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Published: February 24th 2016
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The Hamon Tribal People
Hanging on to mommy's skirt! Welcome back to our blog as we continue travelling north in Laos!
We had the most beautiful and interesting drive through the mountains in northern Laos. The forests and limestone mountains are magestic and quite unique. We were about 4300 ft. high as we passed through the area that has been home to the Hamon Tribal Group for centuries. It is amazing that they can survive here but they have succeeded at hillside cultivation growing sticky rice, bananas, potatoes, pineapples and yams. As well they harvest timber. There appeared to be power but whether they use electricity is questionable. Their water source is mountain water and wells. The kids' jobs are to carry jugs of water from the wells to their homes. As well they go into the forest and collect twigs for making fire. They have little baskets that are tied on to their backs for the firewood and water jugs.
Their homes consist of small shacks built of wood or bamboo and are constructed right along the road on one side and the backside is literally hanging over the side of a mountain! Obviously they don't have back entrances!! An interesting part of their culture is that
they their houses have one front door and no windows. We thought at first there might be a logical reason for their windowless homes but apparently it is their culture. Our tour guide told us in the forests here you will find deer, elephants, bears, snakes and tigers.
The highlight for us was when we stopped along the road to visit some of the Hamon people. Most of the older children were on the hill at school but the pre schoolers were there to greet us. Talk about adorable! They all lined up in curiosity to see what we were all about. Luckily we had some coconut candies that I handed out which they were very happy to receive. Cute little faces but they looked like they could have used a bath. However, I don't think bathing is a big priority in their daily life! The Hamon people have their own language dialect.
Another interesting thing about these people is that many were spies during the Cold War for the CIA. After the war they were not treated well by the Vietnamese so the US opened up refugee camps for them. As well there is a community of
them living in California so obviously some migrated to the States during this time.
We arrived in Vangvieng in the late afternoon, checked into our hotel (which had a spectacular view of the mountains from our balcony) and had a cocktail at a restaurant along the Mekong River while watching the sunset.
The next morning we rode in the back of a truck about 7 kms to "The Blue Lagoon and Caves". The lagoon was a lovely blue colour, very fresh and perfect for a swim. We also climbed a good 300 feet of rugged steps to the entrance of the cave. We ventured in with our flashlights and enjoyed exploring inside the cave. It was pretty cool complete with a small Buddist Shrine.
That's it for now. Thanks for reading!
Mallory and Warren
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Sheila
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Rats
So Warren do you eat a rat?