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Published: February 10th 2015
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But here we are in Vientiane smooth as silk and happy to be landed safe and sound, Air Asia's woes receding into the background.
That seamless early morning journey found me sat next to a Lao diplomat from the consulate in Brunei. Educated in Economics and Politics in Moscow, a polyglot speaking Lao, Russian, English, and Japanese. Those were the ones he told me about.
Not on official business he said. After a few days he would be driving home to Luang Prabang to see his elderly father. A return to where he grew up.
Conversation flowed onto the Laos state of political affairs. He said that promises which the government had made to the Asian Economic Community (AEC) to increase the standard of living for the Lao people by 2020 have caused the government to utilise what they have most of. Wood and water. Progress to improve economic development.
I ventured to talk about The Rocket an Australian made film about the displacement of Hmong tribes by the construction of dams to provide hydro-electric power to all. Well to the Chinese and Vietnamese anyway. He didn’t admit to knowledge of the film but did to the
idea that there are many people who do not wish to change so rapidly. Forced to change their traditional ways of life, the Hmong are some of the most marginalised people. Living on the fringes of Lao society, in settlements built for them by the government.
We later heard from Joe, our opinionated friend from Maylin, that it is not purely from displacement but for the government to keep an eye on them.
Ironically my diplomatic friend showed me some photos of a dam near Luang Prabang where a friend of his nearly drowned when they were playing in the river as boys, the spot now covered in sand, gravel and construction.
I learnt that, together with Cambodia, Laos has recently joined the AEC which consists of ten nations. He laughed ruefully admitting that both were the poorest nations but trying to work together to make some meaningful strides in economy.
He said a friend of his owned a guesthouse in Luang Prabang called Somjith Guesthouse and to say that you had met his friend from Brunei, no names were exchanged. Maybe he was the ambassador, although he had told me that he has no choice
in his postings although they do seem to have been rather plum, Kuwait and Japan.
Later Graeme and I sat outside the National Museum in Vientiane(closed) in the shaded verandah on rickety benches watching the preparations for the New Year’s celebrations across the road at the newly renovated but not completed People’s Cultural Hall gleaming with gold paint in the afternoon sun. Yellow chairs and tables spread over the gardens where my diplomatic friend said the President would make a speech and then there would be fireworks.
We visited Talat Sao, the day market where stalls upon stalls displayed silken lengths of skirt material with their exquisitely embroidered hems. I resisted and bought instead a UV protected lined umbrella instead to shade my delicate skin from any possible doxycyclin sensitivity.
Having snaffled an old copy of a Lonely Planet bible we had our first lunch in a Lao restaurant. With two words at my command, hello and thank you, our choices were limited to the not so appealing photos.
Luckily they tasted much better than the unappetising photos. A spicy papaya salad and a traditional Lao chicken noodle broth with fresh vegetables.
Night market preparations in full swing we sauntered back to our bungalow at Sala Inpeng for a kip – sleep not money – two very early mornings in a row and a further hour’s time change had done for us. Hate to admit – we’re not so young anymore!
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RENanDREW
Ren & Andrew
Chilli-ness
Is the Lao food spicy? I can see a few chillies in the papaya salad, but the noodle soup looks decidedly un-spicy.