Greetings,
Entering Laos from Chiang Mai, Thailand, is like stepping back in time. It really feels low key and the people are very small, so JoAnn relates well. The Lao people are always ready with a smile and the kids are adorable. You can see and taste the French influence throughout the city. The buildings have a very French look along main street and the pastry has improved about a thousand percent from the rest of Asia. Everywhere we have traveled all of the bread and pastry seem to be made of cardboard. We call it "fake" desert. It looks very pretty and delicious, but tastes terrible. The Thais can do BBQ though, almost as good as we can. I could eat the chicken, the street vendors sell, three times a day. Of course JoAnn and I probably gained 20 pounds each during the layover in Chaing Mai. We had to leave before we couldn't fit into our clothes any longer. We were also surprised to find Laos so cold, and were glad that we haven't discarded our fleece jackets yet.
The earthquake and resulting tsunami across Asia was and still is, as you know, a huge event. We were in a restaurant for breakfast this morning and they had a television tuned to BBC, so we were able to watch some news while eating. Getting the straight scoop here is a very frustrating exercise. After hearing the magnitude of the event, about 24 hours after you guys, we wrote everyone using Travelpod, and then tried to find out how we could help. There was nothing on the Internet except other frustrated travelers trying to connect with the government, NGO's, or Relief Agencies. On the street were just rumors and third hand information. The Thai's wanted foreign travelers blood, but only specific types and none from anyone over 50. The joke was that our blood must be tired. After a few days it became apparent that they wanted everyone to stay away and not use up any local resources or get in the way. We felt like we might as well be in Alaska and trying to help. From the information we are getting all we can do is stay away from the western coast of Thailand. Some of the fallout from the politics in America is that we have used up all of our good will, out here in the rest of the world. Now America can't give enough money, or help, or is too slow, or has strings attached to what they give. It seems like we can't do anything right. It's frustrating for us because we know how generous, caring, and helpful the American people are. It seems so strange how fast our image has changed. The very worst seems to come from the Europeans. Of course our observations are just a very small slice of what is happening.
Luang Phabang is a small city even though it's the second largest in Laos. It is on the confluence of the Mekong river and the Nam Khan river. It really is only about three long streets with a couple of dozen cross streets and at least half of the cross streets are under construction. All of the work is done by hand, as there is no heavy equipment here. I suspect Calaveras County has more heavy equipment than the entire country of Laos. This is a UNESCO designated city and you can tell that they are not trying to make everything look new and modern.
Most of the tourists here seem to be German, French, or Italian. There are a few U.K. folks and a few people from the States we have spoken to. The tourists really stand out here because the population is so small. We figure that there must be a direct flight here from somewhere in Europe.
Our first day we found our place to stay and just wandered around. Our room has hot water in the shower, but it's one of those electric water heaters that hang on the wall inside the shower that doesn't take up a lot of room. You are not supposed to switch it on until the water is running. The switch is a regular light type switch that is 220 volts and constantly get sprayed with the shower water. I told JoAnn that she needed more time to get ready, so she should shower first. She survived, so I took my shower too.
While wandering through town we found Mr. Thongdy and arranged for him to take us on a "long" 3 hr. boat trip up the Mekong River to these very cool Buddist caves. I need to clarify my last sentence. The trip was about three hours long, but the boats that the Lao people use are these "very long", narrow, boats called "long boats". They are all different sizes and they all use the rivers like freeways.
I had another one of my "moments" on the trip upriver. I'm zipping up the Mekong river watching all the villages pass by and waving back to the kids on shore. The mothers are watering the shore line gardens that have these brilliant colored greens, contrasting each different vegetable. The weather is a little overcast so the steep jungle covered mountains that seem to go on forever, are almost like different layers, in a painting. I smile and squeeze JoAnns hand and she knows her goofy husband thinks he is inside of some story that he remembers.
After climbing up into the caves and taking about a zillion pictures we went upriver to a village that specializes in making whiskey. They spell it "wishky". It is made on the beach by first fermenting rice in large clay jars, then they place the liquid into 55 gallon drums, then distill it, into large clay jars. They bottle it in used clear pint sized bottles. Some of the bottles have very big snakes, scorpions, or millipedes inside. These are special and used for medicine. SCARY! We took a taste of the Men's clear version, which tasted like moonshine. The women's colored version, which we were assured was much weaker, tasted like straight tequila and gin mixed together. I think you could strip paint off a car with the men's version and the women's version probably wouldn't put you in the hospital. We didn't buy any.
On the way back down river we stopped at a village that was having their annual party to raise funds for Wat repair. Mr. Thongdy said that they were "makie singsong" and did we want to go. We did of course. The Wat is the church, and every village has a Wat. Even if you live in a large town like Luang Prabang that has many Wats, you still have your own neighborhood Wat. Our boat Captain, Mr.Thongdy, is my age and seems to know everyone on the river. When we enter the village everyone is happy to see him and it seems as if western visitors that are coming to the party are a very big plus, in their book. I would equate it to Michael O'keefe bringing aliens from Pluto, to Mountain Ranch Days. This village is on the eastern side of the Mekong so there are no roads, no power, and no running water. Everyone is drinking so we enjoyed a few beers and JoAnn got asked to dance a ceremonial dance. After finding out that we weren't expected to sing I danced with her and all of the Lao people thought we danced well. Since I can only do the "Stump Stomp", JoAnn was completely surprised that dancing in Laos for me seemed to fit into their idea of dancing. She was worried a couple of times that I was about to get out of control, but I was able to refrain myself. We had a great time and everyone was sad to see us leave so early. I was just happy that Mr. Thongdy could still operate the long boat, after so many beers.
The next day we decided to go down river and visit the village that makes pottery and then on to some very popular waterfalls. Mr. Thongdy brought his 14 year old son to get some river experience and that gave us some extended time to ask him questions about his country. He related his experiences during our "Vietnam War" or his "War of Resistance". He told about all of the CIA planes that were stationed here and the effect the war had on his people and his country. It made us sad to hear about it and also surprised at some of the things that he told us about the way that they lived during that time. As with most things we tend to learn history from the American perspective. I'm sure it's like that everywhere, but it's discouraging to learn how other people in other countries have had to cope during their tough times.
The pottery village was very interesting. All of the clay pots for the region get made here because of the quality of clay available in the village. Many of the families specialize in making these pots, which seem to come in three sizes. A one gallon flower type, a three gallon whiskey fermenting size and a four gallon water type. After turning the pots they are left in the sun to dry for three days. Then they are placed in these caverns dug down into the earth about 15 feet deep and about ten feet by ten feet square. There is a hole in the top about three foot across for the smoke to exit and a large hole in the bottom to load the pots and build the fires. They build large fires and with the help of old car tires they burn for three days, then cool for two additional days, before removing the pots to sell. The whole process from digging the clay to loading the pots into the boats is done by hand, by the entire village. It was fun to watch and of course JoAnn had to buy three small clay elephants from the children. She said she felt like a "big shot" carrying a pocket full of elephants around.
We continued down river until we encountered the village nearest to the waterfalls. We got a ride in the back of this truck about ten miles up into the jungle to the waterfalls. Along the way we watched the farmers plowing their rice paddies with either very large water buffaloes or these funny rototillers that had large metal wheels that looked like waterwheels. Neither one seemed to get stuck in the mud. It was funny watching these little Lao guys trying to get the Water buffaloes to go where they wanted. The Waterfalls were beautiful and as you hiked up the small river there were several swimming spots that would be perfect if it wasn't winter here. The water goes through so much limestone the turquoise color seems almost fake. The falls themselves have curtains of limestone everywhere and it makes you feel like you are in a cave. The trip back to Luang Prabang was lazy and uneventful and we stayed with Mr. Thongdy when we returned, for awhile, and listened to stories of his childhood.
Walking back to the guest house we came across a Wat with some young monks that wanted to practice their English. We stayed and spoke to them for about an hour and JoAnn enjoyed the banter and asked them about ten dozen questions about Buddhism. She forgot that monks cannot be touched, or touch, a woman. As JoAnn got closer they continually backed up. They keep a pretty wide gap between women. As we left JoAnn wanted to shake hands and she finally remembered the taboo. When she reached out her hand they acted like she was offering them a rattlesnake. It's a half moon, or something, holiday so we were able to watch them beat the drum, cymbals, and gongs for about ten minutes. It was very neat. Amost another "Don moment".
We went to a traditional Laos play, or opera, last night and it was about as slow as watching grass grow. We decided that their stories must be short so they draw them out as long as they can. The costumes and masks were very cool though. I did my part by not falling asleep. We leave in a couple of hours for Vientiane, in the south of Laos. It's the capital, and I'm anxious to see if its moving any quicker. I have to remember that there are only five million people in the entire country.
As always we would like to hear from everyone. We hope that your holidays were special and that you were able to see family and friends. We feel as if we are now moving slowly towards home, and that feels nice. We miss everyone and wish you the best.
Love,
Don and JoAnn
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