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Published: February 23rd 2007
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Sleepy Laos is a great place to travel. Free from the major irritants of most Asian countries: pollution and demanding vendors, the atmosphere inspires one to imagine stepping into the pages of National Geographic. We began our time by crossing the northernmost Thai border at Chang Kong into Huay Xia. Here we had the experience of becoming instant millionaires, as previous hyperinflation has resulted in a comic exchange of $1 to 10,000 Kip. I had been here five years before and had fond memories of playing basketball in town and being dragged into a classroom to "teach English". (After two hours of suprisingly difficult work I had managed to scrap "goodbye" from their vernacular and replace it with "check ya later, dude". My work there was done.) From the border we took the new highway the Chinese are building north. It is amazing to see modernity bulldoze its way into these villagers lives. These families don't appear to resent the intrusion. In fact, everyone we talked with seemed excited about the increased ability to transport goods. It was sad for us, however, to see another remnant of mankind's rapidly deteriorating traditional ways be transformed. Oh well.
Near the Chinese border
National game
Imagine volleyball with your feet. This game involves flips, karate kicks and, needless to say, is amazing. we took a trek through villages outside Lang Nam Tha. These villages are picturesque collections of pigs, dogs, bamboo huts and hordes of children. At each village we donated a book to the local schoolhouse and both times the appreciative teacher immediately began reading from the text to a throng of excited kids. A severe lack of educational materials handicaps rural kids here; many of whom appeared desperate to learn. One child sat next to us and did "math" for over an hour. We realized he didn't actually know math, or have access to any mathematic materials, so he could only write down numbers and math symbols like + or - in a nonsensical manner. THAT is a drive to learn. The organization that is doing the most to improve rural Laotian learning is BigBrotherMouse.com and is a worthy cause to support if so inclined. In addition to saving the world, I played Sepak Takraw, which seems to be vollyeball played with your feet. I hoped my years of playing hackey sack back in high school might finally pay off. They didn't. But I am buying a ball and bringing the sport back to the States because it kicks ass.
Rural school
Village teacher and his students. He is reading one of the books from Big Brother Mouse. From the north we travelled primarily by boat to stylish Luang Prabang. Due to French colonization at the turn of the century (1907), Laos has European-influenced cuisine and architecture. Nowhere is this as apparent as in Luang Prabang. Featuring a beautiful night market, great restaurants and charming neighborhoods, there is a surreal quality to this trendy city in the middle of agricultural Laos. To the east we visited Phonosovan and the "Plain of Jars". Phonosovan itself has the feel of a small town in Colorado, with one long boulevard lined by mechanics' shops and, further out, homes for people who enjoy their own space. The jars are archealogically fascinating because the people who created them, for what reason and when, are still unknown. Local myth has it that the jars are huge jugs for Lao whiskey. Maybe. Maybe not. Because fossil remains have been found in some of the jars it has also been speculated that they were ancient funeral urns. These sites are historically intriguing because of its ongoing military legacy. During the "Secret War" of the Vietnam-era, the Royal government and it's American and Hmong allies fought a vicious campaing against the Soviet and Chinese-backed Pathet Lao
forces. Huge bomb craters are still visible throughout the Jars region and much of eastern Laos. Unknown to an American public and Congress, more tonage of bombs was dropped on Laos by our planes than in the course of WWII. Many of these bombs were "cluster" bombs that released "bomblets", designed to explode ball bearings. Tragically, millions of these bomblets did not explode upon impact and the result is a legacy of rural deaths that occur every year. The remains of bombs are so prevalent that they are used as construction material in all of the villages in the region. Impactful stuff for an American tourist.
Travelling here is not stressful but requires some flexibility. English is not common among the population, but there are enough businesses focused on tourism that you can get by. Trying to learn their language is a pipe dream for most. It is tonal, which means that depending on how you say the word, you can have several different meanings. "Lao", for example, can either mean the country itself or whiskey. Pick up "hello" and "thank-you' and you're golden. Learning bus times and fares usually requires a trip to the bus station itself since
At the market
At this woman's stand you pick out the live fish you want to take home. the english-speaking locals in town want you to arrange a ticket with them. Be prepared to wait: we found out the next bus from one town was in five days! They are a ferociously carnivorous people and finding veggie fare can be a stretch. Pho soup is the standby. One of the last communist countries in the world, we couldn't find anything distinctly "communist" about it (besides the red flags hanging over government buildings). There is private property and independent businesses compete in every market niche. In fact, we hardly noticed any government presence here: no police or ambulances or anything of the sort, really. Mellow through and through, Laos is a definite recommendation for anyone wanting to explore Asia.
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non-member comment
so pretty
is it like rainforesty there