hours - is it at the palace of culture? the cultural institution? the cultural center? or one of the other locations with "culture" in their title? None of these places look like the photo the professor showed us. We ask a traffic cop, with some language difficulty,
and he finally indicates with a vague wave - it's over there. Our faces brighten, and as soon as he sees this be says "It's not there anymore." Okay, now we know that one of the venues where it might have been no longer exists. Helpful. I'm wilted in the heat and talk Doug out of further searches. Like most places we've been, only mad dogs and Anglo Saxons are out in the mid day sun. That evening we relax with some Beer Lao along the river.
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Sunset over the Mekong, Vientiane |
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| Along the Mekong, Vientiane |
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| Buddhas collected in the wat for safekeeping |
The next day we bus to Vang Vieng, perhaps the most beautiful location we've seen. It's on the Nam Song River, and surrounded by steep karst mountains, the "oriental" kind. It seems to be a town in transition; there are markets and cheap little restaurants and street food (banana & chocolate crepes!), but there are also lots of backpacker bars, hotels and upscale restaurants. It's become a haven for the young and the drug-loving, and our guide Noi warns that "happy" shakes and pizzas contain more than food. He reminds us of Intrepid's "one strike" policy on drugs, and warns that some drug sellers are in cahoots with the police. We go out for the Lao version of noodle soup (they're all good), and Doug and I take a boat ride up the river. It's stunningly beautiful. We pass quite a few people floating down river in inner tubes; some of them are extraordinarily happy.
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| Boat ride up the Nam Song River |
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| Crossing the river (in front of a tuber) |
My young second cousin Max is volunteering here in Vang Vieng, and agrees to have dinner with some uncool relatives. Max picks a restaurant where we can try laap, a traditional meal served with sticky rice. He needs tell us how to eat it, but we enjoy it. Max is teaching English to schoolkids, and also helping to set up some organic fruit farming. He explains some mysteries, such as why dishes on a menu are not always available. Successful menus are copied. Literally, copied by xerox. They may not know what the dish is, but they've got it on their menu. Also, why we've seen so little wildlife, including birds. People are poor, and protein is important. He says seeing someone carry a shotgun into the forest is not unusual. Eventually our server recognizes that he's seen Max around town and asks what's he doing in the area. Max explains, and that's all it takes for a bottle of "toxic water" (rice whiskey) to appear on our table.
Next day Doug and I rent mountain bikes for a 7 kilometer ride to the blue lagoon. Good thing they are mountain bikes, because the size of the gravel on the road is mountainous. It's bone jarring and kidney shaking. I can hear the tin of Altoids in my pack being shaken into dust (actually, I find that Altoids are pretty tough). I don't think we're going to make it, but we both get into a "we can do this" mentality, and we arrive with our brains slightly scrambled. The lagoon is beautiful, I think it's color must derive from the limestone karst. We climb up to the cave above, which is shorter but not not less exhausting than the ride here. Somehow, the ride back to town seems easier (because our brains are scrambled?). It's time for Beer Lao as we watch the sun set over the river.
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| The Blue Lagoon |
Next day it's a long bus ride through the mountains to Luang Prabang, a UNESCO world heritage site. The mountains are cool and woodsy. Along the way, our local guide tells us the Lao government is moving the hill tribes from remote locations to the roadside so they'll have access to education and healthcare. His speech sounds a little rote, like he's saying what he's been trained to say. Later I suspect that efforts to relocate the hill tribes may have more to do with opium production.
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| Luang Prabang |
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| Palace, Luang Prabang |
We plan dinner with Sandy and Dick, our new buddies from Sonoma. The four of us walk and walk, looking for the recommended restaurant. People are very helpful - It's over there. No, it's back thataway. Suddenly we stumble across our guide Noi, trying to have a quiet dinner with a friend. Noi tells us the restaurant is closed, but suggests another choice. That night we find out at 3:45 am that our guest house is next door to a temple when the monks beat the drum for their morning chant.
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| Morning market |
Luang Prabang is lovely. Doug and I walk around the peninsula and see all the upscale guest houses where we're not staying. We recover with smoothies and very good massages at the Red Cross, a fundraiser for their blood bank. We see the day market, mostly produce, and the night market, mostly handicrafts. There's no mass production here, even the silk is raised on small family farms. There's a "food court" in an alley off the night market; all you can fit on your plate vegetarian feast for 10,000 kip ($1.25).
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| Morning market |
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| Vegetarian buffet, $1.25 |
After dinner and over beers some of us pepper our wonderful guide Noi with questions on culture and religion. He has more maturity than our other guides and is willing to engage openly in this type of discussion. His seven years as a monk make him a good source. He demolishes some of our stereotypes of Buddhism - yes, it's meant to be a no frills personal journey, but people are human and many seek the ornate temples and ceremonies. I ask if the concept of karma may lead people to be accepting of their lot to such a degree that corruption and inefficiency are more tolerated in the eastern world. He diplomatically disagrees, saying he believes that people try just as hard to better themselves and the world, but are better able to accept what they can't change.
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| Wiring,Lao style |
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| Lao girls crossing the bridge |
Next morning we get up at 5:30 to see the monks walking down the street to receive alms. They're given mostly edibles, and families provide their very best foods for the monks. The monks eat breakfast and lunch from what they've collected, then don't eat again till the next morning. The monks are not vegetarians; part of their philosophy is to accept whatever they're given. Little kids from very poor families are also there with baskets, and the monks drop some of what they're received into these baskets.
Some poor or homeless children are allowed to live with the monks in the monestary. Later we rent bikes with two other couples and take a nice ride out of town to see some local villages. We stop to watch at a shop where they're making paper from from local materials.
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| Monks collecting alms at dawn |
Next day we have smoothies at a coffee shop where the owner is encouraging hill tribes to grow organic coffee. If they grow coffee instead of poppies he guarantees he'll buy all their coffee beans. Doug and I forget that we're going to be leaving town on a river boat tomorrow and we hire a boat ride. The boat could hold 12, but the boatman is happy to have a fare and we get a private ride. That night we plan to attend the quarterly full moon ceremony at a temple. It's a fusion of Buddhism and older Hindu traditions.The chanting is supposed to begin at 7:00 and the ceremony at 8:00. At 8:20 nothing much is happening so Doug and I go to dinner. We check back after dinner, but still no chanting, so we leave the ceremony to the faithful.
Next day we begin our two day ride up the Mekong River to the Thai border. It's very undeveloped along the river, and some in our group say it's pristine. It's not pristine rainforest, however. It's been cut for farming and logging, and what we're seeing is secondary growth forest. We see few villages, but they're there behind the mountains because we see their water buffalo lolling on the river banks. We pass what I think is a lumber mill, because I see piles of sawdust burning. Later I learn that we passed through a hops growing area and it was a hops mill burning the husks. Go Beer Lao!
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| Our riverboat |
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| Our riverboat |
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| Along the river |
The boat docks at the small town of Pak Beng for the night, where we're to spend the night in a guest house. The riverbank is steep and sandy, and the steps have deteriorated, so many in our group hire porters to carry their bags up to the guest house and back down the next morning. I hear the local guide say something about not paying till tomorrow, but I'm not paying much attention because Doug and I can handle our backpacks. We've been parsing out our remaining kips (Lao money) so we won't have to change it to Thai bhats at the border, so Doug and I have to share a beer at dinner (hardship!) and order noodle soup. Lucky thing it's happy hour and a bottle of toxic water (rice whiskey) appears on the table with the beer. The soup is still good, the secret is in the broth, and we like the plethora of optionals (raw veggies, hot sauce, lime, fish sauce, ground peanuts, etc.)
Next morning we have a pre-dawn departure because it's a long way to the Thai border. Guess what, the porters who were paid yesterday to carry bags back down to the boat do not re-appear. This seems rather un-Lao to me, but we're getting closer to the border and travelers who are leaving town have no time to complain. Our guides help with the luggage (note bene: the person with the most luggage is a man; Doug and I have been wondering for weeks what he's carrying around because he's usually wearing the same clothes). It's still pre-dawn when we arrive at the riverbank, the guides have vanished in the dark , and there are at least 20 identical riverboats waiting for their passengers to show up. We mill around uncertainty till our captain hikes up the riverbank and flags us down. Sliding down the sandy bank with our packs in the dark is more hazardous than coming up, but at least we make it to the right boat.
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| Gardening on the Mekong river bank |
We have another day of river travel, but the boat, though open (bundle up in the morning), is comfortable and the captain's wife makes another wonderful buffet lunch. We start out in the dark, it quickly changes to a misty morning, and we watch the sun come up. By noon it's warm and we've stripped off all excess clothing. We see more farming and more development as we get closer to Thai border. We arrive, and Intrepid again gets us smoothly across the border for our fourth and final crossing of the tour.
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| Lao novice monks |
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| Information, Lao style |
