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Published: January 29th 2010
A slightly delayed departure from the hotel this morning ... we forgot to empty our safety deposit box!! Before taking the road to the hills, we made a couple of final stops in Vientiane: Nicky and James will be delighted to know that we visited the Laotian equivalent of the Arc de Triomphe (!!), before visiting a golden temple.
The next phase of our journey was the Laos equivalent of driving through Lincolnshire - lots of little roadside villages interspersed with agricultural land. Mainly rice fields but other crops too, evidenced by sheets set out to dry guarva, chillis and reeds. One strange sight was 90 monks dressed in their orange robes blessing the opening of a bank!
As we climbed higher and higher and moved ever closer to the Vietnamese border it was good that we had regular stops with interesting things to see.
• A viewpoint overlooking a mass of craggy limestone mountains showing a glimpse of the lowlands beyond.
• At the Shell station - a truck with eight metal barrels on the back being filled with petrol by the lady attendant who’d climbed on top.
• A market selling food, clothing and Chinese medicines
and herbs to cure all ills, one fascinating bottle contained a cobra holding a scorpion in its mouth. We had a good time discussing the uses of some of the male/female-shaped seed pods with the older lady stall-holders - lots of smutty giggling!!
We arrived at our homestay village in style ... travelling by rocket boat! These are long thin boats that have been made out of jettisoned B52 fuel tanks from the American bombing campaign that are powered by outboard motors. We went at quite a rate of knots, and it was quite a relief to be out in the cool, fresh air after being in the van for such a long time.
We approached the homestay village with a great feeling of trepidation. The village, Sopyung in the Hin Boun Region, has only been on the near side of the river since 1975. Previously it had been on the far side nearer the mountains, but was heavily bombed and there is still the ever-dangerous UXO. There were all sorts of animals, goats, pigs, dogs, cats and, of course, ducks and chickens (the roosters didn’t look to promise a lie-in next morning!). The villagers generally ignoring us
except for a polite greeting.
We congregated at the head man’s house, as all the others built on stilts out of wood/bamboo, around a central water tap from the well. We relaxed for a while with a beer and the card school, as well as one of us sitting with the women weaving (guess which one!!). A delicious meal was cooked on an open fire, and then the women set about getting out the bedding for night - putting out thin mattresses, blankets and mosquito nets. There were 4 of us to each hut, and for some strange reason we were voted into the snorers’ hut!!
We sat with the older women looking at their woven goods and then John showed them photos from home on the laptop - they were fascinated by the pictures of the snow! (They were also mightily amused at the picture of Paul in his Winnie the Poo hat!!) (sorry son!)
Eventually it was time to turn in, and we found we were surprisingly sleepy and were drifting off to the sound of the women trying the stifle the giggles every time they heard someone snore...
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Nicky
non-member comment
Is there an Arc de Triomphe here?
So pleased you managed to find one. Wouldn't have been a proper holiday without! Sounds like you're having a marvellous time. It's freezing here, so you're definitely in the right place. xxx