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Published: March 7th 2008
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(Matt)
Restaurants -
Leaving Thailand we took the three minute boat ride across the Mekong River to enter the dusty Laos border town of Huay Xai. Enticed by the handwritten sign stating 'Pizza Tonight', our first meal while not traditional Laos food (sticky rice, vegetables and fish) it was a good introduction to the workings of many Laos restaurants. The first thing we noticed was that no-one rushes to do anything, this can be funny when it comes to getting served - our pizza took one and a half hours to arrive. Since then we've had it take longer!
The second noticeable difference with Laos restaurants is that they are definitely a family affair, no matter how young or old, everyone is expected to help out. The strange thing is that the family goes about it's everday business often ignoring the fact there is a restaurant in the front room, we've regularly seen: people walking through from the shower with only a towel on, children playing or sleeping in beds in the restaurant and families watching their favourite TV programmes. Our favourite was an wizened old lady asleep in bed, the family were cooking and coming
out of the kitchen stepping around the Zimmer frame and putting food into the microwave positioned directly above the old lady's bed. She woke up everytime it beeped!
Tourism -
From the border we travelled two whole days by boat down the Mekong River to Luang Prabang, on the way we saw small villages, fisherman and lazy water buffalo, it was all very National Geographic Magazine! Luang Prabang is a world heritage site and this combined with its many restaurants, bars and picturesque french colonial buildings attracts a lot of affluent tourists.
As tourists ourselves we've enjoyed the benefits of places with tourist facilities and we've taken photos just like everyone else but there is also a desire to get off the beaten track and to see something authentic. This was hit home when we got up early to see the local residents giving food (alms) to 200+ monks who live in town. This is an old and important ritual (especially for the monks as it seems the food they receive has to last all day), the food of choice given away is sticky rice, I wanted to give a cup of coffee and some
cake but thought some people might be sticklers for tradition.
We started to realise this was a bit touristy when we saw quite a lot of women touts selling food to westerners to give to the monks ('alms dealers' as I like to think of them!). I've read since that the monks don't appreciate tainted tout offerings as the whole Buddhist point is that you sacrifice some of your own food, not something you've just bought! When the ritual was in full flow a coach load of tourists turned up and started pushing and jostling the line of monks in order to film and photograph the event, it was quite shameful and embarrasing to witness. That morning we decided we would endeavour to get off the beaten track.
Charity -
Sitting in a posh Bakery eating breakfast it was easy to forget how financially poor most of the Laos population are. We've hardly seen anyone begging on the streets, the one time we did I gave them 20,000 kip (1 pound 12 pence) I noticed later that night in the notebook where we've been recording our financial outgoings, Catherine had logged - '20,000 kip - beggar'
, now that's what I call accounting!
Shortly before we left Luang Prabang we came across an advert for 'Big Brother Mouse' which sounds sinister in the Orwellian sense but is actually a very friendly charity which is attempting to rectify the high percentage of illiteracy in Laos (33 percent of adults can't read or write). Inspired by one of their schemes to distribute books to remote schools, we bought two sets of children's books written in English and Laos that had titles like 'My Friend the Water Buffalo' and included a story about an orphan whose parents had been blown up by a landmine.
After carrying around the heavy books for the best part of a week over hundreds of miles we eventually found a suitable remote village (as advised by our guide), we tracked down the teacher and presented the books to her. She shrugged and chucked them into her hut! Good job we didn't expect tears of joy, cheers from the kids and the key to the village!
Remote Villages -
After our vow to go somewhere more authentic, from Luang Prabang we travelled to three towns/villages getting more remote each time.
Our final stop was a village called Sop Chem (also known as Bansop Jam), ignoring advice from locals not to go there because they have 'no medicine' or 'biting ants'? We hitched a ride with a tourist boat heading up river to Vietnam. They dropped us off at our village which was only accessible by river and waved us off. With a crowd of curious locals high on the banks behind us and watching the boat disappear around the corner I started to wonder what we'd gotten into.
We were really lucky that with our limited Laos vocabulary that we quickly found the only accomodation in the village (a really nice hut on stilts with 'welcome' written on the side) and one of the three village chiefs. Our village chief was called Cam-pooey, he spoke some English and was really welcoming. He kept apologising about the food and accommodation and we really had to persuade him everything was fine and that we definitely wanted to stay the night. The village itself had one main dusty track, lots of dogs, lots of chickens, food drying on big sheets, women weaving and lots of children.
It was really amazing to
spend time in an actual working village that has a extremely limited tourist industry (people sometimes pass through to go kayaking). The hut we were staying in was built for people who visited the Chief and wasn't really a Guest House as it didn't even have a name. There were no restaurants or places to eat, so we were honoured to be invited to eat with the Chief and his wife that night. We shared Lao Lao (strong rice whisky) ate fresh fish barbequed in banana leaf, sticky rice and bought our hosts some Beer Lao while telling them stories of tall buildings and trains that run underground. As the sun went down we sat on the main street (so to speak) surrounded by about 20 children of various ages as they got progressively brave enough to play with us and to shake our hands. Not one of them asked us for a pen, chocolate or money - now that is remote!
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Sophie
non-member comment
Wow!
Wow! It all sounds and looks amazing! I loved how grateful the school teacher was at the new books- hilarious! xx