Wed - November 12, 2003

Text from Laos




Well unfortunately for Laos (and for us), we went there after 4 months of travel including a very tiring trip through Vietnam.  So we didn't really have the energy to do much or go to many places.  It's too bad because it appears to be a beautiful and interesting place to visit.  The limited places we saw in the middle-north between Vientiane and Luang Prabang were beautiful but others say that it is much more beautiful in other areas.  The people we met were very accomodating and gentle, which was quite striking after the "insistent" sellers of Vietnam.  Laos was very laid back and quite undeveloped, somewhat like Burma.  There is a saying in the region that the Vietnamese plant rice, the Cambodians watch it grow and the Laotians listen to it grow.  It gives you an idea.  We also read that culturally, Laotians are very keen to avoid stress and pressure.  I should recommend that Development and Peace ONLY hire Laotian managers!

After the cool, refreshing weather of northern Vietnam, the return to the heat of Vientiane was hard to take.  While not able or willing to do major travelling, a visit to Laos has to include the second city of Luang Prabang, a UNESCO world site as it was a former capital city and is full of Buddhist wats.  But we were, as I say, all watted out from Thailand and Burma.  Well, wat the heck, we'd go there anyway and stop along the way at the well-known tourist getaway called Vang Vieng. 

Fortunately, Pierre's hemmorhoids from Vietnam disappeared in the meantime.  Given that his pain and discomfort tolerance level is minus 10, he went to every pharmacie he could find.  But our Vietnamese phrase book didn't have the translation for hemmorhoids in it so he was left to try to explain with various gestures indicating his rear end.  One pharmacist made a valiant effort to help the obviously suffering traveller.  She brought stuff for diarrhea. He turned her down.  Then she brought stuff for constipation and he again had to say no.  Finally, he decided to use his artistic talents and make a drawing complete with signs of redness and surrounding pubic hair.  So the pharmacist brought him eye drops.  He gave up and bought the eye drops just in case.  But with time and various facial creams, he was back to normal.

By this time, we were travelling almost all the time with our friends from Australia, Kim and Kate.  We would usually send them ahead to scout things out and see what we could do.  But they are younger and have more energy and are just starting their trip, right?  And we were having difficulty just keeping up to them when it came time for cocktails before supper...they are Australian after all.  But we showed our greater skill in the dog meat eating where Kate turned a few shades of blue.  Well, we've been having quite a hoot with them since the bus ride up the coast of Vietnam.  So all of us took a pickup truck converted to transport from Vientiane to Vang Vieng and discovered a nice snack along the way: a white beet shaped root that tasted like a cross between an apple and a potato.  And it had to be peeled so was safe to eat raw.  But there are just so many odd and different types of food that we can try.  I would be a good idea to find a local person who would accompany us to market, buy a bunch of strange stuff and go cook it somewhere.  At least Pierre will hopefully take a cooking course in Koh Chang later this month.



The scenery around Vang Vieng was spectacular.  Craggy limestone mountains stuck up out of the landscape like some scene from "Lord of the Rings".  A small, gentle river flowed by the town and we got a Guesthouse with a great view, a bit grungy and full of some scuzzy tourists but cheap and situated right beside the market.  We had heard two versions of what V V was like, some lauding its beauty and laid back nature but others criticizing the style of tourism that prevailed there.  We quickly agreed with both views.  It was beautiful and the town and market were interesting and laid back.  We would tour the market to see all the interesting and weird things for sale: lots of wild things (unfortunately for the environment of the area) such as antelope, a variety of porcupine, python, turtle, squirrels, unknown rodents, frogs, and the more usual catfish, other fish, ducks and chickens, porc, beef. 



But when we got to the beach area and river bank we saw the other side.  Tourists throwing their garbage into the river, playing music from at least two sources that blasted over the entire area, behaving "without due respect to the Lao culture" (meaning lots of undress and physical contact in public) and generally being pigs.  I even saw one slob proposing, through gestures, to have sex with an mature women who was serving food at her restaurant.  She was not amused.  Neither were we.

So, while we enjoyed ourselves quite a bit and had a great few hours on tire tubes floating down the river with time out to explore a cave in one of the mountain sides, we were happy to move on to Luang Prabang, where things were considerably more to our liking and also quite beautiful along the banks of the Mekong.

Our first and eventually only real activity in the area was to go to a waterfall first by boat along the Mekong and then by a pick-up through the countryside.  The water was cold but it was a beautiful place to enjoy and take a dip.  We climbed almost to the top of a terraced falls and found a beautiful pool that looked like it had been contructed for swimming.  Fortunately, the rocks all around had great grip and we could climb all over them like geckos.  We also had a stop at the entrance to the site where they keep a young tiger that had been seized from poachers.  Even at 1 year old, it was huge but we could pet it through the cage, a real thrill. Even Pierre had the nerve to scratch its head but he kept repeating this annoying "Puddy, puddy, puddy" all the time.



Despite the more peaceful and basically unknown nature of the country, it too suffered a great deal during the war against French colonialism and especially during the Vietnam war, also known as the American war.  The Americans dropped over 2 million metric tonnes of bombs on the country during a 10 year period, that means one bomber every 8 minutes, every day, for 10 years.  It also cost the US taxpayer $2 million per day, every day, for 10 years.  About 30% of the bombs didn't explode, not during the 10 years anyway.  They remained to haunt, to cripple and to kill until even today.  From 1993 - 1997 alone 14,000 injuries and 5 495 deaths were counted due to these "previously" unexploded bombs.  In addition, in a country with limited arable land, large areas are still prohibited zones because they are not safe.

But we didn't venture too far afield and only enjoyed the town life, especially in the evening when they blocked off the main street and converted it into a market and food fair.  Even during the 3 days when there was no electricity, everything was done by candle light.  It was a beautiful atmosphere and Pierre did a fair bit of shopping, especially cloth.

But soon we were back on the bus to Vientiane.  I'd wanted to take the boat along the Mekong but the only thing available was this high speed long boat, for about $200 US.  No thanks.  Vientiane is a nice place too and there is a relaxing place to have a drink or eat along the banks of the Mekong.  There's even a big outdoor aerobics class every evening.  Well, we certainly could have used a bit of a workout but since we weren't likely to keep it up, it would have been a bit of a waste, right?

We took the night train to Bangkok, a nice trip.  Leaving Laos was no problem but we met a couple of German tourists who had trouble because they only had 3 of the 4 stamps they were supposed to have in their passport when they entered Laos.  The fine was apparently $200 US!  But they only had $88, so that's what they paid.  Poor victims, we thought.  But soon we were rocking in our sleepers arriving in Bangkok at 7 am. 

So now we are writing up our reports, doing last minute shopping and packing our bags.  Then when everything is ready, we can leave for Koh Chang and the final few weeks of relaxation before departure on March 31.  But we should do a final report on the overall trip and our assessment/impressions. 

And we hope that the Security Council rejects the US aggression in the meantime, despite their attempts to bribe, intimidate and threaten the smaller members of the Council.  I'll have to start buying French wine again in support of their position.  (I'd been boycotting them since their last nuclear tests in the Pacific).  And I hope that everyone is or starts boycotting the US and its products.  What they are doing is unacceptable and even former President Jimmy Carter says it is unknown in the history of civilized countries. 

Bye for now,
Trevor Cook & Pierre Simard

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