Sabaidee!

Just got back from our week in Laos/NE Thailand!

Would give all the deets but it all seems to blur together. It takes flipping back through my pics to remember what we did each day!

Here’s the abbreviated version:

Saturday, Jan 29

Evening departure for the BKK train station. Take the sleeper train to the Thai-Lao border outside of Vientiane. The train was a trip, for sure. We had seriously the BEST ladyboy waitress/attendant. Looked fairly girly but had the voice of an elderly male smoker. Pretty great.

Sunday, Jan 30

Arrive at the border and spend over an hour in the circus of emigration. Traveling is awesome but any parts that deal with the bureaucracy can be downright exhausting. We eventually move into Laos, begin driving on the right hand side again (ahhh so nice) get picked up by Pi Me, and architecture prof who is our guide for the week. We head straight for Laos’ hydroelectric dam. This place is awesome- looks like a massive green lake with red-gold islands… we find out that the islands used to be mountaintops before they flooded the area. Boated around for a while. It felt good to be in a boat with low riding gunwales again. Sigh.

paradise.

Monday, Jan 31 (happy birthday Justin Timberlake)

Visit Laos’ biggest temple. (We’re a little temple’d out, so I don’t really have much to say on the matter.) A lot of gold, a lot of taking our shoes off, a lot of quiet.

Walked around the other Vientiane landmarks and visited the UXO museum. The UXO (unexploded objects) museum was super powerful. Laos was bombed heavily during the Vietnam War, and because they only let NGO’s on about a decade ago, much of the land is not UXO cleared. Hundreds die every year coming across them. Was really irked me was in one of the pictures of survivors, a man had lost a few limbs and an eye, and was wearing a USA t-shirt. I was infuriated. I was actually infuriated that Laos is a US friendly country. They shouldn’t be. We kill hundreds of their people every year. That really pissed me off.

Afterwards, were dropped off at a day market in the city. Had the rest of the day off.

That night was interesting… involved exploring the “beach” (actually the dried riverbed) of the Mekong, hanging out with a French guy Pierre who has friends at MSU, and meeting Lao police. Or so we thought. They had jackets that said “US Army.” REAL convincing. Jackets may have been not real, but we’re pretty sure their automatic guns were. Everything worked out fine, will tell you the story if you so desire to hear it.

A whole new world!!

UXO display

Tuesday, Feb 1.

Hit the road early and headed out towards our night accommodations in the ecolodge. On the way we stopped in a village to see the farming projects they are working on. Cool to see NGO $$$s in action. Also cool to see villages learning about diversification in order to make their income steadier. Nice work, Laos. While we were busy touring the village, the women busied themselves making a lunch for us (around 10:30 AM!). As far as we know, they didn’t even know we were coming, but they took the time and energy and their own food to feed the lot of us. We realized that we don’t even know how to react to such kindness.

Driving, driving, driving… eventually arrive in the general area of the village. The landscape here is incredible. INCREDIBLE. It’s like spans of red Georgia dirt with deciduous forests and then these massive, completely unprecedented rock formations. Unlike anything I’ve seen before.

We climb up into a cave trying to avoid multiple hazards that include the floor length sarongs the girls had to wear, teeny tiny steps, and Lenny the Ling Ling trying to take Sarah home with him. He was so cute. Love that little fuzz ball. We ducked into the cave, more stairs (barefoot this time) and find this really cool temple built inside of the cave. Still trying to feel enthused about temples, but this one was pretty cool because of its locale. Nice.

Lenny

It’s just about dusk when we reach the village. We toss our packs in the eco lodge, a big empty cabin on stilts with a massive front porch, and promptly head to the campfire for playtime with the village kids. Kids are so universal, its amazing. They boys are all violent little crap heads and the girls are all shy and want to learn your hand claps. So fun to watch. Plus they are the cutest little children of the world, it’s a fact. They loved playing with my ipad, our digital cameras, but most of all loved piggyback warfare. We wore them out (and ourselves) for about an hour or two and then ate a much needed dinner. (By this point we’re a little worn out on backcountry Lao/Thai food). Omelets for breakfast lunch and dinner. For real.

We rest for a bit and the elders (I’m assuming) held a welcome ceremony for us. It was really awesome. Somebody in our group made a good point- we had obviously paid to be there and that is a part of the package, but it did genuinely feel like they were welcoming us into their home, genuinely wishing us good health and a long life. I liked that. Didn’t like? The LaoLao- a rice whisky that we were supposed to drink every time we got welcomed (we got welcomed about 4x each). Man, that was strong stuff. I could only handle it once. The oldest man alive who was doing the ceremony drank it like water. And would burp like Homer Simpson. You go, old man. You go.

We snuggle under the bug nets (everyone’s taking their malaria pills, just in case) and hunker down for the night.

Wan Jai

Wed, Feb 2.

Rise and Shine, we’re going hiking. Coming off of wilderness, I felt a little over-prepared in my underarmor and running shorts as our guide is wearing a dress shirt and slacks (and sneakers.) We did about 10k of forests, caves, rivers, and farmland. The caves were amazing- huge and dark and scary but also smooth and calming and intimate. <3.

Best part? Swimming in a cave. You know, whatever. It was the greenest river (with some kind of gross floaties) that we (I) nervously swam in while lunch was being prepped. Felt like Tarzan. We weren’t sure what to think of lunch (seeing that it still had eyeballs), but as soon as we tasted it inhibitions were lost. It was DELICIOUS. White fish right off of the bone, pork jerky, endless supply of legitimate sticky rice (its very sticky.) What a pleasant surprise. Feel bad that the fish had to watch us eat his guts, but such is life I suppose.

planet earth.

lunch

swimming hole. 

Hike Hike Hike some more, get to village #2 and catch the van that takes us to our real van. Real van couldn’t make it down the dirt road, so we had to ride to it. Immediate indicator of how that ride was going to feel. 12 of us packed in a van (4 in the backseat) for over an hour going about 15 mph. Misery.

By nighttime we arrive at yet again another guesthouse in the middle of nowhere. Our bed spread our designed for 8 year old girls. No complaining, there’s hot water in the shower. Go into town for dinner. Ok let me make a note here on dining out in Laos. And in Thailand too for that matter. Many more people eat out here than in the US. Its so cheap. Why not. THEN WHY have these people not mastered the art of running restaurants?! Literally every meal we went out for took forever to order, orders were messed up, checks were confusing, and we had a Lao AND Thai speaker with us! And we were just pointing at the menus! It was very baffling to me. Also, its normal for restaurants to bring out your food as soon as its prepared, so you just start eating as soon as you gets yours. A good concept, but not sure why they can’t time dished better. Every meal we had one person not get their meal until everyone else was finishing up. I do not understand.

And that’s all I have to say about that. Wah Wah, get over it, Rosie.

Thurs, Feb 3.

Visited a research rice farm and learned two things. #1, they put frogs in the rice paddies to increased the dissolved oxygen thus increasing yield. Cool. #2, BLACK RICE WITH COCONUT SHAVINGS is my favorite.

yumm. 

Time to return to Thailand. Cross the border (another production) and head towards Phuphan National Park. This was an interesting night:

1. Had a salad with ant eggs in it

2. Saw the most stars I have ever seen

3. Found a scorpion under my backpack in the cabin

4. Interrupted a high-school age camp

 Thats about it

Friday, Feb 4.

Last day of the trip. Hit the handicraft center early and that was very cool. Was expecting a big market but it was actually more of a giant facility for crafting. Wood carving, wall hanging sewing, clay on the wheel, the whole shebang. They let us paint our own ceramics, which was a ton of fun. Felt like a kid in art class again. Again, can’t believe how incredibly nice these people are- they let us paint for free and gave Pi Paew and Grant really cool legitimately painted ceramic elephants. So jelly.

Went to a temple and this huge family came up to Torey + Sarah + Me and held out their camera. Thought they wanted us to take their picture. NOPE. They wanted a picture with us. And not just one, about 15. PICS WITH FARANG how fun!! That made others feel more comfortable taking pics with us and it became the thing to do I suppose. On the way out a local professed his love for Torey. We walked away briskly. 

ceramics about to be painted

arts and crafts!

pig.

nuther temple.

A couple more stops and we were at the train station. We were a few hours early so naturally we hit the mall. Jordan, Chad and I got AMERICAN food. SO SO SO GOOD. Also got DQ- not as good, but close enough. We were on the escalator when a woman who Chelsea bought a calling card from ran up to us and gave us these cute little cell phone charms- she had seen Chelsea looking at them and wanted us each to have one. Just straight up gave them to us. I just don’t understand the generosity.

Before we knew it we were back on the sleeper train (no ladyboy this time) and we hit the hay pretty early. Have to say I am a huge fan of sleeping on trains. I like the sound of the tracks and the engine. I slept almost as well on the train as I did on the way to Japan :)

Back at AIT and we are all busy prepping for our internships and running last minute errands. Tonight we are celebrating Ben’s birthday and going back for our favorite: the Chinese pork leg + fried bread dinner. YES. Might hit up the Chinese New Year celebrations in BKK. Who knows where the night (or the taxi driver) will take us.

Love to America,

Rosie