Anzac Day

Unsurprisingly there is no recognition of Anzac Day in Laos.

We decided on a visit to a rice farm. While it is patently obvious to most kiwis that rice comes in a box from Uncle Ben, there on the supermarket shelf alongside the porridge oats......however this isn't totally true. We travelled about 5kms out of town and were given a guided, "hands-on" tour of a working rice farm. It is a small project being run by 5 locals with the help of many others, where visitors can get down and dirty in the real work. We steered "Suzuki" (a 6 year old buffalo) through the puggy waters ploughing the land. We planted, harvested, threshed, ground, ate and drank everything to do with rice. It was a beaut day out and good to see some enterprising locals, very environmentally and socially aware but also including tourists in their venture. Anzac Day was a Friday and today, Saturday is a bit of a rest day in preparation for leaving Laos tomorrow and flying to Chiang Mai. Laos has been an interesting country to visit. In general the people are helpful and friendly, not many speak English but they are keen to learn. Many of the bright students that we have met waitering in the restaurants or hotels, are stuck in the poverty trap and can never see the day that they could earn enough money to be able to even visit their neighbour countries - that is the reality for them and that is very grounding for us who take so much for granted in our part of the world. It is hot, very hot at the moment, and the locals are waiting for rain...the temperature won't change much but the clouds are threatening at the end of each day. Time to move on.

 

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Lost Laos 23-24 April

 

Our adventure day in Nong Khiaw we decided, would be a day trip on the Nam Ou River, a tributary of the Mekong. Eight of us fair skinned travellers from 5 different countries boarded our long boat at 9.30am and headed upriver...first to a normal riverside village. Bit like Wanganui but different, perhaps Wanganui 200 years ago!

The village had some 25 families who mostly live hand to mouth. They grow rice, hunt and fish to survive. There was a small school for juniors, two classrooms with about 15 children in each. While they are poor (and Laos is among the 20 poorest countries on Earth) they still managed to have satellite TV. There were probably 5-6 sets in the village and if something important was on, more likely English football than the All Blacks v Springboks, families would gather together to watch. The village is quite communal and although they can individually own pices of land, maybe 5 hectares, they will work together on each other's farms to get the work done. This little fella in the red hat took a liking to Diana and spent half an hour welded to her finger.

 

Secondary school for these guys is in Nong Khiaw about an hour boat ride away. They have to board during the week either at accommodation at the school or with relatives. In the evenings they would probably work at a restaurant to help pay the costs of boarding and getting back home for weekends. Laos kids are expected to stay at school until they are 16 but this isn't policed and in many cases it is beyond the means of their parents to afford them schooling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our little group trekked for an hour and a half through paddy fields and jungle to a waterfall. The temperature was around 34C so we were well pleased to be able to dive into the pool at the bottom of the waterfall. Only problem was that when we were half way back to the river we needed the waterfall cooling off pool again.

 

 

Back to the river and we boarded kayaks for our 2 hour journey down the river. We discovered that the management persons of the company we trekked with had discussed Diana and my suitability for the kayak leg of the adventure. The main criteria that initiated the discussion was the colour of our hair! Clearly we were past the rough and tumble of kayaking through rapids. The bloody cheek of them! Fortunately they didn't totally insult and decide we couldn't do it. Although I am sure that the combined age of any of two others was less than my age and more than likely less than Diana. Once 'discussed' I did outline to the rest of the paddlers and management that NZ has an enviable record of the boating type. Gold medals at the Olympics, more NZers than any other nation at the Americas Cup and I threw in the invention and development of the Hamilton jet.....most of this detail was missed by the Lao but none of the other nationals argued....! We then surprised ourselves by getting through all the rapids, albeit with a kayak full of water, and not falling out at all. That couldn't be said by all those on the river that afternoon. We had a great day out.

 

 

Getting back to the World Heritage listed town of Luang Prabang involved a 4 hour ride in an open back little Mazda type truck (saungtaaou) sucking petrol fumes. We thought the minivan journey up was challenging!! We got back in one piece.....it wouldn't be correct to say "safely". There were no safety features obvious on the vehicle and the driving is an adventure in itself. The green T-shirt men here are tuk tuk drivers touting for our business. All good hearted banter and totally non-threatening.

 

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Journey North

21st April

 

Our kind hotel owner gave us a lift to the centre of town to catch our 'minibus' to Nong Khiaw. We left town at 8.30am but only got as far as the bus station where it took them an hour to organise people in to 3 buses each with 9 people. They were hopelessly disorganised and took people's luggage on and off the roof racks more than 2 times! The journey is about 200kms but the sealed road was narrow and potholed. We had a break in a village after 2 hours and had a few choices of nibbles - crickets, frogs, black tough looking chickens - needless to say we went for the oranges and a packet of Pringles. We were all visitors on our bus but we did pick up one local on the way. Total journey not too bad at 3.5hrs but with no air con it was long enough for us.

 

 

 

Nong Khiaw is a sleepy little place next to the Nam Ou River which has huge 'karst' (limestone) formations rising up all around. It is very picturesque though no clear skies again as the farmers burn the hillsides for rice crops. We look forward to doing a bit of exploring tomorrow.

 

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Laos 14th April

We hunkered down in Vientianne after our initiation into Pii Mai.

 

One day of water throwing had a few funny moments but after a day we I had about seen enough. Mostly young people threw water at any one within about a 5 metre radius and they would keep it up from 10.00am to 10.00pm. Reminded us a bit of the hilarity of the Sevens tournament but it went on forever. As we walked about in the city we were continually approached and had half a litre of water poured down our shirts. Just as we were about dry another (30 minutes) another would come along and "bless" us again!

Just as we were both commenting on the fun nature of it all we did see a small fracas on a corner while we were eating. It was soon placated and there was very little police presence. We did read there were 37 road deaths and 157 injuries related to the road behaviour in Laos. The next day was pretty quiet and all of Vientiane had been cleaned up and swept by 9am. The Mekongs water supply must have been lowered substantially though.

We did catch up with Peter Wallis and his Lao family. Peter was one of the first employees of PFOlsen Ltd and following an assignment in Asia 25 years ago...he never came back. At 74 he has a few things on his mind now. He has a Lao wife, much younger, and they have and 8 year old daughter....he thinks about her gaining a secondary education in NZ.

 

 

 

We visited the COPE centre in Vientiane where they make artificial limbs. Most of their clientele is from the villages near the Vietnam border where cluster bombs and land mines were dropped by the Americans and their allies during the war. The centre treats about 20 people per year and while the land clearing continues it will take 100 years at the present rate to have all the affected land arable again. This was quite a sobering visit.

 

 

 

18th April

While Vientiane was an interesting and safe city, plenty of good tucker and cheap beer, we once again made plans to head to the airport and fly up river about half an hour. That saved a 12 hour bus ride and we flew 1st class! We felt important as some well dressed, heavily jewellery laden passengers walked past us in the front of the airplane. They must have missed the "Fly 1st Class" option that Diana spotted for $10 more!

 

 

Luang Prabang is a very pretty little town, quite clean by Asian standards and well set up for the budget traveller. The French must have been sorry to leave this place but their legacy remains. The food is brilliant and cheap, service as usual is instant. We have to drink a lot because it is so warm, the temp never goes below 25C and is well into the 30's during the day. A large bottle of water is $1.20 and a 600ml bottle of beer $2.00. Happy hour generally from 6.00pm in numerous pubs all over town.

 

 

 

 

We have spent time geocaching, as you do, visiting the museums and the occasional temple to keep on the right side of Buddha. Finding a temple isn't difficult in this town, there are literally hundreds of them each with their own team of Monks and apprentice monks. These guys are pretty friendly and all have known where NZ is when we chat to them. Generally they are keen to improve their English so happily yarn away until it's time to get another drink!.

 

Here we found a geocache....GPS is sitting in the groove on the tree trunk. Monks are looking after this one, we gave them a small donation and if everyone gives them a small donation they could do well playing this geocache game even though they probably have no idea why one would want to play it...I haven't worked that out yet either ......but it is quite fun.

Tomorrow we have booked a minibus (we have no idea what that means here?) for a 3 hour journey north to another little town on the banks of the Mekong River. We may look at some river travel to add some adventure factor while we are there.

 

 

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