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.