Advertisement
Published: August 30th 2006
Hongsa
girl saying hello - "Sabaadee" in Lao in search of elephants
As we treat the
lonely planet guide books as our travelling bible, we followed its advice to a
place that was highlighted on the
Laos guide as a bullet on the map in north Laos. it is a good place to see some
elephants working in a place called Hongsa. we didn't at all suspect anything bad although it was not mentioned in our
South-Asia Lonely-Planet or in the Laos guides from "rough-guide" and "footprint". at the end going to Hongsa was like choosing randomly a point on the map and going there...
it took us 10 hr of painful slow boat riding just to get to nowhere - a place we were told we
can find a ride to Hongsa. a little hungry but very
optimistic about the elephants we found ourselves climbing up the hills with some other locals
(no westerns! - first alarm sign) just to find a small truck that will take us to Hongsa (we
where told it will take 1 hr max). after we all got on the small truck (women, children, pigs,
bags
Hongsa
the only elephants we saw were on this bag and us) we started a 3 hr trip in a ruined muddy way, including twice being stuck in the
mud! way after the night came, and way past our dinner/lunch time we arrived.
We found a small village. the book recommended a few places to stay. the first had no sign
on and no-one inside, the second didn't want to let us in. since we didn't find any English
speaker we walked until we found somewhere we could spend the night in. he even took us
to the only place open to eat. we ordered what was left and were able to eat only parts of it.
we hoped we will not vomit it in the middle of the night. the chickens and dogs ran free in the
kitchen and we are not sure when was the last time the plates were washed.
sleeping in the smelly room was eased by the incant we lit..
in the morning we went to the recommended and only cafe in the village hoping to get some
nice breakfast. apparently, it was closed long ago and we end up in
the market to find we can
buy some dry cookies and cans of coffee and orange juice
although in the morning everything looks a little better, we still couldn't find any English
speaker to tell us where we can find the elephants. it isn't our first time as the only westerns
in a place with no English speakers, but it is the first time doing it with out a phrase book and
without an idea where to go. in China, even when we were the only westerners around there
were always some Chinese tourist. here there was no tourists at all and no tourist
infrastructure. no restaurants, no public transport just a random place on the map!
Yaron's good instincts led us to the place they treat the elephants that get sick. lucky for
them and for our misery , no elephants were sick that day so we didn't see any. actually we
did see 2. A men invited us to his home just to try to sell us a bag with elephants on it.
still hungry and upset we decided to leave
Luang Prubang
notice the sticky rice in his mouth Hongsa and continue to the Thai border.
surprise! it is easier to get there then to leave. the only bus leaves at 8AM. to a town 1hr
from there (Tha Song). the only ride out of Tha Song is at 5PM - a 2hr boat ride up the
Mekong to Pak-Beng where you have to stay the night just in order to continue the following
day with 10 more hours until the city across the river from Thailand. the slow boats arrives
AFTER the boarder is closed so you have to stay one more night in Laos before leaving...
alms giving
We woke 6:00AM to watch the monks collect their alms. It was a strong experience for me
(Hagit).
At first, i could see only the surface area of the deed. Monks at all ages have to wake up early
and to go barefoot with their collecting bowl in the streets, passing locals that put food and
money in the bowls. it looked very sad to me. why does it have to be so early, why barefoot,
why don't they get
Luang Prubang
woman ofering food as alms to a novice monk all the food in a concentrated way inside the Watt? what if the last in line
don't get enough food, what will he eat that day?
(I was really concerned of this) why should the locals get up so early, and why do they feed the monks? when if they don't come?
i was very confused and with tears in my eyes i started thinking that in the past, monks
travelled in the world and were fed by the locals, that getting up early and walking in order to
get their food means they have to work for it and not to as a "free meal", locals that feeding
the monks feel that they give the monks back something for them doing the hard worshiping
work.
it is a very nice why of the relationship between the religious people and the lay-people. the
religious ones give the service of lifetime devotion to the people and in return the people
give the monks everything they need. and they all do it early in the morning so not to
trivialize the whole thing
Luang Prubang
at 6AM monk walk arround town and get alms from the people Suddenly i was very satisfied with what i saw. it would be nice if such a relationship would
happen between religion and people in the rest of the world but unfortunately in many parts
of the world religious people take advantage of the people and get there money by fource
from the people or directly from the government and in return they are sometimes seen as
parasites instead of the people being grateful for their service as is in Laos
countryside jet leg
when we are in the country side we go to sleep soon after sunset and wake up with the
birds. the lack of nightlife and electricity is the reason. when we get back to the city we are in
a real jet-leg. we have a hard time going out to get a drink before going to sleep for a few
days and we cannot even stay up late for a movie in one of the cafes. then we pack our bags
and go out to the countryside again and have to deal with the rosters early in the morning
again.
Luang Prubang
standing in line to get donations final stretch
almost at the end. with 80%!o(MISSING)f our trip behind us we are entering the final stretch 😞
we are not homesick at all and if it was not for the countless (and sometimes exciting) things
waiting for us at home we could go on for many months more.
only one thing we can say has started to take it's toll on us- the long rides. any ride we need
to stay in 1 chair for more then 4 hr is becoming too difficult for us. (and to think only 3
months ago we had 50hr train rides!)
we now count
9 long legs to go on this trip and to bypass the need for long bus rides we
have flight tickets for
5 of them and we plan to buy
2 more flights on the way!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.077s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 10; qc: 19; dbt: 0.0275s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Lee Kay
non-member comment
Now that is Travel!
I really liked you saving the best part of the story for the very end- the Kif Kef chocolate bar. That's the essence of travelling, IMHO. Nice pictures from Luang Prubang and the waterfalls, and the "BASA" look on your faces in the Hongsa part really bring the story to life. How many Banana Boat tubes did you use so far? Did you bring enough? Waterfall picture tip- if you can control your exposure speed, take two shots of each scene- one with the slowest speed you can handle (use a tripod or a tree to go down to 1/8 or 1/4 if you can) and one at the fastest light allows (1/500, or even more for big waterfalls). The difference between the milky blurring and the frozen water drops can be fascinating.