Buddhas and Baguettes

Good Afternoon from Laos,
It's Thursday evening righ now, here in Vang Viang, Laos. A lot has occured in the past few days, so let's go back.

When I left you last I was in Huay Xai, Laos. The next morning we hopped on a slowboat to go to Pakbeng. The boat was pretty nice, and large. It was staffed by a family of three. Dad was the Captain, Son was the the Helmsman, and Mom looked after everything else (like it or not, thats how things work around here). It was a 7 hour trip of some of the most spectacular scenery I have ever seen. It's been a dream of mine to see the Mekong, and my expectations were exceeded.


We stopped along the way in a small village of 238 on the banks of the river. This village obviously gets close to zero tourists. This was the tour guide's second visit in his 10 years as a guide. He stops at different villages on different trips, depending on the accesability, which varies according to the level of the river (which is always changing).

The village was very, very basic. All the dwellings were made of bamboo, no electricity or other modern amenities. They make a living from slash and burn agriculture. We were told this by the Chief, the only one in the village who speaks Lao (translated by our tour guide, Kum-La). Everyone else in the village speaks the language specific to their ethnicity. I got some fantastic photos too of people in the village. It was a novelty to have a photo taken and shown to them on the little camera screen. Everyone was very hospitable.


After an hour we got back on the boat (where we had lunch). We continued and arrived in small but busy town of Pakbeng in the late afternoon. Pakbeng is a tradin town on the river, a common stopover. It has electricty for 1 hour in the morning and 5 hours in the evening (7am-8am, and 6:30pm-11:30pm). I woke up before sunrise (5:30) to go see the market opening up and spend some time in town before we left. The roosters didn't seem to mind helping me get up. It was kinda eerie that early in the morning. The mountains were shrouded in clouds up and down the river(as they are much of the way). It was very quiet, another one of those "I'm very far from home" feelings. I had a great bowl of noodle soup in the market for breakfast (I'm really liking the spicy noodle soup for breakfast thing). I wandered around the market for a bit, which was really cool. I took a walk through town too, and was greeted by countless school children with a "Sabaidee!" (which means "hello").





We got on the boat and made our way to Luang Prabang. We made a stop at a Hmong village (which does get tourists). I picked up some souvenirs. I also got to taste Lao Lao, aka "Mekong Moonshine." Boy, is that stuff strong! It's made from fermented and distilled sticky rice, pure burn all the way down. I got a bottle of that. They just use old bottles and fill em up. A 750mL for about a $1.20.

We got back on the boat and later stopped at the Pak Ou caves, which were cool. My camera battery died so I didn't get any photos.

A little later we arrvied in Luang Prabang. The whole city is a UNESCO World Heritage site, so nothing can be demolished. It has 32 temples, and Saffron robed Buddhist Monks everywhere. It also is filled with Colonial French architecture. You can still feel the French influence, baguette sandwiches are everywhere. Near one temple I saw a group of Lao guys playing Petanque (a French lawn bowling game). It's a bit odd to see the heavy French influence in Asia, but I guess I'll be seeing more.

Much of my time in the town was spent exploring. The temples are really amazing. I got a chance to see the monks in the early morning collecting alms (rice given by the locals).


(I'm a bit pressed for time, so I'll kind give a rather brief overview of what lese I did)

I spent time at the Night Market which was cool, and did a bit of souvenir shopping. I also visited waterfalls outside the town. I forget the name now, but it was very powerful and a lot of fun to see.



I also ate of course.

I had a little sparrow which was really good, covered in a soy-based sauce. You eat the whole thing.


I had plenty of noodle soup. You get herbs like mint and basil, veggies like green beans and watercress and condiments. The condiments include dry chili, chili sauce, sugar, fish sauce and I can't remember what else. It's always tasty and cheap (about 1 dollar).


Me and a few of my like-minded fellow travellers also had a bit of a pig-out on street food. These delicacies included grilled pork intestines which were really tasty. They were a crispy in parts and soft in others, with a great sauce.


Bits of pork belly on a stick were also really good. It was grilled with chopped garlic on it. One of the best things of the trip. We all know how much I like pork fat and how much I like meat on a stick. Put the two together and you have perfection.


Grilled fish was really tasty. It was grilled whole. It was a freshwater fish (Laos is landlocked) and very fresh (one could tell it wass caught the same day).


There was also these little eggs wrapped with minced meat and spices wrapped in a leaf. Also, we had a sort of pâté wrapped in a leaf. It had ground pork with liver and spices and was pressed into a small loaf. That wasn't my favorite thing.


This morning we took a very uncomfortable mini-bus ride to Vang Viang. It's stopover for Vientiane. We spend 2 nights here. The ride was ver, very uncomfortable. The first 3 or so hours went through the mountains. It was very, very steep and twisty. You could see parts where half the road had just fallen of the side of the mountain in landslides, and other parts where landslides had covered half the road. Not a very reassuring feeling when you have to dodge these obstacles. The rest of the trip was not as steep or twisty. However, it was much, much more bumpy. The road seemed to radnomly go from paved to dirt. This part was very unpleasant too. We finally made it though. I'll be checking out the town tomorrow.

Well that does it for me. I hope everyone is well at home. It's great to be able to hear form you all via your e-mails and comments.

Take care,

Mike