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