The Wobbling Sprocket

Wow, it is a lot easier to do this here than from the boonies of of Vietnam and Laos. Here are some pics of the gang in “Nam”:

From left, Jeff Campbell, me, Grace McNally, John Fleming and Graeme Watkins.

And John, Willie and Fred in Laos this time:

And here is Mr. Joe, our local guide in Vietnam, munchin’ on somethin’:

Willie and John kayaking on the Nam Song River outside Vang Vieng, Laos. These double rigs can definitely result in a “Domestic”……all was well though. No one flipped.

We weren’t limited to biking and boating. At a few points, it felt like we were dancing our way thru Asia. This was at a the karaoke joint next to our hotel in Lai Chau, Vietnam. Anything goes, including the local guys dancing with foreign guys. In Kasi, Laos they remembered us from last year and pulled out their dancing pictures to prove it!! Yeah, Mary and Barry, they have a bunch of you guys.

We had some adventuresome eaters (especially John and Freddy) and Graeme was a big fan of fine wine (pretty hard to come by, but he worked it!). I’m not quite sure I should share some of the photos I have of the local cuisine. This one is ok though…it is from the La Cave des Chateaux in Luang Prabang, Laos. Don’t let your imagination get the best of you.

It’s only an erotic presentation of a stuffed pork filet.

In Laos, our support team was “Mr. Pok” (sporting the Far and Away hat) and his charming wife, Bounmee. They were both great. On the left is Bounmee’s uncle.

We stopped at Bounmee’s uncle’s place for lunch on the way to Pak Mong. He and his family were great and served us bamboo soup (it was good!). Bounmee’s father was there as well. Her uncle was in the low lau (moonshine) business. You can see the set up behind Mr. Pok:

On the right is Bounyang, our local guide in Laos, who was joined by Mr. Pok to belt out a song in Vieng Phouka. Vieng Phouka is on the road between Luang Namtha and Houxai. This has to be the best road in all of Laos (and they are generally all good). The Chinese and Thais built this road. It connects nothing to nothing. We were all kind of scratching our heads over it. There are more water buffaloes than vehicles on it. No hot water at the guesthouse. I opted to bathe in the river. So did Bounyang, Mr Pok and Bounmee. Along this road, there are minority villages with their own language. They have spirit gates and spirit houses that are very interesting. Bounyang taught me how to say “hello, ladies and gentlemen and children” in the local lingo. That got some smiles from the locals.

Bounyang studied some marshal arts when he was in the monastary (kind of Bruce Lee kung foo stuff). He was kind enough to teach us some moves. I wish I had some film of them. Anyway, John demonstrated same for some of the local monks in Vieng Phouka. By the looks on their faces, you can tell that they were pretty impressed.

You see some interesting and creative mechanical devices, especially in Laos. There isn’t much power there. Long wood boards for homes are all sawed by hand by two guys putting their backs into it for what has to be hours and hours.

We stopped along the way to check this one out. This is a sugar cane press. It’s a short and long log jammed into a hole carved into a tree trunk. The far of the end of the long log is tied with ropes to a bent-over tree and some other overhead branches. The kids bounce up and down like on a teeter totter while someone rotates the sugar cane between the two logs and the sugar cane juice is pressed out. The kids were having a blast.

Here is another. This guy has fashioned a makeshift “elevator” to send gravel down to his wife at the bottom. It was a long way down….maybe a 100 meters.

In a lot of ways, life is very hard life in SE Asia, but in some ways, it’s a blast. Kids, in particular, seem to find a plenty of ways to have fun.  Near rivers, you see little boys all the time with diving masks and little tiny spearfishing guns.  Water buffalo riding too is big. And how about the mud baths?

I get asked occasionally, “how long are you going to keep doing this?” That is a good question. My stock answer is “until it stops being fun.” It doesn’t seem like I’m anywhere close to that yet. Best, Bob