Borders, Rivers and drunken Frenchmen

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So after a few days of riding around paradise on a scooter, I left Pai at 8pm in the evening for the Thai border at Chang Kong. The seven hour drive was pretty uneventful and we arrived at the Boom House in Chang Kong at 3am in the morning. As the night's accomodation was included in the price of the bus ticket, I was expecting it to be pretty awful, but it was fine! I shared a room with three girls and after a short gossip we all fell asleep. The majority of the gang from the bus were taking the slow boat but two of the girls were going across the border. So after an unexpectedly free and tasty breakfast and a free ride to the border (brilliant) we made our way to the border in the early morning. Crossing the Mekong was so pointless to get stressed about, I had been worrying about being able to cross in time to catch my bus, but I could have thrown a stone to the other side from Thailand! It was strange, on one side it was Thailand and about 15 meters across the water, it was Loas.

Borders are all the same... chaotic, unorganised and full of people crowding in, waving their passport in the air and looking to catch the eye of an official! It took an hour and $35, but we finally got our one month visas and trudged over to the Friendship Guesthouse for the night. I feel that Loas is going to be full of challanges. The first one is the language, it took us an age, using a variety of non-verbal communication methods to express that we wanted a room, how much was the room and could we pay in baht for it. But no complaints as the room was clean and it only cost £3 each! Next is the currency of Loas, the Kip. We got some money out and we are millionaires! It is a rate of 12,000 kip to £1 and so far it's been very confusing, especially as they give you change with a combination of baht.

The tiny border town at Houay Xia is basically one road with a temple with some restaurants and some shops selling supplies for the boat trip. Not anywhere to spend any considerable time. We mooched around town, I had a great lunch of papaya salad, sticky rice and aubergines and after watching the sunset over the Mekong, I called it an early night. I was being picked up by my bus with Stray Asia at 12pm the next day so I planned on having a nice lay in and a lazy breakfast before my ride. The girls I was sharing with left for the slow boat at 7am so I had the whole room and the morning to myself. Wonderful - or so I thought! I had a shower, I got ready leisurely, I repacked my backpack, took my time. Then suddenly at 10.17am something suddenly snagged in my mind... was it 10am that I was supposed to be picked up??? Yes, yes, yes it was!!! Damn it! There wasn't another bus for three days in this tour and if I missed it I would be stuck here, which was nohwere. I threw everything in the backpack, zipped it chaotically, mounted it on my back, picked up a hat, a guitar (yes sorry I had to buy the guitar), pulled on the front pack, a bottle of water in hand, the key in other hand and I litterally ran out the room and into the street in search of a big orange bus!!

Normally I wouldn't have bothered hurrying, but it was a one road town, it was a big orange bus and it was 10.35am, so just maybe, I would find it. I trotted along the town and low and behold after 10 minutes of asking people if they had seen it, quite miraculously, I found a big orange bus parked down a small side street! I litterally threw myself onto the bus through the open door and 8 people suddenlyturned and stared at the sight of me, this panic stiken girl, with too many things to carry and beads of sweat running down her forehead! This is how I met my new friends haha! The bus hadn't left because it was having trouble with the border officials, it turns out that they simply wanted a some money. So one bribe and a happy 45 minute delay later, we left and I thanked the universe, quite perversly, that there were some corrupt people out there to balance it all out. Phew!!!

The gang on the bus were a lovely bunch of people, two English couples (although they might have been two mates), one Frenchman who shaved his legs (he was a cyclist), one Canadian, an Oz couple and a crazy drunken tour leader with red eyes who was a Frenchman also. The first thing I was told when I got on the bus (and calmed down) was that our tour leader (I didn't even know we had a tour leader) was an alcoholic! As it turns out, he was actually quite a useful alcoholic... he lived in China for six years and spoke the language and did know a lot of stuff about Loas. Whenever I asked him a question, he always had an answer. Although he did have a habit of calling everyone "bastards", mainly the Chinese and corrupt border officials and he definitely was an alcoholic!

The ride to Luang Namtha was bumby, rough and snakelike but the scennery was great and I was so happy to be in Loas and not in Thailand. The roads are bad, the food is dodgy, the locals are unaccustomed to dealing with foreigners and you never know what to expect next... real travelling again at last! We visited some tribal villages, went to a cool cave, ate some dodgy food at a night market and narrowly avoided going to the Chinese disco with our drunked leader. Last night we all played Pattong (like bowls on gravel) in a serious of international matches and after my previous blog, I can happily say that I'm not feeling all so lonley after all :-)

So it is that I have fallen in love with Loas. I am now sitting on my veranda, or should I say that I am gently swaying from side to side in a hammock on my veranda. I am over-looking a river which has a very tall and handsome mountain also over-looking it. I am exactly where I wanted to be. In a peaceful, sleepy, nothing-much-happening village in rurual Loas. The river meanders all day past my vernada, there are little local kids in their underwear swimming in it and fighting with sticks as I type away and stop to watch them at random intervals. The sun shines and sets over a gorgeous bridge which is just to the rightside of my magnificient view. I dare say that this wooden vernada, highset over the river, the two hammocks and pretty veiw could be a poster advertising some honeymoon hideway. The moment I opened the wooden doors onto this view, I knew I would be staying a while!

I am in Nong Khiaw in Northen Loas, it's a small little village, on the Nam Ou river. It's one of the prettiest places I have ever visitied. It's a small prize of a handful of restaurants and guesthoues, a river, a huge mountain, a beautiful bridge and a superb sunset every night. The people are so friendly, I feel like I am one of the family everytime I pass one of them and say 'sabadee'. It has just the right balance of feeling isolated and in the middle of nowhere and being not unreasonably out of reach of some civilisation, as Louang Phabang is only six hours away on a slow boat. There are only a handful of tourists (seemingly discerning ones) around if I need a conversation, but mainly it's the Loas people and their daily lives, their chickens, turkies, cats and children playing a soft background hum to it all. Oh and a small but elegant temple on the hill!

I have remembered why I am travelling again by being here in Loas - it's to get away from everyone! But mainly it was to enjoy the spendid natural beauty of lands untouched by capitalisim and concrete. Beyonce isn't heard of here, you're better off leaving the iphone at home as there is no receptioin and you can forget how much money is in your bank account as there really isn't much to buy here apart from a few boxes of biscuits and some drinking water. Perfect!

It is basic and poor, the roads are ever winding and bumpy with a short distances taking hours to conquer. Most people live a subsistance lifestyle as 70% of all labours, efforts and time are spent on planting, growing, harvesting, storing and processing rice. Make that sticky rice! They mainly eat sticky rice here, which is a more glutenous variety, that you can screw up into a ball and eat with your hands. Rice is so important here as not only does it feeds the Loa (breakfast lunch and dinner), they also use the crop to make the roofs of their windowless wooden huts (everything is made out of wood) and they also dry and make clothes from the crop. So the views along all the roads are lined with paddy fields in many tones of green, topped by hills and dotted with little wooden storage huts that are built on stilts to keep the rats out. If it's not a rice paddy, it is a rubber planation or a teak tree forest which has been planted to be sold to the Chinese, unfortunately at the cost of the jungle being cleared to make way. Throw in the fact the everyone bathes publicly in the river or a stream and that's Loas. So far!

My daily activities to date include; reading my book (Bleak House by Dickens), playing my guitar, strolling over the bridge as slowly as I can and swining from side to side in my hammock taking in the view on my veranda. Okay so no yoga or mediation yet but tomorrow I will really try to get up early. Yesterday I taught the most shambolic yoga class ever! Some of the guys from the bus wanted a yoga class and I of course am always happy to teach. As we were about to start, I saw one of the local ladies watching and trying to be friendly (and mostly in jest) I asked her if she wanted to join in the class. I didn't even expect her to understand me but much to my amazement she dashed off, got changed and came back with a sheet to do the class! She was called Mimi and she didn't know much English (that's me being diplmatic)! As you can imagine, I didn't know the words for inhale, exhale, left leg or slide forward in Loa but with a bit of imagination and a whole variety of new communication methods, we muddled through the class, in the soil and dust. It was filthy and chaotic as I would be correcting the English girl and the Loa girl would change and copy (when she didn't need to) so I would run off and attend to her and then the English girl would be doing something else so I would go to her so on and so fourth, until I was pretty tired by the end. I felt bad as it wasn't my usual relaxing sort of class and sorry that my Loa student missed out on my nice relaxation at the end as if I spoke, she opend her eyes to look at me and broke her sivasana... it's was fun though :-)

Tomorrow, I am going to try and arrange some trekking and rent a bicycle. One of the little family restaurant owners offers to take you fishing for the day. He teaches you to catch fish with a wide net and then you swim in the river and BBQ the fish later in the evening to eat with the family. I think I will check this out as it sounds great! Right now, I think I will finish writing my song on the veranda...

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Comments

[Damian]

charming
Yes I have ridden through Laos twice now and am going back in April too punish myself again .I will shave my legs before I get tgere in case I run into you .Good luck good travelling. You have a good feel for Laos and poverty is a good thing .