It's now official, Slowboat Stopped Huay Xai to Luang Prabang (old post)

Lao People Democratic Republic

Peace Independence Democracy Unity Prosperity

Ministry of Public work and transportation Number 274

Section of Public work and Transportation province Bokeo date 18 Feb 2010

Announcement

To: Tourist companies and citizens whom will be traveling from Houeisay to Pakbeng by local boat.

At present, the department of Public work and Transportation Bokeo province would like to announce that the river transportation has to stop at present because the big boat can no longer travel due to the low water level in the Mekong River. Rapids in the river would make it unsafe for boat to travel. All big boat transportations have to stop until further notice.

This regards all concerned persons that provide transportation and all tourists that which to travel between Houei Say and Luang Prabang and vice versa. Please acknowledge and follow for your safety.

Special: 45 seats Bus Transportation are available daily:

1. Houeisay to Luang Namtha 2 departures

2. Houeisay to Oudomxay 1 departure

3. Houeisay to Luang Prabang 3 departures

4. Houeisay to VTE 1 departure

5. Houeisay to Pakbeng Normal operation by speed boat

Department of Public Work and Transportation, Bokeo Province.

MR. LOTHOUNHUENE TOUNGASAEM

http://bit.ly/cOOPYH

Tubing Get Drunk Break Skull Vang Vien

Such a great video I just had to share, with a hat tip to some Twitterer named Lee Sheridan who brought it to my attention.

Long Time Traveler (Muang Long)

Muang Long. In the foreground Nam Ma (Ma River) with fields of melon and rice, in the background Phou Mon Lem (Mon Lem Mountain)

Up in Northern Laos in a long narrow valley lies a town far off the beaten track. It is the largest town in north west Laos past Muang Sing. To the north lie many small villages and many kilometers of hills before the Mekong and the border with China, south lies even higher mountains and a fast river with no bridges and no way to ford in the wet season. The name of the town is Long, it is the central town of the district so it is called Muang Long.

Map of downtown Muang Long showing Guest Houses, Restaurants etc


Muang Long is a market town, lying at the confluence of the Long and the Ma rivers about forty or so kilometers upstream from the smaller town of Xiengkok on the Mekong. Up the road to the east (17A) in the other direction is the old walled town and former opium market at Sing. The floodplain of the rivers is what gives Muang Long it's reason for being. The flat fertile fields along the bottom of the valley provide the agricultural base of the town. The road after it leaves town in both directions is dirt, and there are 4 major foot paths leading over the mountains.

More of LB's amazing walk in Phongsali

To start at the beginning I suggest reading the blog post preceding this one.  You can tell you're there by the day number.

In response to a photo of some young Lao Sueng women, whose ethnicity I was unable to pin down, I got a comment and then an email from a French fellow who has walked the length and width of Phongsali province, mostly off road.


We both had photos of the same town high on a ridge above the Ou taken from the same spot. LB's photo was taken four years earlier before metal roofs. The trek he describes was done in the fall of 07.

Original in French here, http://voyageforum.com/v.f?post=1495745 you need to cut and paste to go to the post, I think there are is stuff in the link that isn't html. The following is a translation via Google Tranlator, you've been warned.

I'll stick in some photos just to look at.

Squirell Hunter

24 Day Ban Phousoung, Kitchen Akha, ovens and cookstoves

That is, it's the "little monsoon. As often early October, heavy rain batter, alternating with moments of calm, but for two or three days. It started last night, a real flood, a deafening roar over the corrugated sheets. So this morning the whole world does not descend to the source, the single hole of muddy water available near the village, carrying a sack full of bamboo tubes of storage, but most harvesting rainwater falling on roofs and gutters channeled into bamboo. It must, however well out at least once in the day, to need, in the bushes, through wet and muddy passages drawn from the pigs, and followed by themselves, these scavengers village, then back in charge of a couple of pounds of mud on each sole and thong with two or three leeches on the thighs.

The 22 hour bus ride to Luang Namtha Revisited

Pakmong a major road junction north of Luang Prabang. Go left to Udomxai and China, go right to Nong Kheaw, Sam Nua and Vietnam. Rain.

I caught the Bus to Luang Namtha again, this time jumping on in Vang Vien and getting off in Luang Namtha only to catch the morning sawnthaew over to Muang Long. The ride ended up being about 27 hours overall, 31 hours door to door.

Vang Vien has a new bus station out by the market that's pretty nice, I waited there for the bus to drive by. After a while I went out to stand by the sign at the road, the bus doesn't pull into the station, only stops for a minute. I was the only one getting on. Despite making decent time the bus didn't roll into Luang Prabang until after dark. The guard who had been sitting across the aisle from me and chit chatting most of the way got off. What a bore it must be riding back and forth to Luang Prabang day in and day out.


Vang Vien bus station

I'd been looking forward to dinner at the southern bus station in Luang Prabang for quite a while, instead it wasn't even a toilet break. The driver said we'd be stopping in Pak Mong for dinner.

In the dark of the bus, and after Luang Prabang people began to talk amongst themselves and folks wanted to know who in the heck I was, you know what's my story. Why am I speaking Lao, who do I know in Luang Namtha, that kind of thing. I could hear my answers being relayed to those too far away to hear and also being commented on and interpreted as they were passed on.

I too had questions. Like why could I understand them when they talked to me but not when they talked to each other. I'd been eavesdropping a lot since Luang Prabang and I would only recognise a few words. I understood in bits and pieces. I was only guessing as to what was being said when I heard a familiar word once in a while. It was like listening to Lao being spoken under a blanket or with a mouthful of marbles. Then when someone talked to me it was once again en clair.


Inside the bus

Lots of laughs and discussion when they finally figured out what my problem was. The older guy closest to me said, "we're speaking Lu!" more laughs. I'd been listening to them speak the language of the Tai Lu, an ethnicity common to the lowlanders of Luang Namtha. It's kind of like Lao and shares some words I guess.

At Pak Mong I bought some oranges and a bag of those Thai shrimp flavored potato chip things. I think it was raining slowly.

At Luang Namtha I recognised nothing, it was still night. A couple other people were headed for the local bus station too and I tagged along. After shivering for a little while it began to get light and I walked out to the road, the local bus station was almost in Luang Namtha itself. The internet place was closed so I wandered up to Zuelas and my friend Vong was eating breakfast, Sai brought me a cup of hot tea bless her heart and I sipped hot tea and made small talk before heading back down to the station to catch the sawngthaew over the hill.


Check point in mountains above Muang Sing

I convinced a couple of women waiting to go to Muang Sing that the sawngtheaw to Long would pass through Sing on the way by and the driver left with only 3 passengers. Being the first vehicle in the morning he was sure to pick up lots of fares, and he did.

Not too far below the highest point of the road from Muang Sing there is a checkpoint that doesn't necessarily seem like one. It's Lao style, flowers and a restroom of sorts. I didn't get the impression the two young women I was with understood that this wasn't just a stop for the toilets suplied by the government. All the vehicles traveling out of Muang Sing get checked for drugs. Beyond is one of the main opium producing areas of Laos and the major transport route for methamphetamine labs in Buma. This is the only road check within Laos that I can think of.

Goats belonging to checkpoint staff.

A couple hours later I was checking in to the Homephan Guest house in Muang Long. A brief and pleasant 31 hours since leaving my hotel in Vang Vien.

Homephan Guest House. Market and bus stop right of the third and fourth utility pole down the street.

Ban Ha Sip Song

Tree in front of Wat Song Buay on the way there

To kill time waiting to leave Laos I took my rental bike and drove up to the Hmong town at kilometer 52 on the road to Luang Prabang, named Lak Ha Sip Song, appropriately enough.

I stopped at Lak Ha Sip Song once before when riding up to Vang Vien with my in laws. I'd always wanted to spend a little time again looking the town over. For many Hmong in America the town is their best known destination in Laos. It's a Hmong town, but being so close to Vientiane it's accessible.


Market from the south west corner.

The bike was some old clunker I rented for four dollars a day from the guy who has a sign on a tree across from Kap Jai Duh. Both brakes weren't so great, rear ones sounded like metal on metal and they're the ones I like to use first. My usual technique for a quick stop is to lock up the rear tire then pump the front brakes letting off on them only long enough to keep the thing off the ground. It's worked so far. On this bike I had to use the front breaks a lot more than I like, oh well, just go slow and drive defensively right?

It was Saturday morning and traffic was light. The road is fairly straight and flat. The road passes through mostly rural areas but of course being the main road stores and businesses are frequent.

Alley on north side of market


Shophouses in Ban Ha Sip Song

For quite a while I followed a truck hauling an old D-7 cat on a lowboy. He was moving right along and used his air horn gently but often to clear the road of motorbikes and pedestrians. There's something about the idea of fifty thousand pounds of steel hurtling down the narrow two lane road that clears the way. He was moving faster than all the local traffic and the rich folks in SUVs and pickups were reluctant to get in front of him.

My biggest worries on the motorcycle are people entering traffic from the side blindly and others driving down the shoulder on the wrong side. Following the lowboy all I had to do to be safe was to tuck up right behind his rear tires until the road cleared out again.


Maykue Guest House next to market

Actually being there wasn't so thrilling, I was glad I hadn't wasted time actually getting off a bus and getting a room there. Just another Lao town. Ok, the people have longer faces, they are Hmong. But they wear Lao clothes and listen to Thai pop music. The market is alright but then so are the markets in a lot of towns. It's supposed to have a lot of food from the forests, I didn't see any endangered dolphins strung up to make jerky or anything. Maybe there's more to the place and I was just in a cynical, "been there done that" kind of mood.

There is a guest house, and the owner claimed they had rooms with hot water. Hot water is my new standard for hotel rooms. Place has hot water it's ok with me. If there were internet in town it would probably be a nicer place to hang out than Vientiane. Damning with faint praise.

Boon Vong Journal

I don't often post about Lao Americans. Mostly this is a blog about Laos and Laotians, but I personally am very interested in the subject.

Most of my Lao friends here are people who came to the US as adults, either recently or back in the day. They are more comfortable speaking Lao than English. I'm also friends with people who are Lao by ethnicity but who grew up in America. I feel proud when I see them succeed within the greater framework of American society. They are very American, but are also Lao. The things they write allow me a perspective into Lao culture that I'm seldom able to get from my fellow falangs, yet they can express it not only in the language of America but within the cultural context of modern American life.

Some of the blogs I read are written extremely well with a poignancy about life and it's connection to their Lao-ness that cuts to the quick. I don't link to these blogs. Some of them are very personal, dealing with matters of self identity and family. I think they might well be written for a limited audience. My web crawler sorts them and alerts me to posts.

The photographer and artist below is someone who obviously knows his blog might well be looked at by many people so I link here. Take a look especially at his drawings, you can find many via the link on his side bar. They seem to be from photos but with a soul inserted into the image. They are very realistic, but even more true than a photo if you follow me.

http://www.b-vong.com/journal/



Time and again I think I recognise the people in the pictures only to realize that they aren't some one's kids I saw at the party or down at the Lao store. They are as Lao as the sound of the saat hitting the coke, or the steam of sticky rice in the kitchen or tang jeao padek. And they are 100% American.


http://www.b-vong.com/journal/

When the charger broke

My camera uses rechargeable batteries. Mostly I like it, one charge lasts a long time, no batteries to throw away. I keep everything charged up as much as I can. Never know when there might be no electricity for a while.

So I was sitting in my hotel room minding my own business and my camera battery charger starts doing one of those sparking smoking type things that you just know aren't going to end up well. By the time I unplugged it whatever was happening had finished doing it's thing.

I was concerned but not despondent. Three fully charged batteries might well last quite a while. No reviewing and deleting photos, just turn it on, snap, then off it goes. More than likely the geniuses down at the market could fix it.

So down the the big market in Pakse I trotted, or scooted to be more exact. I walked through the phone section until I found a store that not only worked on phones but had a few cameras and video cams lying around in various states of repair. I told him it was sick, figured that was close enough, and he peeled it apart stuck the ohm meter on it. Ten seconds later he speed dialed someone, hung up and said, "Lao no have" then looking at me and using the probe from the ohm meter to point at one of those tiny cylinders with wires coming out the end said emphatically, "this, this, this, no have in Lao"

Yes he was speaking English, doggone kids. Probably Vietnamese or Chinese or something. No doubt hated English in school but aced it anyway to go to the good college. And that third language without even trying he speaks it a lot better than I speak the language of the market. I thanked him heavily, he smiled, shrugged his shoulders and said, "maybe Thailand". I still had one possibility.

As soon as I got to Vientiane I got myself on down to the morning market. They are tearing it up and it's hard to find your way around now. Huge pieces are construction zones. Shame really it used to be pretty easy, all the stores that sold similar stuff in one place, many ways to enter or leave each section.

The gold repair used to be along the east side back in the day, adjacent to the street across from the bus station but a little further down. Now it's just off the corner on the east side and no parking on the street. The turn in is where they take away all the trash too so it's not always pleasant.






He's the guy behind the counter

I found the gold repair places and sure enough that same guy was there who fixed my telephoto back thirteen years ago. We spoke Lao. I told him I didn't think it could be fixed in Laos. He did the same thing with the call on the cell phone but told me it would be 300,000 kip and the part would come from Udon Thani on the bus. I said great. Then he asked me if I understood and started to write it out so I repeated it slowly and said I understood. Some electronics store in Udon Thani would have to ship it on the bus, it would get left across the street, and he'd go get it and probably pay the money which would then reverse the same route. I thought the charge reasonable.

Lots of love for old TV repair men who have evolved with the times and also young smart Asian techies no matter thier country of orgin.