little more

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Hello again,
I know it might seem soon for another email, and it is, but i have
some catching up to do.
So, i thought i'd start with a little bit of Laos talk. Like,
what's the difference between Laos and Thailand? Is it different?
Is it the same? All the answers and more, coming right up.
So, Laos is poor, one of the poorest countries in the world. When i
first arrived to Thailand, i thought it was a bit rough and basic,
but in comparison to Laos, it is quite far advanced. Paved roads in
Laos? Not so many. Luang prabang, yes (it was the old capital), and
Vientiane, yes (it is the current capital), but in between and
around, not so much. If they are paved, they were paved years and
years ago and now have broken away, disintegrated, or have pot
holes that could hide an opium field (a little situational humor
there). The two main cities i mentions a few lines up are quite
nice, and feel quite comfy because of the french influence, but in
between there not much show of the european side. The small places
in the north that i've been to have dirty dusty roads with
motorbike and tuk tuk traffic that spreads the dust evenly over
sidewalks and feet, and then finds it's way everywhere that feet
go. not much growth upward, even Vientiane the capital has a
restriction on building anything over 5 stories high, and the only
building that are that large are a few government buildings, postal
centre, and hotels, which is between 5 and 10 buildings here. The
people who run the little shops or restaurants usually live in the
back room of the place, and the guesthouses here really are
guesthouses. Sometimes you are walking in through the guesthouse to
get to your room, and the whole familys in their main room watching
tv or eating dinner. Sometimes your shared bathroom is the same
bathroom the family uses, but usually not, i think they snag the
nice one and let the falang (asian term for westerners that you
hear as you walk by people) have the more basic of the two, which
can be quite basic, but i don't imagine they have an ivory handled
bede, or beday, or, i have no clue how to spell that, and hopefull
i never will.
So, cutting to the chase. Luang Prabang was nice, very nice. Had
my first case of sleep halting nausea that was either due to me
taking my malaria pill too long after a meal, or from the giant
indian curry i had for lunch. my sleep was disturbed by my nausea,
and my roomates sleep was disturbed by the sound of my vomit
hitting the metal roof of the balcony below.
The next day i awoke early cuz me and a german guy had met a Laos
guy who invited us to stay in his little village for the night. He
was a keen student who wanted to take some english speaking people
back to his village to show them he spoke and had learned english
while away from home in school. There was no catch, no money
involved, just us going to his little village on the Mekong to net
fish and see little village life. Cool. Seemed too good to be true,
cuz things always cost money, and people who seem right off the bat
too nice, usually have an alterior motive. But, nothing ventured,
nothing gained, and, the german guy was just over six foot and had
military experience climbing mountains and sleeping in a snow cave.
So, if the shit hit the fan, i was with the right guy. I had a
sleeping bag and a mosquito net in my pack, so i felt versatile
also.
So, we went. One hour by sawngthiaw, one hour by low rider canoe up
the Mekong, helping the little engine through the rapids with
paddle power. We arrived at the little village where the kids
looked at us funny, cuz we were white, or had food on our faces,
i'm not sure. We wandered through with some looks and put our stuff
in his parents bachelor hut. I think that's what we'd call it in
western terms, but that was their house. Bamboo 'beams', leaf woven
walls, and two mosquito nets where the parents and baby slept, and
another mosquito net for Tobias (german), Kohm (Laos) and I. At
this point i hadn't eaten much and didn't care to because of my
doxycycline or food poisoning. I did get down some sticky rice
though. We went off again on a little paddle power canoe up a bit
further and did some fishing. A long skinny net with floaties on
top (to keep afloat..) and weights on the bottom so it would hang
right in the water. Throw in a little cove area quietly, then make
your way into the cove, then whach a big bamboo pole in the water
to scare the fish into the net. we did this for an hour or so and
it was pretty good. This was how the little village got their
family fish. And, i was like "wow, i'm floating on the Mekong in
some little village out in nowhere, fishing with a net, watching
buffalo eat on the banks below giant hills". It was a pretty great
feeling. When we got back, the men of the village had finished
construction of a house for the day, and were sitting around
drinking their own fermented Lao Lao, Laos whisky, out of big
ceramic pots with long bamboo straws. They were all happy when the
white guys had a couple pulls on the straws too. It was fermented
with sticky rice. I think the whole village was based around sticky
rice. they sustained themselves by being rice farmers, and now was
the time of year to do things in the village cuz there was no rice
to tend to. So, it varied in strengths, depending on how much they
had drunk, because they only let it get down to a certain level,
and then top it up with water. So, the more that has been drunk,
the less potent it becomes. This stuff kind of tasted like whisky
wine. Not super strong, and pretty dry. Good enough. It was nice to
sit and watch the village and how it all works. Electricity by
generator, wash yourself by a tap, and pigs and chickens and kids
running around all over. Dinner time came, and we had some chicken
(whole cooked with his head curved around with the expression on
it's 'face', or beak, that looked like he was mimicking a death
scene from a horror movie), along with some hot pepper dip, some
soup that had stuff (?) in it, the little whole bbq'd fish we'd
caught, and of course sticky rice. Always sticky rice. The little
fish was crispy and good, and i was happy to have eaten whole fish
for the first time. Kohm said they were having a party in our honor
that night, so a lot of they guys in the village had dinner in the
house with us. They had beer there, which Tobias and i each bought
a bunch from them to kickstart their economy and to share with
people for the dinner. I also broke out my Myanmar cigars that i
had bought (40 for $0.60) and they seemed to be liked, or at least
they were interesting and different. After that, we danced to the
sound of traditional, or pop (can you really tell?) laos music
where the guys taught us to dance, laos style. Lots of dipping and
waving your hands like you're a hula dancer. The guys thought it
was funny cuz they'd never seen white people dance, and some of the
girls would come dance near us, or giggle and blush when their
friends tried to push them towards us. It was a good night. Had a
shot of really strong Lao Lao, or gasoline, can't tell the
difference, but that's all i could stomach as i still wasn't
feeling %100. Luckily Tobias still represented the white man well.
bed early as we were tired and were lulled to sleep by the soft
humming of the generator (sarcasm?). The next day we left early as
Kohm was heading back to luang Prabang to pay his teacher there in
rice, and Tobias and i continued onwards to Nong Khiaw. Back down
the river, with the current this time, where we split with Kohm and
continued east. So, was it all too good to be true? Was it just a
good time in a little village, a truly unique experience? yes and
no. Unique experience, yes, good show of Laos village life, yes,
just a nice guy inviting to his village? Not so sure. Although Kohm
was a really nice guy, and i didn't pick up any scamming qualities
in him, Tobias and i each had stuff stolen while there. Tobias had
a cell phone and charger taken and money, and i, just money. It was
enought to make us feel frustrated and me a bit scammed because we
were stolen from. But, neither of us felt too bad, because they
were really poor, Kohm was the only one in the village who was out
of the village to get to school, paying his way in sticky rice, and
we did get put up there with food, so we could have given
something. But that's the difference, given over being taken. We
confronted Kohm about it and all he could do was apologize and say
that people can come and go into his house because his family
insn't always inside. Inside job? I don't know, i'm kind of
leaning towards yes, but what are you gonna do?
Okay, so i'm not caught up, or that close, but i am out of time so
i'm stopping here. That was a long email, that didn't cover much
ground, but a good story, and overall a good time. Unique.
So, tata for now, and i'll write some more quite soon,
mark

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