PDR LaoLao

Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Back in BKK

Back now in Bangkok to regroup before the Tokyo acid trip. Bangkok suddenly feels homey and comfortable, rather than exotic, foreign and overwhelming as it did when we first arrived. Spent the afternoon finshing errands, buying snacks so we don't starve in Tokyo, and a surprising amount of time on Khao San Road, hippei backpacker hell. Its like Haight-Ashbury, Bourbon Street and Chinatown in a blender, with five dollar tourist flophouses above it. Last chance for anyone to place their orders for "used" backpacks, cheap pharmaceuticals available without prescription and anything bootlegged you could want. Noted a few more errant monks as well getting cash out of the ATM and even smoking cigarettes- none that were pimps, but then we never made it to the red light district. Still the insane "I Love the King" shirts on every third person you walk by, and king posters and billboards everywhere you look. These people seem more royal-crazy than the british tabloids.

Was really ready to get home by the end of Vietnam, but now suddenly sad for the trip to be ending, and ready for a few more adventures. Don't know how much writing I'll be able to do from Tokyo, so look forward to seeing and talking to you all come monday!

Monday, August 07, 2006
Yes, Virginia, Laos is a real country.

Luang Phabang, in the People's Democratic Republic of Laos is nothing short of amazing. We arrived at night, and so didnt see the beauty of the place until daylight the next morning. The former royal capital of Laos, its a town at a bend in the Mekong where the river meets a tributary, making the town itself almost an island, nestled in a valley of jungled mountains and cliffs rising from the rivers. The architecture is a blend of French Colonial, traditional laotian and vietnamese, with a heavy dose of royal architecture as well. There are also dozens of Wats (temples) at least a few on every block of the small town, making it even more beautiful with their flowing red roofs and golden trim. A more gentle flowing architecture than those of thailand. The streets are beautifully lined with small silk shops and stalls selling local laotion wares, and brick paved alleyways cut through wooden houses bursting with flowers, almost all with a view of the quiet mekong against the mountains. Our guesthouse, xieng moung or something, was an old french villa with a lovely porch over a courtyard with tropical birds, hanging orchids and lotus birdbaths. Much classier than our usual flophouses, and not much pricier.

Spent the first day exploring the wats, and town. Everywhere you look are the saffron monk robes out of the corner of your eye, bright against the whitewashed walls of the town. There must be hundreds of monks between all the temples, who are even more noticeable in such a small town. The romantic idea some of us westerners have about the monks is givena reality check here. First, most of the monks appear to be elementary to high school aged, not the college age and older that they are in Thailand and Cambodia. Seems to be like going to catholic school. Constantly see them handling money, eating after noon and breaking various other rules. Even saw a gang of toughs and monks hanging out by a temple entrance at night and trying to sell me ganja!

At the center of town is a small mountain, hill really, which we hiked for sunset views. There are multiple temples, shrines, stupas and statues on the way up, and a large stupa at the top with stunning views of the town, river and region.
Booked a boat with our usually opium-nodding guesthouse attendant to see the pal ou grottoes up the river in the morning. The boat ride was lovely, hardly another boat on the river, and a few hour trip with only the occasional stilt house set on the steep clay banks of the river. Very "Apocalypse Now." The caves are a pair of old grottoes where buddhas and other icons that can no longer be used are stored. You approach from the water, after a half submerged and breaking bamboo dock, where some stairs lead up to the first cave, filled with amazing ancient rotting and rusting buddha figures resting serenely amonst the rocks and stalagmites. The second cave is further up. Wrought iron doors are set into a cliffside, like something out of Tolkien's Middle Earth. Entering the deeper cave you need a flashlight to explore the depths, viewing a statue here, a sculpture there in the eerie sliver of artificial light. Very spooky, very cool, really felt like an Indiana Jones movie, and I'll leave the multiple pop-culture and film references at that.

Came back to explore the night market a bit, silk and t-shirts the name of the game mostly, though I did find an old book of the dhamapada written on palm leaves and a legit antique. More shopping opportunities again than we planned, though we were a bit better restrained this time. They have great t-shirts, and seem to put their kids to work selling and weaving like its nothing- guess that explains the child labor issues in other parts of the world- they're just already culturally used to it, used to and expected to help out the family by working. The laos people also do a funny thing where they tap all the goods at their stall with the money after you buy something for good luck. Money is a pain, as the largest bill here is 2000 kip, or 2$, which makes you feel like a real big shot when you change 80$ or so at the bank.

Following day spent the morning exploring the local market, which was less interesting than we had hoped, mostly just cheap chinese knockoffs and fly-ridden meats, with the occasional person trying to pull aside aside to covertly offer opium to us. (We are at the bottom tip of the notorious golden triangle, and Laos the third biggest opium producing country in the world.) Afternoon we crossed the river to explore some abandoned wats, with monks occasionally letting us into the temples they were guarding for a minor bribe. Some are alleged to be haunted, and the locals steer clear, and they were very nicely untouristed and quite serene in their isolation and crumbling glory. The villages were also quiet and pleasant to explore, a few bird-flu chickens running around and children playing bocce, or the local variant- flip-flocce, a term coined genuisly by Olivia. Couldnt really explore much off-road here in Laos, due to all the unexploded bombs, but some damn good stuff to see in the mostly abandoned temples and streets. A pleasant walk home down the ancient streets with the sounds of monks chanting to accompany our stroll to the guesthouse.

Currently reading :
Shogun
By James Clavell

Saturday, August 05, 2006
Falang-A-Lang-A-Lang

Vientiane...
We abandoned our few pennies of vietnamese money at the airport in a box in Hanoi marked "Charity for extremely difficult children" which seemed like a worthy cause, if not the most impressive use of english. Anyway, the flight into Laos was beautiful, Soviet turboprop "airplane" aside, and I imagined the years of bombers wreaking havoc on the countryside with the same view I had form the plane. Laos is the most heavily bombed country in the world, with more bombs dropped in the 1960's that on all of europe combined in WWII. It also seems to have a history of being a backwater that is just taken over by other powers. Well, they beat the US and now have their own People's Democratic Republic, and its a pretty damn nice little country, and I do mean little. The Vientiane (capital city) airport was smaller than the Providence Airport- smaller than the Providence bus station even. I was expecting a mini Phnom Penh, and we got a pleasant, if more boring surprise with a quiet little place at a bend on the Mekong. The city seems to be one grand French boulevard, with a mini arc de triomphe, and then off of the boulevard are literally are dirt roads. Strangely, unlike every other country, there are actually stoplights. Its also a bit like walking right into 1975- ancient toyotas and datsuns abound, a few vw bugs and even a few out of place old Ford Galaxies. Occasionally you see a new toyota land cruiser (3rd world beaurocrats favorite car) or new pickup truck that belongs to an NGO.

Had a great lunch next to the Mekong, looking out over Thailand across the river as we ate some papaya salad and succulently sweet ribs that were cooked on a pit next to us by a lao family. Dinner was a wonderful french restaurant, and our most expensive meal to date as we ate $5 steak au herbes de provence, and a pizza that actually tasted like pizza. The chocolate mousse wasnt bad either. Next day we had a prix-fixe lunch of western food at another good french place before we left town. The city itself was tiny, and it took no time at all on our rented bicycles to see the sights, and visit the Wats (temples) which truly were beautiful, especially after the Vietnamese Pagodas which were much less interesting architecturally. Anyway, Vientiane was tiny, and amazing to think of the place overrun with spies in the 70's, you would need about two spies to overrun the place as it was pretty obvious who was not a local. How wonderful to be in a quiet place after Vietnam, where you couldnt even walk down the street or sidewalk because it was so crowded with motos and people. Hadnt realized how stressful and claustrophobic the crowds and culture Vietnam had become after a few weeks until we arrived in Laos.