The Friendly Laotians

Friday morning, we were up at the crack of dawn (if you can believe it) to go see the alms giving ceremony that takes places every morning around the city. The monks walk around the city in single file and the local people wait on the sidewalks with baskets of sticky rice or fruit. As the monks walk past, a handful of stick rice or piece of fruit is dropped into the offering bowl they carry. Some groups of monks were rather small, but others seemed like they stretched on for a mile. Someone had told us that there were over 300 monks in the city and they all came out for alms each morning.

After the monks had returned to their temples, we decided to climb Phu Si while it was still cool. We didn’t visit the Phu Si temple earlier in the week because there are so many stairs to climb. We braved the stairs and walked around the temple grounds catching our breath. The area is still filled with smoke so the views from the mountain top weren’t so spectacular. As you can see in the picture of Karl, the Mekong River behind him is barely visible and yet it isn’t even a mile away. Besides finding the temple on the top of the hill, we found the remnants of an anti-aircraft gun. As we walked down the other side of the hill, we passed through another temple built around a cave shrine that houses a chubby Buddha image. At this temple we also saw a peaceful use for some remnants of war. Seeing the bombs turned planters is poignant considering that Laos was the most bombed country ever; having 1.9 metric tons of bombs dropped on it during the course of the Vietnam War. The US did this in spite of a Geneva agreement that Laos remain neutral; a disturbing bit of history that has had tragic effects on Laos.



For the remainder of the day Friday and Saturday, we lazily wandered around the market taking pictures and talking to friends that we had made. Luang Prabang actually has a good selection of western food which I welcomed. After two and a half months, I miss some of my favorite foods (like cake!). There are several sandwich vendors on the main street and we happened to meet one lady, Manikhone, who likes to laugh. We buy a sandwich from her nearly every day! The sandwiches are made with a French baguette, cheese, chicken or tuna and various vegetables. The sandwiches have a Lao flare as the vegetables include cucumbers and carrots; normally not put on western sandwiches. Laotians also like their sandwiches with sweet and hot chili sauce, but you can ask for mayonnaise instead. So, we order our sandwich and sit and talk to Manikhone while we eat. She spends every day selling sandwiches from 7:00 am to 10:00 pm and so she often has free time. Manikhone must spend some of that time watching people. She always has some funny comments about the foreigners that she’s seen since she last talked to us. There is a lot for her to laugh about. Some people look like they should join a circus with their odd hairstyles and dyed hair. Others look like they have been in the mountains for several weeks without any soap. And then there are those who have so many piercings that they look a bit like a Frankenstein monster. Something that we are used to seeing but is offensive to Laotians (and other people in Asia) are the short skirts, exposed bellies and low-cut necklines. All Manikhone can say is that she feels embarrassed for them because they think they are attractive and they are not. So, if you are ever in Laos and you notice the vendors giggling and chattering to each other as you walk past; maybe you should reconsider how you dress. The first picture shows me with a couple of the market vendors, the second is one of the market vendors with her handmade items and the last one is us with our friend Manikhone.

Sunday, I stayed in and rested. The smoke in the air is really irritating and had made my throat raw and sinuses congested. Karl explored the town and took lots of pictures. I’ve put them on our online photo album along with other pictures taken in Laos at: Laos

Given the heavy haze, we were considering leaving Luang Prabang and traveling to northern Thailand for a week or so before heading to Loei to see Due and his family. Monday, March 19, the air seemed a bit clearer and we decided to see about a tour to local hill tribe villages before we finalized our plans and bought the plane tickets. We were able to find a taxi driver to take us outside of Luang Prabang to a Hmong village that welcomes visitors. It was a dusty little village with bamboo and wooden houses built up the side of a hill. Outside of the houses were handmade textiles set up for sale and the women and children as young as 5 years old were anxious to show what they had for sale. For a small charge, a group of nine villagers would put on a show and let us take pictures. There was traditional singing, dancing and flute playing in the show but they also showed us other parts of their culture. There was shooting poisoned darts from a crossbow, spinning tops and grinding rice and corn. Karl got to try the crossbow and he actually hit the bull’s-eye! The spinning tops was a game where two people would start two wooden tops spinning and two other people would sling two more wooden tops at the first two trying to hit them. To get the tops spinning at high speeds, they used a stick and a string wrapped around the top. The stick would be flicked like a whip to release the top and send it spinning. The grinding rice and corn wasn’t a game but the kids that were working the stone mill to grind corn couldn’t stop giggling as Karl took their picture. After the show, Karl took more pictures of the group and of the individual members. Karl was so happy with the pictures that he made arrangements to come back the next day.

On our way back to Luang Prabang, we stopped at the SOS Children’s Village. This is a village that provides housing for orphaned children and it is administered by SOS Children’s Village Charity. We had learned about it searching the internet for possible places that we could teach English. During our first few days in Luang Prabang, we had sent emails and even called the office in Vientiane but hadn’t gotten any response about whether we could teach. When we paid a personal visit to the village we were able to talk to the school director and learned that the process to get volunteer teachers approved in Laos was lengthy. That being the case, we would not be able to teach. The visit to the village was not a loss as we got to see how well the children were taken care of. The buildings are quite new and our escort told us that each house can accommodate up to 10 children and one “mother”. Siblings live together to help keep the family ties close. SOS Children’s Villages have been set up in several countries. Their website is: SOS Children's Villages

Tuesday, we woke up to a cloudy day and as the day progressed Karl
began to wonder if he would have enough light when we returned to the Hmong village in the afternoon. Shortly before we were to leave, it started to rain. We made it to a restaurant before we got to wet and had some lunch. The rain outlasted us and we finally headed back to our hotel on our bicycles getting quite wet. Karl returned to the Hmong village Wednesday morning and got some more pictures. Our friendly taxi driver is also Hmong and he invited Karl and me to his home that evening. His daughters and a son wore their traditional costumes and we got some pictures of them. The first picture is of Karl, our taxi driver and his father-in-law; the second picture is of Karl and the taxi driver's kids.

Thursday we went to the Luang Prabang National Museum with Manikhone’s daughter. As we were about to leave the market to go to the museum, three more ladies decided to join us. One of them had never been to the museum before! So we walked down the street and toured the museum together. The museum used to be the royal palace so there were a lot of the effects of the King and Queen as well as artifacts from temples that had been destroyed. Pictures weren’t allowed inside the museum but we got this one of the group at a nearby temple.

We spent the rest of our day Thursday saying goodbye to the friends we had made. The local people are a bit cautious of foreigners due to rude tourists but are very friendly and welcoming to anyone who makes the effort to be polite and friendly as well. In the picture, Karl is standing with the Salikas; a couple that he met while out taking pictures one afternoon. That night we had quite a storm, the wind was blowing so hard that it pushed the rain through our window and we had a small flood in our room. Thanks to the wind and the rain, Friday morning the weather was beautiful. For the first time since we had arrived in Luang Prabang we saw blue skies! We got to enjoy it for a few hours before our flight back to Vientiane Friday afternoon. The crossing from Laos to Thailand is over the Friendship Bridge and when crossing into Laos we were on a crowded bus so we didn’t get to see much. This time we took a taxi back over the bridge and got to see the Mekong, which was very low. We stayed the night in Nong Khai and today we travel by bus to Loei. This last picture shows how beautiful the river is when there is no smoke!

Laos, Please Don't Rush

Before flying to Luang Prabang, we had an afternoon to wander around Vientiane, the capital of Laos. Vientiane is just across the Mekong river from Thailand and it actually is pronounced “Wieng Chan”. You’ll have to ask someone who speaks French explain the spelling. Vientiane is the home of Pha That Luang; a stupa that is Laos’ national monument. The grounds surrounding Pha That Luang include two temples and beautifully landscaped parks. We had arrived in the late afternoon and as we walked around we were accompanied many Laotians also enjoying the parks. The stupa itself was closed for the day so we didn’t see any other tourists. A large truck was spraying water out over the gardens and children were playing in the spray. In the empty parking lot, there were some older boys and men were playing soccer. The whole scene was reminiscent of a summer evening in “Small Town U.S.A.”

On the way back to our hotel we passed an interesting monument called Patuxai. It was inspired by the French Arch of Triumph but built with US purchased cement in the 1960s. The cement was supposed to be used to build an airport and this bit of history has earned the monument the nickname “the vertical runway”. It is surrounded by a nice park that seemed to be quite popular.



The morning of March 13 we arrived at the small airport (perhaps they didn’t have enough cement for a larger one) two hours early for our one hour flight. As much as we dislike waiting in airports, it was better than an 11 hour bus ride to Luang Prabang. The wait did give me an opportunity to read the guide book and learn that my expectations for Luang Prabang were off. The city is a UNESCO World Heritage site just like Angkor Wat only the temples in Luang Prabang are not as old. Many of the temple sites date back 500 years but only two temples survived various attacks from neighboring countries. The people of Luang Prabang must be very determined people because they just built the temples again and so the city has retained the “urban plan” it has had for 500 years. This is what has earned it UNESCO World Heritage status.

Upon arriving in Luang Prabang, we learned from our driver that Laos’ official name is Laos People’s Democratic Republic and its nickname is Laos Please Don’t Rush. Apparently, Laotians are very laid back and often late. Karl had made arrangements to take pictures of a young lady in traditional Laotian costume the following afternoon, so Tuesday evening and most of the day Wednesday we went around town looking at temples. Karl’s objective was to find a good location with a nice backdrop to take the pictures. I reluctantly became the stand-in as Karl tried out different locations and worked out his compositions. This can take a bit of time and in many of the pictures I’m quite distracted, even reading our guidebook instead of looking at the camera. Here is one where I actually was paying attention, the rest are not all that flattering so you won’t see any of those here!

Luang Prabang isn’t a very large city so we were able to get around to most of the temples on bicycles. Some of the temples were right next door to each other and we walked from the courtyard of one temple into the courtyard of another. The temples are beautifully gilded; sometimes covering the entire front of the temple. Usually, there is a stupa or two somewhere on the grounds and occasionally they are painted gold. The offerings made with banana leaves and marigolds even resemble gilded stupas. At Luang Prabang’s oldest temple, Xieng Thong, we admired the complex mosaics that cover the temple and a couple of small chapels on the temple grounds. The mosaic on the back wall of the temple is a huge tree of life flanked with peacocks. The mosaics on the small chapels are simple village scenes that seem to tell stories. The reflective tiles are expertly cut and placed to create people, palm trees, elephants and more.

Luang Prabang is built on a peninsula shaped similarly to Florida at the intersection of the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers. So, as we cycled to the various temples we often caught sight of one of the rivers. The ever-present haze from burning rice fields muted the beauty of the rivers and the lush vegetable gardens on their banks. Besides interfering with Karl’s opportunities for landscape photography the smoke has also been very irritating to our eyes and throats. After scouting locations we learned that the young lady, Min, couldn’t come Wednesday afternoon and would meet us the next morning. She did come the next morning but an hour later than planned and she didn’t have much time before she had to go to class. She agreed to come back between her classes around lunch time. We didn’t mind the delays; we know that is just how things are done. It’s best just to go with the flow and enjoy the journey!

In the mean time, we went to a nearby village that does hand weaving of cotton and silk. We got a demonstration from a lady who was weaving a scarf. It was interesting to see how the pattern of the scarf was created by the way that the threads were arranged on the loom. Nearby another lady wound thread onto spools. The device that she used employed an old bicycle wheel to spin the spool fast enough to get the proper tension. We returned to Luang Prabang, met up with Min and went to two temples that we had picked out the previous day. Our favorite was Wat Chum Khong because the grounds were beautifully landscaped and there were lots of flowers. At Wat Chum Khong a little boy followed us around, sneaking into little hiding places where he could watch these strange foreigners.



Every evening, there is an incredible handicraft market that closes down the main road of Luang Prabang for about a quarter of a mile. Vendors setup on either side of the road and down the middle with bare light bulbs hanging over their little square of the market. I particularly liked how the paper lanterns looked. The market was very atmospheric with many colorful textiles and souvenirs to look at. As we walked around we were greeted with smiling faces and soft voices speaking the little English they knew. Overlooking it all was Phu Si temple from the top of the hill by the same name. We would go every evening and Karl would look for photo opportunities. Just like in Wangpikun, Karl likes to take pictures of people and so we ended up buying quite a few things to get permission! In Laos they use kip and 10,000 kip is approximately equal to one dollar. At first you might think that is a great exchange rate and you are going to make out like a bandit. Then you see the prices of every thing. The prices of most things are given in five digits and the only price that is given with less than 4 digits is the per-minute charge at the internet cafes. We were told by our friends in Thailand that we would need a big purse. That is because the biggest bill that you can get in Laos is 50,000 kip but they mostly use 20,000 kip bills. So, right after a visit to the bank to exchange money we felt like we had a big wad of cash. Our wad never seemed to last as long as we thought it would. When you have 700,000 kip you think it will last a while!