March 2006
Tuesday
I went to phonsavan to see the plain of jars, well that turned out to be a load of old bollox, not worth mentioning. Later that day I went to see local market, far more of an adventure, what with all the stalls selling half produced chicken eggs still sitting in the guts, fried bats, live frogs, bloated weasels and flying foxes, live pigs in veerry snug cages, slithering fishes and a whole fest of various animals, some alive, some just about, some with parts fried to a crisp, some legal, some definetely not, was quite a vegetarian delight for the senses. The next morning I got up and went to see SOS international, a children’s village set up for orphans of the LAos conflict. It was a beautiful place with a school, youth house and loads of space. the nicest thing was the 12 houses where the kids lived each with their own employed 'mother' who lived with them and tried to recreate a family atmosphere. I saw 2 brothers who had arrived a week ago clinging to each other in the corner looking very somber. also went to see Mines Advisory Group (MAG) an NGO working to clear all of Laos UXO's still littering laos and creating the orphans for SOS.
This morning I took a sawngtheuw 6 hours to Nam Noen with the intention of going further but there were no more trucks. Despite the fact I'm not sure my spine will recover and its knack'd me out, it was worth it. the tuk tuk was so full of life, bags of rice and vegetables, a couple of birds, families from the local tribes. They had big cheekbones and pointy chins giving them a elfin look and their heads were wrapped in blankets and towels using them as head scarves. Full of character all the way there, babies busy sucking away at huge brown nipples whiles mums chomped away at sweet corn and oranges. thought it was a bit of a shame that the driver stopped b4 their stop to ensure they paid, but they didn’t seem surprised. Made me think about the way kids are brought up here, the mothers would prob have a fit if they saw all the equipment we have in the west, i couldn’t imagine some of our kids sitting so happily in that truck for 5 hours and certainly SSD would raise an eyebrow or 2 at the sight of the 6 year old still breast feeding, but here, nothing. Nam Noen is a small village with 1 guesthouse and 1 falang, me. I'm sitting on the balcony overlooking the road, watching the kids go down to the river to swim, catch fish in little wicker pots and the women coming backs from the hills carrying big baskets on their backs. I met a kid with a pet baby blue kingfisher on a string, I'm surprised it hadn’t died of shock the way he was playing with it, maybe everything is a little tougher here. As expected veggie food little hard to find, bought some Kau Ni Ow (sticky rice) but seems to have mouse droppings in it so instead sipping warm tinned ice coffee to the gaggle of chickens in the glow of the sunset. have real little money left hope i can make it.
Thurs
woke up early yesterday morning and went for noodle soup in the main square of nam noen village. Early morning is always the best time to catch real life in asia. coming, going, cooking, sweeping . kids playing together as a community. An laos ngo worker i met drove me 7 kms on his moped to the where the truck goes past, beautiful morning, fog sitting in the hills and spiderwebs glistening along the road. the stop was another community. I had a about a 3 hour wait for the truck so I just sat on the street, me watching them, them watching me. love the way that nothing is said to only 1 person here, it looks like it is, but then anyone may respond even from further down the road and then animated calling up and down the street starts even about the smallest of things like what someone is buying. grannies, mamas and even small children carting toddlers around in a shawl on their backs, men standing around being important. as the sun burnt away the last of the mist revealing more bamboo huts i began to wonder whether I would ever get outta this place. eventually truck showed up an I jumped on, again this one didn’t go as far as i thought, but it was movement. after about an hour the truck started smoking from the back wheel- i sensed trouble- they fixed it with string and we carried on. I began to wonder whether I'd made a mistake. I looked around, we were weaving further and further up into the mountains, the settlements getting smaller and smaller and the drop off the muddy road more dramatic, when the view came into sight, nothing, no one, no phones, no electricity, no dr or internet or falang. i realized this was the first time I'd done something like this without having someone kind of local contact, totally on my own literally in the middle of nowhere. I tried to concentrate on the fact there was nothing i could do about it now so I should relax but i was panicking, if that tyre blew we'd be off the edge. i tried smiling at the villagers but this time they avoided my glance, did they know something? Sarah you are overreacting, for sure this was probably not the cleverest thing you ever did. 'vieng thong?' I said pointing at my watch, again they looked away. in retrospect it was probably my face scaring the shit out of the villagers not the other way around, combination of slight hysteria and breathing exercises- how high were we anyway?? I'm sure I culd feel altitude sickness coming on! Despite all this I managed to take in everything around me- dare I say it was worth it? We arrived in Vieng Thong several nervous hours later and even though it was still a village it was definitely 'somewhere' thinking i'd have to stay another night i got off and then like a beacon in the night an actual bus pulled up. wasted no time in jumping on it. this ride was equally beautiful and certainly less scary. we wound back down from the top of the hills to the valley floor. Its not often the road goes right at the bottom where the bases of the hills stack up one in front of the other. to look at the rock faces and the setting sun over the bamboos houses on stilts with the backdrop of the darkening mountains was spectacular, one army check point and 9 hours and we made it to Luang Prabang. was I a wimp for not staying longer in the back of beyond? i'd like to do it again but maybe take someone with me this time. Arrived in luang prabang last night and today taking chill day (from my hard work schedule) Just ate delicious noodle soup and wanted to know how to make it. 'I asked the guy at the counter' noodle soup, how you make?' 'what? he said, 'noodle soup, how do you make it?' 'aah' he said '.....woman'. took me bout 5 minutes to stop laughing from that one.
This morning I took a sawngtheuw 6 hours to Nam Noen with the intention of going further but there were no more trucks. Despite the fact I'm not sure my spine will recover and its knack'd me out, it was worth it. the tuk tuk was so full of life, bags of rice and vegetables, a couple of birds, families from the local tribes. They had big cheekbones and pointy chins giving them a elfin look and their heads were wrapped in blankets and towels using them as head scarves. Full of character all the way there, babies busy sucking away at huge brown nipples whiles mums chomped away at sweet corn and oranges. thought it was a bit of a shame that the driver stopped b4 their stop to ensure they paid, but they didn’t seem surprised. Made me think about the way kids are brought up here, the mothers would prob have a fit if they saw all the equipment we have in the west, i couldn’t imagine some of our kids sitting so happily in that truck for 5 hours and certainly SSD would raise an eyebrow or 2 at the sight of the 6 year old still breast feeding, but here, nothing. Nam Noen is a small village with 1 guesthouse and 1 falang, me. I'm sitting on the balcony overlooking the road, watching the kids go down to the river to swim, catch fish in little wicker pots and the women coming backs from the hills carrying big baskets on their backs. I met a kid with a pet baby blue kingfisher on a string, I'm surprised it hadn’t died of shock the way he was playing with it, maybe everything is a little tougher here. As expected veggie food little hard to find, bought some Kau Ni Ow (sticky rice) but seems to have mouse droppings in it so instead sipping warm tinned ice coffee to the gaggle of chickens in the glow of the sunset. have real little money left hope i can make it.
Thurs
woke up early yesterday morning and went for noodle soup in the main square of nam noen village. Early morning is always the best time to catch real life in asia. coming, going, cooking, sweeping . kids playing together as a community. An laos ngo worker i met drove me 7 kms on his moped to the where the truck goes past, beautiful morning, fog sitting in the hills and spiderwebs glistening along the road. the stop was another community. I had a about a 3 hour wait for the truck so I just sat on the street, me watching them, them watching me. love the way that nothing is said to only 1 person here, it looks like it is, but then anyone may respond even from further down the road and then animated calling up and down the street starts even about the smallest of things like what someone is buying. grannies, mamas and even small children carting toddlers around in a shawl on their backs, men standing around being important. as the sun burnt away the last of the mist revealing more bamboo huts i began to wonder whether I would ever get outta this place. eventually truck showed up an I jumped on, again this one didn’t go as far as i thought, but it was movement. after about an hour the truck started smoking from the back wheel- i sensed trouble- they fixed it with string and we carried on. I began to wonder whether I'd made a mistake. I looked around, we were weaving further and further up into the mountains, the settlements getting smaller and smaller and the drop off the muddy road more dramatic, when the view came into sight, nothing, no one, no phones, no electricity, no dr or internet or falang. i realized this was the first time I'd done something like this without having someone kind of local contact, totally on my own literally in the middle of nowhere. I tried to concentrate on the fact there was nothing i could do about it now so I should relax but i was panicking, if that tyre blew we'd be off the edge. i tried smiling at the villagers but this time they avoided my glance, did they know something? Sarah you are overreacting, for sure this was probably not the cleverest thing you ever did. 'vieng thong?' I said pointing at my watch, again they looked away. in retrospect it was probably my face scaring the shit out of the villagers not the other way around, combination of slight hysteria and breathing exercises- how high were we anyway?? I'm sure I culd feel altitude sickness coming on! Despite all this I managed to take in everything around me- dare I say it was worth it? We arrived in Vieng Thong several nervous hours later and even though it was still a village it was definitely 'somewhere' thinking i'd have to stay another night i got off and then like a beacon in the night an actual bus pulled up. wasted no time in jumping on it. this ride was equally beautiful and certainly less scary. we wound back down from the top of the hills to the valley floor. Its not often the road goes right at the bottom where the bases of the hills stack up one in front of the other. to look at the rock faces and the setting sun over the bamboos houses on stilts with the backdrop of the darkening mountains was spectacular, one army check point and 9 hours and we made it to Luang Prabang. was I a wimp for not staying longer in the back of beyond? i'd like to do it again but maybe take someone with me this time. Arrived in luang prabang last night and today taking chill day (from my hard work schedule) Just ate delicious noodle soup and wanted to know how to make it. 'I asked the guy at the counter' noodle soup, how you make?' 'what? he said, 'noodle soup, how do you make it?' 'aah' he said '.....woman'. took me bout 5 minutes to stop laughing from that one.
