What a trip

I'm now on my last full day in Laos and what a trip it's been! I think Laos is my favorite country so far: it's beautiful, there aren't as many tourists as other countries and the people are wonderful. I've had some hard experiences- my small camera and Ipod both fell victim to waterfalls and I saw a few things that I really didn't want to see.

I really enjoyed all of the places I've been to with the exception of Vang Vieng. I realized again how many backpackers are heavy drinkers when I went there. Vang Vieng is in a beautiful setting with karst (limestone) mountains set by the river but there's very little to do except drink and inner tube down the river. I got into town at 4:00 p.m., took one look at the scene and got out as quickly as I could. I've been struggling a bit lately because I'm taking doxycycline as an anti-malarial (the areas I've visiting have many problems with malaria, dengue fever and other tropical diseases). Despite liberal and frequent applications of sunscreen, I am still getting sunburned and I wake up in the middle of the night almost every night not knowing where I am or thinking I am somewhere else. In Luang Prabang, I spent about an hour thinking I was outside when I was actually just sitting on the floor of my room. After several nights of this, I was so tired that by the time I reached Vang Vieng, I just about lost it. Thankfully, 12 hours of uninterrupted sleep made me feel much better. I think I may need to switch to another form of anti-malarial treatment.

Luang Prabang was beautiful, and I enjoyed exploring it with my new friends: Nuphar from Israel, Eric from New York and Shane from Ireland. We went to the vat set high on a hill and explored the most incredible waterfalls I've ever seen. They also had an Asian bear preserve next to the waterfall and the bears were really well treated, which made me happy. Unfortunately someone bumped me when I had my camera out and it went flying into the water. I was able to recover my photos and I know the internal mechanics are still working, but I can't get the lens to retract. Hopefully a camera shop will have more luck.

Last week, I had several people tell me that I MUST visit Muong Ngoi, a town reachable only by river. It meant backtracking from Luang Prabang, but I decided I should do it and I'm glad I did. I met a couple, Kelly and Anthony, who grew up in California but now live in New York city. We did everything together for four days and it was great. I've traveled with many people by now but these two were definitely a highlight. Muong Ngoi is stunningly gorgeous, surrounded by mountains and tiny. We stayed in little bungalows right on the river. My bungalow was 25,000 kip, or about $3 per night with double bed and hammock. The town only has power from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. and no internet. The one main road is unpaved and half naked children play with each other and the variety of dogs, cats, chickens and ducks that roam the street. There was one vat, or temple, at the end of the street and four of five novice monks stood around joking and smoking (?!). The monks in the larger towns are very stoic and solemn but in some of the smaller villages, they seem just like any other young boys.

The day after we arrived in Muong Ngoi, we went inner tubing and cave exploring. First we went upriver to a small Hmong town where I bought a scarf and looked at the massive number of scarves and skirts displayed by the villagers for sale to tourists. Next we went to the cave, which was cold and dark and deep, but we were led by our tour guide and flashlights. The cave is filled with water, so we went in on our inner tubes. There were thousands of mud-covered stalactites throughout the cave and it opened up into many different deep, dark passageways. I was freezing by the time we reached our destination but when we finally reentered the river after our foray into the cave, it felt like we were entering hot springs. We floated down the river on our inner tubes until our guide told us that it was time to go (no drinking involved by the way). I loved looking up at the beautiful scenery while being gently conveyed by the river. Back in the village, we changed out of our wet clothes and enjoyed dinner before heading to bed early when the electricity went out for the night.

The next day, we signed up for a trek to a waterfall and Hmong village. I enjoyed the trek but there were several difficult parts of it. The waterfall was stunning but it was about an hour and a half to two hours each way through slippery leech-infested mud. We also walked through several streams and up the side of the waterfall. I only fell 3 or 4 times, which was a vast improvement over the 15 times I fell on the last hike in Luang Nam Tha. Leeches attempted to attach themselves to us multiple times but each time we were able to get them off (after the perfunctory shriek) to get them off before they latched on. We had to do leech checks about every five minutes and I think we were getting a bit paranoid by the end. When we got back to the boat we were offered the option of taking a road to the Hmong village or going through the forest (slippery/leeches). Guess which one we chose.

When we got to the village, which was actually two villages (Hmong and Khmu), we wandered around
and enjoyed the smiles of the locals. The villages are right next to each other, but the houses are very different. A "chief" is chosen every four years for the two villages and alternates between a Hmong and Khmu. The children play together, the adults drink and eat together but they do not intermarry. Hmong marry Hmong and Khmu marry Khmu.  The little children here, as in other places, were either wearing only a shirt, were naked or were wearing split pants. They don't use diapers in the villages, so toddlers and little children don't have full pants. We tried some delicious guavas near our "hut" and had a few shots of Lao Lao, the local whisky, next to the village store. Our guide, Ping, joined us after a while, and said something about eating dog. I didn't realize what he was talking about until I saw a dog's head in a pot a little way up the hill. He was explaining that they drain the blood, which they also drink, and then were going to roast it. I also, unfortunately, saw the dog on the spit. This was not something I wanted to see and I needed a few more shots of Lao Lao to get the image out of my head. The villagers were also eating small birds, still completely intact. My desire to remain vegetarian has strengthened immeasurably after this experience. We left the village to return to our hut and had Lao Lao and dinner (no meat because both Anthony and I are vegetarian and Kelly felt like being vegetarian that night) before heading to bed.

The next morning we had noodle soup and coffee, took photos with the locals and headed back to the river to take a boat to Nong Khiaw and then a Sang Thew to Luang Prabang. When we were getting off the boat, some villagers were transporting to big pigs up a long flight of stairs to a waiting truck. They did this in the most inhumane way possible and we could hear the screams of the pigs for blocks. I didn't watch I plugged my ears but I could still hear them. I know animals are inhumanely treated in the US too, but it's very different to know it, versus seeing it.

We got back to Luang Prabang and met for dinner and the night market. Kelly and Anthony went on their way to Vientiene and I went to Vang Vieng (in hindsight, I should have done the same as they did).

A few notes about Lao culture: we saw mostly young boys and very young girls in the villages because the older girls are required to carry water and help with child rearing and household responsibilities. Boys frequently spend a few years in the monastery but most do not continue as monks for their lives. In each of the towns I visited, I could watch the "morning alms ceremony" where monks come out from the temples to collect food for their meals. Women swarm around the tourists selling food for us to give them. I bought some small parcels of food wrapped in banana leaves as well as sticky rice and kneeled on a small mat. As the monks came by, they opened what looked like hollow drums made of metal and I put food in each of them. Women are not allowed to touch monks so I had to be very careful to just put the food in the drum.

One of my tour guides explained marriage to us. His name is Savong and he's 21. I couldn't tell if he was already married or soon to be married but he referred to his significant other as his "w" because he didn't like the word wife. Savong is/was marrying a girl who is 15 and she came to meet us when we met at the night market for dinner. She was very quiet and pretty. He explained that when couples marry they spend the first year with the bride's family and the husband has to cook for her parents. The second year is spent with the groom's family and the bride cooks for his parents. After those two years, they can live on their own. The other tour guide, Nok, said he wanted to marry but he had to help his family pay for his sisters to marry before he could. He was 25 and clearly worked very hard.

In one of the villages, we spent time with the mediator of the village. If people or families have a dispute, they go to this guy to work it out. They only bring in the police or the law if something can't be worked out in the village. There was only one school for two or three villages so kids had to walk 8km. per day to get to and from school. There were SO many little children in all of the villages. Most children only attend school until they are 10 or 12 and very few progress to high school or college. 80% of Laotians are in some sort of agriculture but things are slowly starting to change. When I visited the Butterfly Project, Leila said doctors were being trained in Vientiane but there are no medical texts in the Lao language so they learn without textbooks. I can't even imagine.

Now I'm in Vientiene, the capital of Laos, which is quite small for a capital city. I'm still feeling a bit drained, so I'm taking it easy and enjoying uninterrupted time to upload photos and update my blog. Tonight I'll head to Bangkok and then to Suphanburi to visit my cousin. After that, I'll head to Kachanaburi for a few days and then back to Bangkok for a few days. On Saturday, August 14th, I'll fly to Phnom Penh to start my leadership residency at Harpswell Foundation. In my capacity as a leadership resident, I will be teaching English and current events and mentoring Cambodian female college students. I will live with them in a dorm and provide whatever guidance I can for 10 weeks. I will also be working with an organization called "A New Day Cambodia" teaching street kids in Phnom Penh. I'm excited!

Keep the comments coming, I love reading them!