Post Christmas post

Boxing Day

Order is restored – peace can resume. The electricity is on today, Christmas is passed, Ben has regained entrance to the house, my digestion has recovered. All is well.

Trevann - with his BeerLao tee-shirt.

It’s been a while. The novelty of writing wears off, just as the novelty of the sights and sounds around us soften into familiarity. I no longer feel the urge to tell friends, family or my future self about the amazing new things I’ve seen. We’re now revisiting favourite restaurants and find ourselves wondering whether we should be doing something more active than sitting around reading and drawing. This is the distinction between travelling and just living somewhere.

This buffalo cart caught my eye. We haven't seen any in use. Indeed no cattle. Handcarts, bicycle-drawn, but most of all motorbike-powered carts.

We still walk a lot every day – either into the hills or around town, depending on how the day goes. Yesterday, determined to avoid anything Christmasy, we went over the old bridge to the other side of the Nam Khan. It’s a quiet area of town with noticeably more flowers in the roadside gardens. We found a little silk weaving workshop with a couple of girls working at looms. I felt more inclined to spend 200,000 kip on a scarf from there than from the Night Market. At least I could see that they really had been made there and weren’t cheap Chinese imports.

On Christmas Day, crossing the Nam Khan.

One of the temples there had wonderful murals depicting the life of Buddha around its walls. At first all the temples look very samey – seen one, seen ‘em all – but as you get used to them you start to pick out their special characteristics. Each has its special emphasis with particular deities. Some are more Hindu or Animist than Buddhist, especially the Hmong temples.

A few of the temples have these murals depicting the life of the Buddha  around their outside walls. Strange scenes of heaven and hell - more than 50 shades!

This is a watery wat. The goddess with the hair is Phra Mae Thorani, who washes away the forces of evil with the water wrung from her hair.

Love these geckos. Just like Alf and Ralph

A pity this is out of focus. It's one of my favourite temples, right in the centre of Luang Prabang, opposite the post office, with fabulous mountain backdrop. I'll try again.

Last Thursday Khone invited us to have “nam leung” with the family. These are pancakes made of rice flour cooked over an open fire and filled with watercress, bean sprouts and “morning Gloria” (no, not the same as our morning glory; it’s like a young spinach, which grows very fast, from seed to harvest in 8 days). Each person waits patiently for their turn as the pancakes are cooked one at a time and served with a chilli and peanut sauce. Unfortunately photos didn’t turn out well.

Khone cooking pancakes for all the family and us (about 12 people) over an open wood fire.

Walking down to the village the other day we were passed by a lorry carrying a vast tree – so sad to see. It stopped by the side of the road, I think because it was too heavy to cross the bridge, and I was a bit nervous about taking photos because I suspect this was illegal logging.

Massive hardwood tree ripped from the forest. I gather the roots are taken as well as the trunk these days. They fetch a high price in China.

And yesterday I was upset to hear a chainsaw felling trees on the other side of the valley from the bungalows. It was awful to hear the crash as each tree died. There’s an Australian bar owner in town called Rob I’ve heard about who is keen to set up a permaculture project on the other side of the Mekong. I’d like to get in touch. Forest gardening instead of slash and burn please...

We met some boys throwing sticks up at a tree the other day, much as kids in the UK do to get conkers. We were not sure what they were aiming at but as we approached they urged us to “See, see – show, show” look at what they had in their bag. It was a very dusty creature the size and shape of a large guinea-pig but with a tail. It was only later I thought I could’ve offered a few dollars for its life, to save it from the pot. I found out later that these bamboo rats are considered very good to eat.

Sadly, much of the wildlife in Laos comes into that category. The cranes I saw the other day, for example, are migratory. But although about 10,000 arrive, only about 5000 leave the country.

Khone says she wouldn’t mind if it were the only source of protein, but in most cases the rural tribes have plenty of chickens and pigs available these days. Often the hunters are relatively wealthy Lao folk wanting to recreate the things they remember from childhood seeing their grandparents doing. I don’t know.

The only way I can photograph these butterflies is to pick a squashed one up from the road! The live blighters won't stop still to pose!

So we managed to get through Christmas without hankering after turkey and tinsel (although there is a bit of that around!). On Christmas Eve we met up with Tony and Fi for a beer and a meal in town, then on Boxing Day they came out to Khoun and Khone’s in a tuk tuk for lunch and a walk up the road. We had Luang Prabang soup with wild banana flowers and delicious real free range chicken legs with a sweet tamarind sauce. Lovely. And good company too!

Tony, Fi and German friend, Connie, with Trevann outside our bungalow.

Oh – and joy! I discovered I could get all 8 Colin Cotterill novels on my kindle! Woohoo.

We haven't yet encountered any live snakes in Laos. This one was well and truly squished in the road.

I don't think they've heard of Bob Flowerdew here - but they've had the same idea about growing in tyres.  

It amused me to notice that Topics have become Top in monosyllabic Lao!

Ahhh - sunset from our pad. Night all!

Dr Siri and the UXO Centre

Thursday 20^th December

And then I discovered Colin Cotterill. .. Colin is to Laos what Alexander McCall Smith is to Botswana. He writes very readable fast-paced murder mystery novels set in 1970s Laos, with a main character called Dr Siri – a coroner. A couple of very pleasant days passed me by as I was engrossed in Dr Siri and his escapades.

Meanwhile, we walked up the road beyond the village; we visited new restaurants; met new fellow guests; drank BeerLao in bars.

Typical countryside around us.

In the flat river valley bottom fertile fields are neatly laid out with salad crops, pak choi and herbs. The crops are watered in the early evening with watering cans.

It got very cold in the mornings for a couple of days – and chilly at night. An extra blanket was called for – and a slight change of routine. We now get up earlier and walk or visit places in the cooler mornings so that we can relax in the heat of the afternoon at the bungalow.

Our bungalow in the afternoon sun.

Leah cooking lunch for the family.

Just a wooden house in a little village that took my fancy. Contrast between rich and  poor evident.

Yesterday we went to Phosy Market, the big local market. Fascinating range of foods, clothes, household goods, etc. Trevann bought two shirts. Quite expensive at 80,000K each ($10; £6.50), but the shop keeper wouldn’t budge.

Today we visited the UXO Exhibition Centre. A sobering reminder of the sad fact that Laos is the most bombed country on earth. From 1964 to 1973 the Americans dropped over 2 million tons of ordnance on Laos, including a large proportion of cluster bombs, in an effort to stop supplies passing along the Ho Chi Minh Trail and reaching the insurgents in South Vietnam.

Much of the ordnance is still there, killing and maiming over 300 people a year. One story told of a small boy visiting relations in a rural village. He was from the city and so didn’t realise the danger of picking up a bright tennis=ball-sized object in the field. His friends shouted at him; he threw it away but it exploded, killing the boy and two of his friends.

The Clapping Red Prince. Monument to the President who ran Laos when the communists took over after the civil war in 1975.

So it's Christmas - here's a roadside Poinsettia!

Drifting Days

Sunday 16th December

Days drift into each other. Friday passed peacefully as far as I remember. That was the day we watched from the veranda as the electricity guys crashed their way through the woods, dragging a cable through and across the garden below us. One man then climbed up a pylon with the end of the cable and threaded it through a pulley. On they crashed, with the help of machetes, to the next pylon up the valley. Then they pulled the cable taut and it rose to its final position. No electricity at all for us that day, but at least we saw progress being made. Although having said that, the installation of new lines inevitably means more houses and more development up the valley.

Workers adding more cables to improve electricity supply. When Khone and Khoun moved here 10 years ago there was no electricity or water at all.

Yesterday, Saturday, Bo and his brother wanted to go and see the Hmong village New Year celebrations. Being city boys from Vientian, they had never seen the festival before. They invited us to join them. So we all piled into the jeep and set off along Route 13 and across the new bridge over the Nam Khan to find the village.

After a couple of stops to ask for directions we found the right place. It’s a bit like a slightly run-down western fairground.  There’s a glorious mix of the traditional and the modern: girls in full tribal costume perch side-saddle behind young men in Grease-style black jackets on their motorbikes; garish plastic toys can be won on the sideshows by throwing darts at yellow balloons; girls totter around in costume on improbable high heels on the rutted mud paths. The main event is a curious courting ritual. Lines of boys and girls facing each other throw tennis balls to and fro, chatting while they do so. This is not speed dating!

Traditional Hmong costumes at New Year celebration. Incidentally, this wasn't a tourist event - the hill tribes come from all around to gather every year.

The main event - courting by throwing balls.

Some of the boys get into the dressing up. Uh-uh.

And some of the slightly older men wear waistcoatsdecorated with siver coins.

It’s obviously a great occasion for the girls – they love it. The high heels are not part of the traditional costume but a more recent add-on!

Groups of older women sit and chat under the trees.

We wandered through the fair, taking photos. Trevann took some great shots. Check them out on Facebook if you can..

We asked before taking photos. And Trevann showed some of them the shots.

Bo dropped us off in town afterwards and we walked down to find the fabled backpackers bar “Utopia”. Then back for a beer in the Antique House (supposedly “cheapest BeerLao in LP”) and home for Mrs K’s delicious green curry and rice.

Trevann sitting on the banks of the Nam Khan. We wanted to explore the other side but we haven’t seen a single person use the new bamboo bridge yet. We weren’t willing to be the first to try it!

Enjoying a BeerLao in the Antique House bar. Cheers!

So – life is uneventful. I’ve slowed down, just being here, without a daily schedule. There’s no “things to do, people to see, places to be”. It’s quite distinct from life as a backpacker. I have to let go of my Protestant work ethic and not feel as though I “should be getting on with” something. I’m not heading anywhere at all – just being. My only aim is to tread as gently as possible on the planet and people. I hear my Mum saying “Well this won’t buy the baby a new bonnet”!

Perhaps the only “progress” I’m engaged in is increasing my knowledge of the local ecology. I observe. I listen. I observe some more. Yesterday three big birds circled over the valley. I thought they were vultures of some sort at first but I they had long necks so I think they must’ve been cranes.

We had an interesting discussion about GM crops the other night. One Australian girl was putting the case that there was nothing wrong with GM if it fed more people. We had also been talking about cane toads and it struck me that there’s a useful analogy there. Just as the Australians didn’t fully understand the implications of introducing cane toads to the ecosystem of Australia, the early GM pioneers cannot fully appreciate the consequences of introducing new genes into the “ecosystem” of the cell. We know so little about how it works.

There now – a bit of intellectual stimulation. Use it or lose it!

Happy Christmas!

Harriet

My Birthday Treats

Friday 14^th December

Yesterday was bright early on - unusually, the sun broke through the cloud by 8.30 – and there was electricity! Today we’re back to low cloud, even a few spots of rain, and the electric’s off again.

We were glad of early electricity yesterday because it was my birthday and we had planned a little outing over the river. So we were able to shower and get away by 10.30 down to the ferry.

Boats on the Mekong.

We negotiated with a few boatmen. They tout for business along the shore – starting at 40,000K for them to take us in their boat on our own – but held out for the ferry because we knew it was more like 5000K each. The problem was we were unsure where it was. Eventually one boatman took pity on us and pointed out the “local boat”. We joined motorbikes, chickens and locals patiently waiting until the captain decided there were enough people on board to make the 5 minute trip across the Mekong.

Ferryman.

The landing on the other side of the Mekong

Rather like the Sandbanks ferry, when you cross the water it’s another world. You leave behind the busy streets of Luang Prabang and arrive at a small straggling village with a paved path rather than a main street. Almost no cars of course, just a few motorbikes and bicycles, which makes life for the pedestrian so much easier – you can gaze around you gormlessly without having to keep an eye on traffic.

Xieng Mene village - main street.

By now the sun was getting really hot, so we wandered along, past the children coming out of school – “sa bai dee” – minah birds in ca ges, sausages, chillis and ?bats on sticks drying on tin roofs, chickens, dogs, ducks. At the end of the paved path the village dwindled and we were walking through green woods towards the first of three temples we had been told about. This was Wat Chomphet. We paid for our tickets (20,000K) and climbed the steep steps to reach the sim. It’s an idyllic spot, high above the river with fabulous views over Luang Prabang and down the river to the mountains. And best of all – unlike Phousi in town – we were completely alone. (In fact we didn’t see another tourist the whole day.)

The steps to Wat Chomphet.

View from Chomphet.

The sim was old but well cared for, and housed the usual golden Buddha in white-washed walls.

I loved these crumbling stupas. A scene from Apocalypse Now perhaps!?

After a while we continued to the next temple, LongKhun, about 5 minutes further east. This is larger and more occupied, with monks in the adjacent buildings. The walls of the sim are decorated with fabulous murals depicting battle scenes, shipwrecks and palaces. I loved them – but wasn’t sure of the etiquette of taking photographs inside. A pity. There’s also a large golden Buddha looking out over the Mekong.

Buddha looking out over the Mekong at Long Khun.

This goddess with the snake-like hair pops up all over the place but we don't know who she is yet. Here the monks had given here an umbrella.

After a further walk through the woods – we took a bit of a detour at this point inland – we reached Wat Had Siah, described as a bit “decrepit” in the guidebook. It is a bit run-down but not too bad. We didn’t go inside this one but skirted round and thought we’d try to find the path up the hill behind, said to lead to a large Buddha. In fact the path was clearly marked with gold-painted way-makers in the shape of lotus buds every few yards.

Golden waymarkers show the way.

At this point I got stung on the hand by some blood-sucking bug – something like a horsefly I think. It’s now an ex-horsefly but it rather detracted from my pleasure in clambering up the rocky slope. As we reached the top, gold statues could be glimpsed through the trees. Dozens of buddhas, lions and nagas (snakes) were scattered here and there.

Hill-top Buddhas at Pha Pa Sad.

It was time to make our way to get back in time to meet the jeep at 5, so we set off back down the path towards the village. We passed a man carrying a large snake with its head wrapped in a banana leaf, presumably his evening meal.

The shifting sandbanks of the Mekong are used to grow food during the dry season (Dec-Apr) - hence the bamboo bridges, which are rebuilt every year.

We arrived at the local boat just as it was setting off, but they kindly came back to shore for us and we hopped on board. Then, for the first time since we arrived in Laos, we witnessed a dispute. The ticket collector was arguing loudly with two young men on a motorbike, presumably about their tickets. Meanwhile the people on the bench made room for us to sit down and we all looked on in amazement as the argument continued for almost the whole journey. Very rare!

After a welcome drink by the Nam Khan – we were very hot and sweaty by now – we wandered through the market and Trevann bought some t-shirts.

Terraced gardens on the banks of the Nam Khan. We watched a girl bringing water in buckets to irrigate her crops and wished she had a ram pump to make her life easier!

Main street Luang Prabang.

Trevann had told Khoun that it was my birthday and that we would like to eat at K&K’s that evening. He gave them $15 and asked them to choose a dish. When we turned up at the cafe all the guests o site had been invited for a special Lao meal. Any excuse for a banquet! In Lao tradition eating is a very communal affair – it’s thought to be very odd to eat alone.

So Trevann and I sat down with Seb and his girlfriend – a young couple from Australia, and Emma – another Australian, for a wonderful meal  which Mrs K had prepared. Mr K, now fully recovered, explained the dishes to us in his inimitable style.

Khoun lays out the birthday meal while Bo watches.

The first course was Luang Prabang soup - wild banana flowers, bean sprouts, green beans, noodles made from coconuts, covered with a peanut-based spicy “soup”. Then rice and battered aubergine with dipping sauce, followed by another battered egg and ?dill sort of nugget to dip in a sweet and sour sauce. Delicious. The piece de resistance was a dessert which arrived in individual banana leaf boats, two layers of a sweet banana and coconut paste topped with fried banana. To die for!

Throughout the meal Mr K entertained with stories of his life from his work as a young man as an agricultural labourer, through running a guesthouse in Luang Prabang, to the disastrous fire that destroyed not only his guesthouse but also his home and his two neighbours’ houses – because the fire engine ran out of diesel before it could get there from 2 minutes down the road. Within an hour all three houses were gone.

That was 10 years ago. With no insurance, they had lost everything. Luckily the family owned this plot of land in Ban Na Det and an American friend suggested they build bungalows for an out-of-town guesthouse for tourists. They had $1000 and the clothes they stood up in, with three children aged 10, 2 and 6 months with no house, furniture, income. Tough times. So they sent the two older children to live with Mrs K’s parents in Vientian, got jobs cooking in hotels adn set to work to build their bungalows on the hillside, clearing away the scrub, finding materials where they could –waste wood for the walls, trees cut from the forest for round-wood uprights, sand brought in bags from the Mekong sandbanks. The rocks for the stone-walled bathrooms were quarried in the village and brought on site in the back of the jeep, then carried up the slope in wheelbarrows. Talk about hard work! (It makes me feel better about paying what sometimes seems a lot for our rent!)

Khone and Khoun relaxing.

General chat with our fellow guests ensued. They arrived yesterday and are going up to Hok Sai tomorrow on the slow boat to go trekking in northern Laos and Thailand. We don’t envy them their energetic backpacking life – four countries in a month. It’s reassuring to feel that we’re content with our decision to settle in one place, get to know the people and the countryside, find our favourite spots and revisit them whenever we like. It may be idiosyncratic but it makes sense to us!

Meanwhile, back at the bungalow, we had discovered who makes the loud chirruping noise in the night. It’s Alf and Ralph our resident geckos!

Alf or Ralph.