Lao. . . Need I Say More? Part 1

well, if i didn't i would probably get a lot of questions, so i guess i will, although a lot happened in the two weeks we were there.

we crossed the mighty mekong on the 8th and stayed the night in houay sai, across the river from chiang chong, the thai immigration point. the next day we rode in the back of a truck 50 km on a mix of paved and unpaved roads to a small town across from thailand's chan saen in the golden triangle region. then the 9 of us- mark, zack, joe, levi(a new arrival from new mexico), tee and his dad, ajaw, and the lawyer koy and me of course- hopped in two speed boats and made our way up the mekong some 200 km to a small lao town of chiang kok.

the ride in the speed boats was one to remember. 2 hours of dodging rocks and rapids at close to 40 miles an hour. all the time the engine is roaring in your ear and the sun in beating down on you while the water zips by inches from your hands, everything puts you in a sort of daze, not to mention the unique scenery. surprisingly, there is little built along the mekong on this stretch, a few small villages on the lao side, and even less on the opposing burmese side. strange i think as this river enables trade between china, burma, thailand, cambodia, vietnam, and countries beyond after reaching the sea. only occasionally, two maybe three times do we pass large vessels heading down river.

disembarking in chiang kok, we eat lunch and wait for a bus. luckily, very luckily actually as we would all realize after a few days in lao, one comes almost right after we finish eating and we head north east to start surveying some of the villages, not quite sure where we are going to sleep that night. after half an hour or so that problem is solved in a very original way, i certainly didnt see it happening this way even after learning to expect the unexpected. the solution, a small house in the middle of the road. right in the middle of the road and being carried by some 40 men. they are moving a house by carrying it. seeing this tee orders us to get out of the truck, which has stopped and we do, helping to carry this house, actually a rice storage shed, up another 500 yards or so, stopping three times before lowering the six stilts it sits on into predug holes in the ground. the whole time aja has some how taken complete control of the situation and in return for his aid and our muscle we have a place to stay for the night.

the village, delighted to have visitors and story tellers like tee's dad, decides to bump its rice harvest festival up a few days to that night so we may share in the good times as well. the harvest festival is held at the beginning of the harvest for rice. each family kills one pig and disembodies it and then shows the liver to the village priest. he reads certain things, lobes, lines, shapes and so on in order to figure out how prosperous the family will be in the next year. different lobes pretaining to different aspects of life and the shapes and lines determining the level of prosperity. the remainder of the festival, like most any event in a village, involves a lot of rice whiskey and food and everyone having a good time.

in the morning we set out again, this time our destination known. we are to stay at a village a ways up the main road and then about an hours walk down a smaller road. we walk for a ways out of the village, until it gets unbareably hot and then stop at another village along the road. here we wait for two hours before we hire a truck to take us the rest of the way, and then walk another hour off the main road to the village. we continue this way of travelling for the next 4 days, walking a lot and catching a ride when available. most of the time the problem is not that there is no one that wants to pick us up, it is that there is no one who can, there are very few cars or trucks in this part of lao.

the hilltribe villages live a more primative life in lao than in thailand. most villages only have one or two communal taps to gather water from, bath, and wash clothes or dishes. most have no toliets, only the jungle, and electricity only in a few huts that are fortunate enough to have a generator. there are also kids everywhere, a lot who are sick, and the women walk around bare breasted most of the time, especially if they have children that are still breast feeding. but, at the same time there are many smiles and good food and often times a lot of food.

at any rate, we continue this adventure with tee for 4 days staying in 4 different villages. slowly we wound our way through the northwestern part of lao, passing through muang sing only a few km from the chinese border. then we headed south eventually ending up in luang namtha, easily the biggest town in the area we have seen. we arrive in the afternoon and here we part ways with tee and his group who are going to catch the afternoon bus back to houay sai, as mark, zack, joe and i decided to continue to travel through lao since we have already spent $30 on a 15 day visa. the funny thing is we only have about $150 or so between the 4 of us to last us as long as possible and hopefully enough to get us back into thailand where they have ATMs.

we stay the night a guest house, and plan to leave on the morning bus to luang prabang, one of the main cities and an old capitol of lao. luckily while wondering around the town after we arrived afternoon we discover we can cash travellers checks that zach and joe have, instantly giving us more than five times the money we started off with, atleast we know we can eat well and enjoy a few beers.

the bus suprisingly leaves on time in the morning, but at a very slow pace. the trip is supposed to take 8 hours and it is obvious why. the main road to luang prabang does not become paved until after an hour's drive, weird since the one between muang sing and luang namtha, two smaller cites was, oh well. when we do reach pavement the we dont speed up, to many twists and turns, and lots of stops. not to mention the bus is probably well over its weight limit. the roof is piled high with bags of rice and other goods, the central isle is also packed with the same huge bags, making it so you have to crouch to walk to the exit, and then everyones' gear. often times the rear right tire, which we were near hits the wheelwell and scrapes during left hand turns. eventually we reach oudomxay at about 230 or 3 in the afternoon and realize we are not yet halfway. in all the trip ended up taking 12 hours and the whole day overall i think we covered some 200 maybe 250 miles, you figure out the average speed, pretty funny, but thats the pace in lao. and it was enjoyable, luckily the bus was comfortable and we had plently of room, and even though we did seem to stop a lot, it afforded us a chance to stretch. further more some of the views were spectacular and the jungle in lao has a unique sweet smell that you dont experience in thailand for some reason.

upon reaching luang prabang after a short tuk-tuk ride from the station, the four of us are almost over whelmed by the amount of farang-white people. we havent seen this many in a long time. there are none in mae suai where we live and not too many in chiang rai yet as it is not the high travel season, but there are a good amount here. this must be on more of the tourist track than anywhere we had been in awhile, and it is clear why.

Luang Prabang is a beautiful city. it is set on a peninsula created by a tributary joining the mekong, and you get the feeling you are on an island being surrounded by so much water. much of the city is in the french colonial style and it is a designated a world heritage site by the UN so no buildings can be torn down, only remolded, preserving the look of the city. furthermore, there are about 30 wats scattered throughout the city creating an interesting mix of appearences.

anyways, i am tired of writing right now, so ill have to do the rest next time, sorry.