We couldn’t find Laos! This way from Canada, the van drivers could not see the Thai – Lao border! After a few U-turns, some paperwork, and a 5-minute boat ride, we were in Laos. Lao is about people, truly delightful people who let us see into their homes and their lives. It’s about villagers learning the lost arts of weaving and animal farming. It’s about the mysterious Plain of Jars – what are those things anyway? It’s about MAG and their tireless work ensuring kids are wary of zombies that fit into the palm of your hand but are meant to maim and kill. It’s about 4000 islands in the south, chasing elusive dolphins into Cambodia. It’s about the daily dawn ritual of monks walking through their communities.
A highlight of Northern Laos on this Explore tour was a walk on day 3. It was described as a 3.5-hour walk, but they did not say we would leave at nine and return at six because we stopped a lot! They have set up a small area here as an ecotourism project, taking people into some small villages in this biodiverse area. In the meantime, they teach villagers how to weave so they have a product to sell to the tourists being brought in and farm with animals rather than the traditional slash and burn.
_timur-garifov-sisZWCDkmwA-unsplash.jpg "Laos Adventure Travel 1")
We were all sunburnt and hot, so we stopped at the Internet café for chocolate cake on the way back to the hotel! Always a good idea to eat dessert first – life can be uncertain! I shot about four rolls of film in one day, which tells you how much I enjoyed the day.
A day later, we took a boat from Nong Khiaw on a trip down the Nam Ou river, which joins the Mekong just above Luang Prabang. The 5 – 6 passenger boats are long, narrow skiffs with the motor at the back but the driver at the front.
The river is quite narrow, so seeing what the people were doing along the way was straightforward. You could smile and laugh with them and, of course, wave! Some people were even panning for gold if you can believe it! Others were washing all manner of things aside from themselves. We saw petite boys – age four even – paddling around in canoes alone, parents nowhere to be seen. We noticed some primitive small “hydro” stations where the river ran faster over the rocks. Just enough speed to generate a bit of power for their homes. Quite incredible. We saw people coming to the sandy outcrops mid-river to fill sacks full of sand for construction in their home area.
It must be a steep uphill battle for the government and NGOs in the area to teach people to look long-term when there is such an immediate need for water closer to home than the nearest well and a little electricity.
READ MORE :
- Property Versus Shares
- The Increasing Surge of Health Care
- Nokia’s Old Flagship Devices
- How A Mobile App Can Create A Roadmap To Customer Success
- Profiting From Mismanaged Properties
Luang Prabang is the nicest little town. At one of the main temples, they have made many mosaics of local life on the sides of two of the stupas. The mosaics are made from glass and, of course, shine in the sun. The scenes created on these walls are just amazing and so colorful. Life in Laos: people falling into a well, others praying, kids feeding a dog, fields of corn, monks strolling, elephant herds walking.
I had never seen anything like it before, and it was great. It is a sluggish and very hot town (even the main shopping is done at the night market). At dusk, most of the group climbed to the top of the hill in the town center for a 360-degree vista of the area, including the Mekong.
Circle of life. At about 5:30 the next morning, we returned to that same time to see the people offering monks their food for the day. In Buddhism, people gain merit by giving to the monks. Many tourists now go out to see the procession, and as the Explore leader explained, it is almost more for the tourists now than for Buddha. Interestingly, some street kids had set up a spot with plastic bags and bamboo bowls laid out so the monks would then scoop some food out of their bowls and put it into the kids’ bowls. It was quite a long procession – about 12 monks altogether, and as the tourists scrambled about trying to get photos of all this giving of food, we must have looked quite the sight.
The basis of the ceremony is very human, and I like that part. I had seen a similar ceremony earlier in the trip and could not help but compare. Three monks came along the road as we waited outside our family-run guest house. The lady next door was waiting for them, sitting on a mat. They circled her, she bowed her head, and they said a few words – prayers perhaps; she passed them the rice, she turned her head again, and the monks continued by.
So, which is Laos? Both, most certainly. The place’s enchantment is that it retains the one-on-one element: you can feel the people here and their humanity. But if you think about life from their perspective, they are keen to have farang come, stay in their guest houses, buy their wares, see their sights, and use their internet cafes. Laotians are ready for all these things. But given the historical events of the last 50 years, their religion is the one true thing they have. So, it becomes a struggle to satisfy all sides of life.
I asked what the monks do all day. They chant/pray twice daily, and the boy monks attend school. They are taught in a school just for monks, but in small village areas, they are in a village school with all the kids. No one is allowed to touch them or play with them, though. I thought this sounded quite lonely. You may know that everyone is supposed to become a monk for a while—a tough decision. As a parent, if you give your child to the monkhood, the child will be schooled and fed for free, and the family gains merit for the next life. Sounds pretty good – but as you grow older, there is no one to look after you, so there is also a bit of a downside.
During the Vietnam War, there were some air bases in Thailand. If the weather was bad and “they” could not drop their bombs on the Vietnamese target, “they” dropped them off in Laos on the way back to the airfield. “They” were too worried to land with bombs on board, so “they” dropped them off indiscriminately in Laos. The estimate is 90 million special cluster bombs. A cluster bomb is a shell casing with about 670 mini bombs inside. Each mini bombie fits in the palm of your hand. Inside the mini bombie, there are about 300 ball bearings. On impact, the ball bearings scatter to about 30 meters. The bombs are armed somehow by the number of rotations they do in the air before the crash. Some babies did not explode when they landed because they had not rotated enough. And that is the situation Lao deals with today. Estimates here are that up to 30 million bombs are still active. They landed anywhere and everywhere – in trees, on houses, in crowded people places – and so now they are trying to find these and set them off safely.
A British group called Mines Advisory Group (MAG) are the people doing this important work and doing a great job. Lao people need to be educated as these babies can be trodden on or picked up by curious kids, etc., at any time. The bombing may have been under the ground for a while, and then heavy rain will uncover them. Curious kids might have played in that area for months, and suddenly, a bombie goes off.
It is a tough decision to decide where to do the bomb location work. According to the director, they called a meeting of all the local mayors and had a discussion. We were told that the area most needed for safe agricultural land gets slated for mine clearance first. So far, about 90% of the cleared land has been used for farming. As usual, not enough people have been trained to do the work, and more money/donations to buy newer, faster equipment would help a lot. So far, in 10 years, with 12 teams of experts, after two months of training each, they have cleared 200,000 bombs with only 2 of their employees getting hurt. Check out this website.
We had the opportunity to go to a bomb site. I can tell you we were cautious about walking in someone else’s footsteps and listening to instructions! Then we watched as they detonated two bombs in someone’s field. From there, we went to the SOS orphanage in town and sang “Hokey Pokey” with the kids. And a wonderful Indian curry for dinner!
It was finally time to head south of Lao, so, for only the third time in the whole tour, we had a 12-hour day on the road. Our tour leader paced the day just right, and we got into Pakse about 7 pm, in time for dinner at the hotel’s rooftop restaurant! A delightful way to end the day.
Another boat was our mode of transport, stopping off first at Wat Phu. Built in the 5th century – even before Angkor Wat – it was a Hindu Temple. It was converted to a Buddhist Temple in the 14th century. I learned that a “Makara” is a cross between an elephant, a fish, and a crocodile. It is always shown in profile and usually on the lintel of a Hindu Temple. The doorway under this “Makara” marks the passage from the material to the spiritual world.
It’s a lazy place with the days passing in scorching heat and desultory mosquitoes. A cool drink, a walk to the temple, a cool drink, time at the internet café, a cool drink, a nap, and dinner: you get the idea! Back in the boats again to meander through the 4000 islands: destination Muong Khong. 2 wonderful nights in one of the best hotels on tour were spent overlooking the river.
Our Explore tour leader has been working in Lao for about five months. She would take pictures of the people she met in the villages, get them printed on her days off in Bangkok, and then hand out the photos the next time she passed through. What a treat this was for the villagers as someone had died in one of two instances, and she could provide a picture of the person for their loved one to treasure. In another village, early in the season, she had asked the chief what the town needed. Was there something we could buy or bring to them as a way of saying “thanks” for showing us their way of life?
The villagers used slash-and-burn agriculture, so they needed some new knives. She told us this story before we arrived, as with every group. We then had the chance to buy a knife, which she then presented to the chief. He was great as he had a book with columns, etc., and a checkmark for everyone who had received one already and those who still needed one. So we felt good by helping the village down the road by buying their knives, we gave them to this village as a way of saying thank you, the chief was able to show his people he was looking after them, and the villagers got new knives. Win-Win Win-Win!
It comes down to sharing. For the Lao, it’s instinctual, never a second thought, to share what they have. I chose generously when the Explore leader asked us to describe Lao in one word. I saw a generosity of spirit in everyone we met that enabled me to share in their lives for just a minute. I feel fortunate and privileged looking back and remembering our laughter.
