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Published: August 29th 2006
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Hi everyone,
I know I promised an epic, but given the feedback I have had on how unpopular epics are I will try to cut down on the words for you all....instead...I have increased the number of pictures! :-)
This visit up north was to help kick-start a project evaluation on a disaster management project in Hongsa, Sayabouli province. We flew to Luang Prabang, then the car picked us up and we begun our 5 hour drive to Hongsa. Normally it is about a 3 hour drive, and has been known to be done in 2 hours, but that was in the dry season. Unfortunately the dry season is not right now and we found ourselves on a dirt road going over mountains all along the way. Remember that road I talked about in a past blog that felt like a roller coaster? That would be the one that is now a sea of mud. We put the chains on the tyres but it was still kind of nerve wracking looking out the window and seeing the edge of the mountain right next to you.
We arrived in Hongsa and the consultant Philip and I got things moving
Hongsa #2
This is the village where I caught a speedboat from on the second leg of my journey to Phongsaly. with a workshop with the CARE staff, then with governmnet staff before we sent Philip with some of the team out to the villages for a week to talk to the communities. So it was a good luck to Philip and I jumped in the car to continue on my journey across the country. Sivixay, driver extrordinaire, drove me down to the river at Tha Xouang near Hongsa where i caught a speedboat to Pak Beng. The scenary was absolutely amazing as you can see from the pictures. The speed boat experience is a bit of an adrenalin rush as well as you zip across the surface of the water with this motor roaring in your ears hoping no submerged trees or rocks happen to be in your path.
We arrived at Pak Beng where I jumped onto a tuk tuk to get to the minivan that was going to take me to Udomxai. However, it turned out that there was a bridge that had been washed away, so the minivan only took us part of the way. One thing I didn't understand was why the minivan didn't take us to the bridge, only half way. But these are
not things for tall strange foreigners to question, just go along with. So everyone in the minivan got out about an hour into the journey, jumped into the back of a truck (songteow) and continued to the broken bridge. Keep in mind that everytime I get in and out of some for of transport here i have 1 small suitcase, my laptop, a day pack, and a motorbike helmet.
We get the bridge, and my travelling companions from Pak Beng and I (we are getting to know eachother quite well by this point, particulalry the man who was on his way to hospital and threw up the entire journey) just stare at the missing bridge. I have never seen a bridge that has literally been washed away. Standing on the edge of what was clearly an unstable structure didn't occur to anyone to be a dangerous thing so the crowds kept growing. Especially when a massive truck decided it didn't need a bridge to get across tried to drive through the stream and got stuck. The army arrived, and 2 army trucks tied themselves together and pulled the truck out admist a cloud of thick black smoke. It was
clearly entertaining.
So, I gathered my luggage, and started down to the stream where I decided I liked the idea of paying people to carry things for me (fellow Nelson family members take note....my stubborness does have its limits!) and it wa onto another truck. Of course by now I had been travelling for 6 hours and it was lunchtime so the drivers were all taking a lunch break. 1.5 hours later the truck left in the middle of the pouring rain as I lamented not being able to get my workshop handouts for my next workshop from my suitcase on the top of the truck. As you could probably guess from the washed out bridge a flash flood had just passed through the area and as we drove we could see field after field where all the crops have just been completley washed away. It would have been absolutely deveastating for the farmers.
When we finally arrived in Udomxai I had 2 hours to wait for my bus to leave for Khua district in Phongsaly Province where we have a food security project in start-up phase. After hanging around at the bus station (sometimes the buses leave
early so I couldn't leave the station) the bus left (on time....bugger), and it was up up up through the hills to Khua. Now I thought the hills in Hongsa were steep, but in this part of Laos they are definitely steeper.
Khua was an interesting town. No electricity except for 4 hours in the evening and 1 hour in the morning, running water only when the water is high enough in the Ou River, and no flat land at all. It must be one of the only towns in Laos with no football field because there is no land big enought to have one. All the buildings are pretty much on top of each other with tiny narrow passageways through the middle. When it rains the water pours down the passageways/alleyways in a torrent.
Part of my stay in Khua was to go to one of our project villages. This meant walking. There is road access to a minority of the villages and people were telling me it was difficult to walk. So, I told them we should go have a look at how difficult it was to walk. That's the kind of nasty boss i can
Oops..where did the bridge go?
Well...it was off the truck and carrying my suitcase, laptop, daypack, helmet and lifejacket (i try to travel light....) through the mud. You can see what happened to the very optimistic truck driver in the background. It took 2 army trucks tied together with rope to pull the truck out of the stream... be at times....It was hard. sort of. Basically the first 40 minutes were stright uphill, we may as well have been rock-climbing at times...luckily it then flattened out and it was great for the next 1.3 hours. We were walking through jungle, and above amazing valleys. I still don't know how people manage to farm these hills. They are just so steep. You can see in the photos how Phu Sai village is situated, and some of the scenes around it. It really is an amazingly beautiful, remote and very poor village. It takes them 1.5 hours to walk to the nearest health centre (which has very limited medical supplies or people with medical skills), and to get to a hospital they need to catch a boat for about an hour. However, if you are sick and have no money this obviously isn't an option.
Anyway...that is it for now...I know I promised no epics and I may have broken that now...sorry....will try harder next time...:-) But I have cut it short! I haven't even featured the bees!!! (see photos)
Nami
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Natasa
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Always of interest
Hey Namsi - Epics or not I am always interested in what you are getting up to! Things are going well at our end with the BIG DAY slowly approaching (9 Nov). Hope that you will come to visit us when the little one arrives :).