Will the real Laos please stand up?
by Bob on Jan.31, 2010, under Indochine, Laos
I think this week will be Laos week. We are headed to Vietnam and Laos in just a few days so I think it will get me psyched up (although I am already). Everyone has their own take on Laos.
What’s fascinating to me though, is the different perspective you get from some of the accounts. Most people think of Laos in terms of Vientiane and Luang Prabang and and Vangvieng. Occasionally, they will toss in an overcrowded slowboat ride down the Mekong or a horrendous minivan journey over the mountains. To me, that’s not Laos. Laos is the countryside. It’s the villages. It’s the washer women beating clothes in the river. It’s the kids hunting tiny fish with even tinier little spearguns. It’s old ladies spinning cotton. It’s grinding sugar cane. It’s the Basci (spirit) ceremony and the roadside wedding and the guy on the road trying to shoot birds with a flintlock that looks like it should be in the Smithsonian. It’s whole families trudging back to their homes with bundles of wood balanced on their heads.
Luang Prabang is definitely enchanting, Vientiane a little less so, and Vangvieng is definitely a perpetual spring break town, but none of those capture the real Laos for me.
How might one find “the real” Laos? Take a 4 day trek. Ride a bike from town to town. Sleep in a village. Bathe in a river. Visit a school. Visit several schools. “Talk” to the old man that hasn’t had a “farang dong mo” (long-nosed foreigner) speak to him, ever.
Laos is the agrarian countryside. That’s where most people live with a lot of manual effort and, frequently, the boredom of a very simple life. The roosters wake you up EVERY morning before daybreak and you go to bed early by the dim light of a single 40 watt bulb….if you are lucky. You bathe under the single cold water spigot that serves the entire village. You go every day to the market to buy whatever you are going to eat that day. That’s Laos. It’s not so much visiting a destination as visiting a way of life.
Here is another report. I second this view of Luang Prabang, but still, I feel the real Laos lies somewhere beyond:
February 15th, 2010 on 7:21 pm
Hey, Bob, Sum-by-dee! I lived in Laos a LONG time ago. I wondered what if much changed after the “communist” takeover. I used to live in the American compound, K6, outside of Vientaine. I want to let you know your entry brought back many found memories of my childhood. Thanks for the journey! Susan Senger, Underhill, Vermont, USA.
February 17th, 2010 on 6:05 am
Hi Susan! Thanks! As coincidence would have it, we are headed into Laos tomorrow. We are now in Dien Bien Phu and cross the border at Tay Tranh and will make our way all the way down to Vientiane.
I hope all is well in Vermont. I know the East Coast has been blasted with snow. We missed it…fortunately.
Best,
Bob