Blogs from Tat Lo, South, Laos, Asia

In our last missive I decried the residual resistance to vaccine uptake in parts of the wealthy west, as well as its hesitant roll-out to their juveniles. Even more pertinently we worried about the limited availability and constrained distribution of vaccines within developing countries. Such outcomes were likely to see new, potentially more threatening, variants emerge. And sadly so it proved. Most of Africa trails far behind the rest of the world in terms of vaccination rates, whilst several countries there still have outrageously high numbers of individuals infected with (non-retrovirally controlled) HIV whose defining immunocompromising nature enables other co-infecting viruses to multiply to horrendous densities, thereby, mathematically, increasing the probability of new mutations arising. Thus, from somewhere in the soup, we saw the emergence of mega-mutated Omicron that, whilst it... read more

There’s a British phrase, oft rolled-out at times when their acquirement is in the ascendancy (think Christmas and pandemics): that a dog is for life. No such sentiment exists here, at least not rurally. Dogs are not so much owned as inherited; if they choose to live close to you then other humans may consider them yours, although the canine’s allegiance may flip at any time. Equally, if their presence becomes a hindrance there is little saccharinity involved in ridding yourself of the nuisance. Dogs are transient. Our original alpha male here at Sipasert, Chilo (my first Laos love), bit two individuals and was duly exiled. We have never seen him again. The same fate befell Pak Dam when, as a playful young pup, he nipped Ali. However, on that occasion, our impassioned campaigning did see ... read more

I had said that the next blog would not be from Tad Lo, surely we’d be on the move and somewhere else within internally-open Laos. I’d also stated that the virus we really fear is Dengue, not Covid. However, I had overlooked the unequivocal bad boy: rabies. The chances of Dengue or Covid killing a fit and healthy individual are slim, rabies doesn’t mess: once you have symptoms an unpleasant demise is as near a certainty as death itself – only 14 people ever, worldwide, are recorded as having survived it and some 59,000-odd per year don’t. If you are travelling extensively within a rabies endemic country you are strongly advised to have a series of shots prior to departure. These are not cheap. And we have never done so. Why? Because my belief was that ... read more

Late morning on the 26th of April sat on the balcony with much needed coffees and angry hangovers we witnessed six youths hauling a laden sheet, field stretcher-like, through the waist-deep river. What the partially floating load comprised was unclear. On reaching the monastery it was carried up the waterside steps before an assembled crowd. Was this part of some festival, maybe a covid-lockdown-delayed New Year offering? Had they – as threatened – finally harvested those chunky carp entrapped in our falls/shallows isolated stretch of the river? Tragically it was not. The bundle had actually contained the body of a young man. The night before he had been collecting snails, seemingly from above or on one of the waterfall’s many tiers. He must have slipped, hit his head and drowned. We had been up, sat outside, ... read more

V noci bola riadna kosa,sprchu som radsej nedal i ked bola tepla ale bola mimo bungalovu,tak som tu zimu riskovat nechcel moc. Rano ma zobudil volaky pako co furt volaco vyhukoval do megafonu,trvalo to hodinu. Tak som sa o 7/00 pobral nastartovat motorku. Ta ma uz cakala pripravena pri bungalove. Na noc mi ju majitel skoval do ohradky pod svojim bungalovom. Normalne chytila na supu,ale vzdy ked som pridal plyn zhasla,toto sa opakovalo asi 4x,potom ani netukla. Chvilu som rozmyslal kde moze byt chyba. Urcite studeny motor. Spravil som dalsi startovaci pokus,nabehla,cul som ju uz len tak nechal nastartovanu a chvilu cakal nech sa ohreje. Na ranajky som zakotvil v mamas restike. Jasne,ze mi zas donisli nieco uplne ine nez som si objednal. Polievka s kuratom a zeleninou,opat mega porcia,som to ani cele nezjedol. Baba nemala ... read more