From the Falang Cage

Hi everyone! Our trip is starting to wind down. We're still in Vietnam a few more days, then we start winding our way back to Delhi to fly home. Because we spent a little longer in India and Singapore than we expected, we've only been able to skim Laos and Vietnam. We've pretty much stuck to the well-beaten tourist trails, but both countries have been very good to us. I would definitely visit both again and get to some more out-of-the-way areas.

Laos was a big favorite of ours. The country has only been open to foreigners for a decade or so, so it's sort of in the Early Tourism Era. It seems to be a "next big thing" in backpacker/travel buzz - a less spoiled, more undiscovered alternative to Thailand or Vietnam. However, the two towns we visited - Vientiane and Luang Prabang - are already full of white folks. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to travel anywhere else. My suggestion would be to go soon if you're interested in traveling in Laos. And that is something we highly recommend - the country is beautiful and the people are very friendly.

We spent three days in the capital, Vientiane. after flying in from Kuala Lumpur. At the airport , we exchanged money and receiving a giant pile of bills with very large numbers on them ($1 = 10,000 kip). We tried to ask people for change so we could make a phone call to a hotel, but everyone looked at us as if we were crazy. It later occurred to us that this was because there are no coins in Laos. We're still not sure how you use a pay phone!

As we took a taxi into town, we experienced an odd sensation. We were going slowly..... traveling at a reasonable, nearly leisurely rate of speed. And so were all the other vehicles. There were people crossing the street without a look of fear in their eyes. It seemed so.... civilized. We decided it would be nice traveling in a Buddhist country, where people believe in karma and thus will be more concerned about potentially injuring or killing you with their vehicle. After the insanity of Indian traffic, Singapore and Malaysia's traffic signals were a relief, but they were still very car/motorbike-focused places. Vientiane was so relaxed and laidback we rented bikes one day and toured the city ourselves. It was great. It was certainly the first place on this trip we felt safe enough to do that.

On our bike ride, we visited some of the Buddhist monateries in town and the National Assembly building, as well as just tooling through some neighborhoods. There are a lot of roadside food stalls in the city and we stopped at one to get me some chicken-on-a-stick. They also had a pile of frightening looking chicken-feet-on-a-stick roasting. Ashifa decided to forego her veggie ways in order to commune with the locals and try one. (There are some amusing pictures of this, which I'll upload when I can find a USB port.)


There were a lot of westerners in Vientiane, including tourists. Being the capital, there were also a lot of expats who work for various embassies, non-profits, and organizations like the UN and WHO. Yet the city was very laidback and felt more like a real town than a tourist ghetto (like Luang Prabang). We spent one night leisurely gazing at the Mekong River from one of many riverside restaurants, enjoying our first taste of the Laos equivalent of India's tea, Beerlao. Beerlao is everywhere. Beerlao logos are everywhere. There are stacks of Beerlao crates everywhere. And Beerlao is cheap. I think Ashifa was working on a scientific study of comparitive beer prices in various places we've traveled to. I'm sure the results will be published soon.

After a few days in Vientiane, we headed north and up in altitude to Luang Prabang. We were taking a "VIP bus", which was fairly comfortable and featured non-stop Thai karaoke DVDs. At one point, however, we stopped because the bus was smoking. There was some kind of repair done and we were on our way again. The smoking started again an hour or so later and this time required a little more tinkering. Whatever the problem was, we made it up to Luang Prabang in one non-smoking piece. Thankfully, Laotian bus drivers also drive peacefully - compared to Indian bus drivers who may possibly have careened the smoking bus off a cliff.

Luang Prabang is a small city in a beautiful location in the hills and along the upper Mekong River. It has a lot of French colonial architecture and several nice Buddhist monasteries and temples. The town has been named a UNESCO World Heritage Center, which has resulted in development being controlled in the city. This has also resulted in the downtown becoming a bit of a boutique-y tourist area. We didn't have much opportunity to get out of that area, but we did meet a trekking guide who invited us to visit his village a few kilometers out of town. So, we hopped in a tuk-tuk (our 400th mode of transportation on this trip - sort of a Lao version of India's autorickshaw, but with the seats facing sideways instead of forward), and went for a visit for a few hours. Pon's family belongs to one of several ethnic minorities in Laos, the Khmu. The Lao government has relocated numerous villages from the hills to areas closer to the city, primarily to prevent deforestation of the hills (we saw some slash and burn agriculture in action a few days later on a trek, and the deforestation of the hillsides was pretty obvious on our bus ride). The government provides schools for the relocated kids, but apparently doesn't do anything to help the older residents get jobs. Pon was one of only a handful of residents of the village who had a job in the city. The rest were getting by farming rice.

One of the big attractions in Luang Prabang is the opportunity to trek into some of the remaining hill villages. We signed up for a trek - two days hiking and one day kayaking. We visited a couple Khmu villages and a Hmong village - you can see pics in the last post. We spent the two nights in huts in two of the Khmu villages. Our guide was a Khmu guy originally from a small village near the Vietnam border. He had a pretty common story - he moved to Luang Prabang to learn English and to get a job (these two things often go hand-in-hand, since most of the better-paying jobs are in tourism). He hadn't seen his family in two years. They don't have phones and very little mail access. He spends all his time either in class or working. He can't send money home to them, and his family can't send anything to help him.

The trek was an interesting experience - we got to see what life is like in these villages. The village we stayed in the first night had just gotten road access and some electricity (it would be interesting to see what changes happen as a result of those two things) but was still very traditional - totally agriculture-based. However, the trek was a bit odd - a continuation on a theme we've felt since India, that we're acting as visitors in a human zoo. Trekking is pretty common in this area, and these particular villages we were in see a small group of tourists (refered to as falang in Laos; falang originally referred to the French colonialists, but now refers to all foreigners; some people in Laos will tell you it's a term of endearment, but others laugh at that suggestion) passing through frequently. Our trekking company is known as one of the more responsible ones - part of their profit goes to the villages to help with various projects - but you still feel a bit weird. This was especially the case in the village where we stayed the first night. As soon as we got there, our guide Sitha showed us and the couple we were trekking with the hut we would sleep in (attached to the village chief's house), then went off to make our dinner and told us to walk around the village. We thought he would at least walk around with us or give us some background on the place, but we were on our own. We walked around a bit, but felt pretty uncomfortable, like we were intruding in someone else's life. We retreated back to the hut pretty quickly, and the other couple on the trek followed soon after. So, the four of us sat at a table inside the fence around the house, had a Beerlao, and chatted amongst ourselves while the kids playing outside checked us out. I referred to it as being in the falang cage.

The second day, we passed through a Hmong village in the morning. The Hmong live at higher altitudes and are a bit more traditional. For instance, almost everyone was wearing traditional clothes; in the Khmu villages, most of the men and kids and some of the women wore Western clothes. Sitha took us to visit a couple houses. We also saw the local blacksmiths making the machetes used to cut bamboo and grass. The were using old bomb shells as anvils! We also visited a hut where an older woman was making incense used in prayers for sick people and other situatons. Sitha explained that when someone is really sick, the Hmong first pray to the spirits, then if that doesn't work, will head for the hospital (this probably all has something to do with the fact that there's no road access to the village and medical care is very expensive). Then just as we were leaving that hut, we heard the sounds of a gong coming from another hut. There
was a three-year-old boy who was very sick, so that exact ceremony was taking place. And a sacrificial goat was being butchered outside. Ashifa volunteered her services and the family accepted some antibiotics, although they didn't seem keen on her looking examining the baby.

Dr. Shif was actually very busy on this trek. Our two trekking companions were both sick on the second day and required a little attention. Then our guide came down with either the same bug or something worse. He was up most of the night with really bad vomiting, diarrhea, and cramps. He is either not sick very often or is a bit of a drama queen, but he was moaning that he was going to die and he'd never see his family again. Poor guy. Our first aid kit has gotten a workout on this trip, but luckily we still had a few things that could help him. He was a bit better in the morning, and the trekking company sent a replacement for him and he headed back to town. We seem to be bad luck for guides - that's the second one who's had to evacuated out mid-trek!

That second night we stayed with another family, this time in a village that was along the main road. So were a little less of a novelty. We walked through the village to the river where the braver among us took a bath in the (really, really) cold water. Bathing is not a very private activity here. Ashifa and shared a Beerlao with the granddad of the family we stayed with. He didn't speak English, and we don't speak his language, but we managed to have a good time through some key words (we know how to toast in Khmu now), some silly gestures, and a lot of laughing. We got to try a few local delicacies on the trek too. Ashifa tried blood soup (I said no thanks) and we both tried rat. Not the worst thing I've ever tasted, but I didn't go back for seconds. We finished up our trek with a day of kayaking down the Ou and Mekong Rivers.