We decided we had to get out of Luang Prabang over Christmas and New Years because the place fills up with people jetting in from all over Europe and with expats who live and work in Southeast Asia.
We first went to a sleepy little village called Nong Khiew about a three hour drive away by minivan over bumpy narrow roads. We were heading into the mountains and passed through many villages on the way. We actually booked a bungalow ahead because being the holidays we wanted to make sure we got something.
Nong Khiew is basically two villages, one on each side of a river connected by a large bridge. The first is bigger and has a dusty main street lined with shops whose merchandise is covered in dust. One evening while we were there we walked the main street and some of the little lanes off of it. We came to sideless tents on the sidewalk set up for a party with tables and chairs and a big sound system. Adjacent there were many people flowing out of a house/business with a big open front. They were all kneeling and looking toward about 6 monks. They were doing a call and answer chant with the monks. Beside them there was a replica of a house on stilts with garish christmas lights and money pinned to the outside as well as gifts inside. When we got back to our guesthouse we were told it was a funeral which is always followed by a large party with lots of drinking of laolao.
The other side had a much more pituresque village where most of the restaurants and guesthouses were.
Our bungalow was fantastic and the people who ran it had a baby about 8 months old that seemed to really like us so we played with her a lot. There wasn't too much to do but we took a long walk and hung out on our balcony reading. It was awfully misty and cold till nearly noon, warm in the afternoons and cold again in the evenings. All of the restaurants are open air so we so we sat huddled under all the warm clothes we have and drinking hot cups of Laos tea in the mornings and in the evenings the same except we tried to pick things on the menu that would be really hot and remain so while we were eating. It turns out we hit the coldest days of the year one of which was Christmas day.
After two nights we walked over the bridge and down to the boat landing , decending the many stairs to the waters edge. We were on the early side so a line up began to form behind us. By the time the boat was scheduled to leave the line up had become larger than the capacity of the boat which is always a scary thing because you don't know if they'll try to squeeze everyone in and it'll sink along the way.
We sat on boards about ten inches from the bottom running the length of the boat after passing luggage hand over hand along to the back.
The ride was about one and a half hours long and through some of the most spectacular scenery we've seen to date. Karst mountains and rapids and little sandbar islands leading us to the little village of Muang Ngoi. A village with no motor vehicles and one dusty steet and little lanes down to the water.
We walked up the many steps and took the first place we saw which turned out to be a good deal as we later found out. We were on the second floor corner with a huge balcony running the length of the building to read and relax on. Cindy and Tom gave us the tip of asking for corner rooms as they usually have windows on two sides and are bigger and nicer for some reason. There were only three hours of power in the evenings and even with the light we had to use our reading lights. The amazing thing though is that in a small village in very rural Laos people were making power with small units submerged in moving water.
I think we stayed for three nights although we had planned to stay longer but by then we were getting tired of the cold. One fantastic thing about cold in morning and evening though is that there were no biting bugs. Yeah!!!!!
We cased out the restaurants, breakfast on the main street and our evening meals in a restaurant that jutted out over the water below us. Both open air. The evening restaurant was one of the most popular spots because it had a bar to rival one anywhere with a long happy hour and hugh warm duvets to wrap up in while sitting on little platforms, lazing on pillows. Good place to socialize too. Met lots of interesting people from all over the world. The best for me though were the staff. All kids between nine and ten years old except for one fourteen year old about the size of a ten year old at home.
Tom and Cindy have a dice game called close thje box and before leaving home I figured out how to make it using playing cards from 1-9 of the deck. It's a game using numbers,easy to learn and teach. It also gives me an opportunity to learn the numbers of whichever country we're in and to teach the numbers in English to other people. The kids loved it and we kept games running all through both evenings only interrupted by their running off to serve or clear tables or other such chores. I had clued in that if I went early to drink tea they would have time to learn before it got busy. It was really interesting how each kid learned the game and how very uncompetitive they were, more or less playing against themselves instead of each other. Lots of high fives and big grins all around. Also gave them a chance to be kids even while working. I'm happy to say the next day I saw them all dressed in their school uniforms and off to school which worried me when I saw them working. Education is really valued here though.
During the days we walked in the countryside to a series of villages, one which was straight out of national goegraphic. We refrained from taking many pictures with people in them because we felt it wasn't fair. Here they are just trying to carry on with daily life and there were tourists traipsing through their villages like they were on display. The first and most interesting village was a long way off and we only reached it at 3pm. Usually we would sit quietly and watch and eventually some curious sole would come and interact with us or the kids come and engage you but we were too nervous about finding ourselves walking in the dark and also about uxo's. They are these bombs that were blanketed over Laos at the end of the Vietnam war. They were designed to break apart in the air and send hundreds of 'bombies' over an entire area which can explode outwards about 20 meters when stepped on or picked up. Bad isn't it? They are a huge problem in Laos and I've heard of one province where one person daily is killed or maimed by one. They are hugely difficult to defuse and take a very long time to clear a small area. I've heard that at the present rate of clearance it will take 150 years to be free of them. They are also buried in fields and can come to the surface like rocks do in your garden.
We had only a small chat with a man that had a small homestay in the village and he told us that something has to change because no good can come of people coming through. I half considered going back and getting supplies and returning to set up an small English school kit that they could encourage travelers to contribute to or stay and volunteer but it was hard to figure out how to do it. Maybe another time.
Coming and going we had to take off our shoes and socks and wade through cold water three times each way. On the way we had met a long line of hill tribe ladies all with fishing nets. We exchanged sabaai-dees. On the way back they were returning but had caught no fish. I had the camera out when we saw them and they asked to see the pictures of their village. The only ones with people in them were a few with school kids and their teacher. They gave me a thumbs up and I think it was because we didn't take pictures of people. They declined having their pictures taken although we had taken one of their backs when we first encountered them.
The next day we rambled around again and on the way home in late afternoon we encountered a girl. Philip quickly went ahead so that we didn't make her uncomfortable as we were far from any village. I started chatting with her and she indicated she couldn't speak any English. I caught on though that she could understand quite a bit and after she go more comfortable she spoke a bit.
She was twelve years old and stunningly beautiful. Hermname was Oown, pronounced something like the number one in French. She had been gathering wild greens for supper. Her mother was dead and she cooked and cleaned and washed clothes for her family which consisted of her brother and father and herself. She had such a quiet dignity about her but my heart was soon bleeding. After we parted ways I told Philip I wanted to help her and we agreed on an amount of money I would give her. We walked back to her house and her brother, probably a 10 year old was digging a foundation next door and he fetched her for us. I tried to explain that I wanted to help her and that she was a really lovely girl. She allowed me to take her picture and she thanked us while keeping that amazing dignity she had. I later worried that I had taught her to expect things from tourists and now she might start asking and it might change the path of her life but I justified it to myself by knowing my intentions were good and she could use the help.
We got up on the last morning and had a quick breakfast before heading down the stairs to wait for the boat. It's fun to show up early and just soak up all the activity. There were four women carrying bag after bag of what we think was dry cement on their backs up the incline. There was a boat loading up people dressed in their best and monks and bags of gifts of food and tobacco, heading upriver to a funeral. There was a woman washing a huge tub of clothes in the river and people getting their boats ready to go fishing.
After the boat ride we went to the 'bus station', a dusty ticket booth on the edge of the village and bought a ticket on the next bus. It turned out the bus was a huge sathewngthaew and right down the middle of the passenger space was a row of huge bamboo baskets filled with oranges covered with banana leaves. This left very little room for anyone's feet. It got really crowded as usual with people hanging off the back and climbing over each other and women nursing babies. We had a long, bumpy, dusty and wonderful ride back to Luang Prabang for an overnight before heading south to warmer places.
I don't mean to make fun of anyone's English but we must sound so funny to them and we have so many accents, Japanese, French, Australian, Spanish etc. The picture of the sign is typical and they can be quite hilarious at times.
Check out the road works too, the folks were digging a road by hand on the side of a mountain!
