A NEW YEAR IN LAOS
(KHMER TALES PART 3)
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January 1 - Happy New Year! But, before we tell you about New Year's Eve, we'll bring you up to date. We spent Christmas in Udomxai, a good town for a little R&R after some hard travelling in the north. I'm dreaming of a lush green Christmas... Leaving Udomxai, we go to the "bus station" a large dirt parking area with many trucks and a few buses to find a truck leaving in 25 minutes for Nong Khiaw. I run to a food stall (which are all around the edges of the "bus station") and order fried noodles and vegetables to go. Ten minutes later, I am given a bag containing a pair of chopsticks and two smaller plastic bags, each with a great tasting breakfast. Off we go to Nong Khiaw! It's a beautiful ride up and down the mountains, through lush green valleys. The mountains are karst limestone (I think that's what it's called) and very similar to what you see in Guilin, China along the Li River. Craggy, sharp mountains in all sorts of interesting shapes. Little villages line the side of the road along the way. I stand on the tailgate of the truck for a while so that I can get a good view of the passing scenery.
Arriving in Nong Khiaw, it is immediately obvious why so many people recommend it. Simply beautiful surroundings of mountains and the Nam river. All the guesthouses in town are very basic. Electricity from 6:00Pm to 9:00Pm, shared bathroom with squat toilet, no hot water and the bedrooms are just big enough for a bed with a mosquito net and a little space for your pack. But, one of the most peaceful and serene places we have visited. A very friendly couple run the guesthouse where we stay. We spend evenings there relaxing around a table on the porch, watching the world and drinking Naam Saa - warm weak tea. The man shares a glass of lao lao (the local firewater) with us. The woman comes over to me and then Lois with two pieces of string and ties one around each wrist while saying a little incantation. We didn't understand all she said, but it was basically for good luck for her new friends. When the lights go out at 9:00, it's time for bed... 12/26 Those of you that know me might find this hard to believe or worry about my mental state, but I get up at sunrise and take a walk around. Stores are beginning to open, people sit around wood fires on the streets (don't want a fire in a bamboo house!) to keep warm, women are starting to do some cooking and there is a fog slowly lifting from the surrounding mountains. There is a thin, transparent layer of it over the river. The water is moving downstream and the mist is being blown upstream. Simply amazing. We decide to check out a waterfall that is supposed to be less than two hours away. After two hours of walking, we see a nice pond with water lillies and take a few photos and then continue looking for the waterfall. After two and a half hours, we haven't found it yet. Did it exist? Was it off the road somewhere and we missed the turn off? Who knows, but we had a nice walk on a road with little traffic passing through a number of small villages. There seems to be a "falang alert" system in place (falang = frenchman = foreigner). The first kids to see us in any village start shouting "sabai dee" (hello) to us while at the same time, yelling to everyone else in the village, "falang, falang". Then kids come streaming out of all the houses to shout "sabai dee" to us for as long as we are in sight. 12/27, 9:35am. Waiting for the 9:00am truck to leave for Luang Prabang. Hopefully, we'll leave by 10:00. We spend the time driving back and forth from the "pier" to the "bus station" looking for more passengers. The good news is we get to sit in the cab which is much more comfortable. The bad news? We don't leave until 11:00. Along the way, we see signs that the government is spending money to improve the infrastructure and services for the people (or is it the tourists?). In one spot, they are patching potholes in the road. Tar which is heated in 50 gallon oil drums with a wood fire underneath is poured into the pothole. There is a truck with gravel that workers, carrying bamboo buckets, walk up to. Someone shovels gravel into their bucket and they carry it to the pothole. The gravel is spread over the tar and finally, a hand operated steam roller finishes the job. Arriving in Luang Prabang is a shock to the system - a huge city - population 20,000! We've been in such remote areas that by contrast, this is like Manhattan. We see hundreds of tourists, many internet cafes, bakeries, restaurants with english menus etc. It is so different from our previous experiences of Laos. Luckily, the people are still very friendly and gracious, not yet tired of tourists. The next day, we walk down the street looking for a breakfast spot. The market ends up winning, hands down. We see a lady selling freshly made spring rolls while you wait and buy 4 for 20 cents. A little further along we buy 5 small, sweet dumplings made from fried rice flour for 10 cents. Tasty enough to buy another 5! Next is a lady with cold fried noodles for 10 cents. She takes a piece of banana leaf, uses a tooth pick to form it in the shape of a cup, spoons in some noodles, cilantro, mint leaves, scallions, small dried fish and hot powder. We get out our chopsticks (remember the to-go breakfast in Udomxai) and enjoy the flavor. Luang Prabang is a UNESCO world heritage site due to all the Wats (temples). As we walk around, we understand why. We see a number of indescribably beautiful Wats. Richly decorated with large Buddhas inside. Luang Prabang is also home to the Royal Palace, the former residence of the King. The most interesting part was a room that had showcases with gifts given to the king from governments all over the world. Most were beautiful one-of-a-kind works of art. Ivory carvings, ceramic sculptures etc. The United States, on the other hand, gave a plaque with a Laotian flag that was carried to the moon on one of the Apollo missions and a piece of moon rock encased in crystal. Personally, I felt the gifts from other nations were far more impressive. I left wondering whether the US had given Laos equally beautiful works of art but the Laotians thought the flag and moon rock were more worthy of display or whether that was the best the US could do? 12/30. We get up to see the monk's rice parade. Around 6:30am, after the sun rises, locals go to the sidewalks with large baskets of rice. We see a few monks appear on the street, then a few more, until there is a steady stream of hundreds walking in a single file procession. They have a covered bowl at their side to collect offerings and people give them sticky rice, other foods and gifts. Quite an unusual and impressive sight. From Luang Prabang, we head to Vang Vieng, a very small town that is essentially guesthouses, internet cafes and restaurants. We pay $3 for the nicest room we have had on our trip. Clean, windows on two walls, well lit, well ventilated, good curtains to block out light and good water heater in the shower. This gives you an idea of some of the things that the other rooms might lack! People come to Vang Vieng for the natural beauty, to go tubing down the river, to go caving and to relax. 12/31 We head toward Poukham cave and on the way pass a group of 5 monks (not an uncommon sight). They start speaking with us so we chat for a little while, take a picture and head on. At the cave, we hike/scramble to the entrance about 200 feet up the side of a mountain. It's a huge cave with a reclining Buddha and altar inside. We start exploring with our flashlights and find it is like a 3-dimensional maze. We climb over, under and around various rocks, some the size of small houses. The shapes are varied and mineral deposits shimmer in the beam of our flashlights. We scramble farther and farther back through narrow passageways that open into large caverns. After about 45 minutes, we decide we better head back so that 1) we don't get lost and 2) our batteries don't die. Near the cave is a swimming hole with a rope so you can swing over the water and jump in. There are a few Lao and a few foreigners enjoying the water. We relax for a while and who should arrive but the 5 monks! They join us at our picnic table. It turns out they are visiting Vang Vieng from Vientiane for the New Year and are checking out all the tourist sites. Lois talks to them for a while and I take a dip in the water. We end up sharing a samlor back to Vang Vieng with them. They tell us the name of their Wat in Vientiane and invite us to visit them. Stay tuned to see what happens... Meanwhile, we get back to our guesthouse and the owner has a powerful set of speakers blasting Lao music and a long table with chairs. He is throwing a party for friends and invites us to join them. He puts all the foreigners at a separate table. The Lao men are sitting together eating and the Lao women are cooking. Later on, the Lao women sit down, but men and women stay segregated. The music is blasting, they have a keyboard player and people take the mike and sing. Beers and more beers are poured. People start dancing. At first, it is men only. They sort of step/sway side to side in rhythm with the music while moving their hands at the wrist. Next, the women join in. Eventually, we get invited to join in. We decide not to show them our zydeco. The dancing protocol appears to be you start by facing your partner and give them a wai - a little bow of the head while the palms of the hands are pressed together like in prayer. The dancing then begins, never touching, just swaying side to side and moving the hands. At the end of the song, they give each other another wai. I think most of them got a kick out of watching us try to mimic their dancing. I know we did. One friendly woman gave Lois and a swiss traveler some lessons in proper hand movements. When we get back, Lois will demonstrate. The party started breaking up around 10:00pm and everyone was gone by 11:00. So, no countdown to midnight, but a memorable New Year's Eve all the same.Happy New Year 2002