My favorite landmarks in Laos

Wat Xieng Thong

There are so many beautiful temples in Thailand and Laos, it would be pointless to visit them all. After a while, they all begin to look more or less the same. They all have lots of gold paint, Buddha statues, and marigold offerings. Yes, I finally figured out why they cultivate marigolds around here. They use the orange blossoms to adorn the temples.

Luang Namtha stupa

Every once in a while, a temple or landmark intrigues me so that I take a closer look. The stupa in Luang Namtha, for example. I was told that this is a new stupa, rebuilt where the old one was destroyed by an American bomber in 1966. What I found interesting is that they left the remains of the old stupa and built the new one next to the old one, perhaps leaving the old one as a reminder.

Detail on Wat Xieng Thong

In Luang Prabang, I was drawn to the Wat Xieng Thong, because it’s different from the usual golden temples. This one is covered in emerald colored glass instead of the usual gold. The outside walls are detailed mosaics in tiny pieces of colored glass, depicting everyday life. Beautiful.

Arc de Triomphe of Vientiane

And in Vientiane, the capital city of Laos, where the French influence can’t be missed, with the baguettes and croissants, wine shops, restaurants serving salade Niçoise, and so on, the most prominent landmark has to be the Lao version of the Arc de Triomphe. They say that it’s just a heap of ugly concrete, but looking from afar, it’s surrounded by a well-manicured garden and I like it.

Leeeech!!!

Cooling off under a waterfall

So I wanted to do some serious hiking. And I got serious jungle hiking. So much so that I have officially declared a moratorium on jungle hiking until further notice. The jungle in Laos is about as hot and humid as the jungle in Thailand. I sweated profusely all the time and exploited every opportunity to jump into a river or to cool off under a waterfall.

Hiking in the Lao jungle

Because it is still the end of the monsoon season, the jungle is wet and that means leeches abound. I have never seen a leech before, much less had one bite me. Until now. I was forewarned, I wore long pants and I pulled my socks over the cuffs of my pants, but these yucky pests get in nevertheless. I was actually quite lucky for there was no leech on the first day, only one on the second day and on the third day I was so nervous about getting another one that I finally figured out what our guide did: he checked his shoes about every two minutes and had a lighter handy to burn off any buggers that dared touch him. So I didn’t get any leeches on the third day because I also checked myself every two minutes and I stayed close to the guide so that whenever I spotted a leech climbing or burrowing into the seams of my shoe, I asked him to burn it off. He really enjoyed zapping them. Needless to say, I was so relieved when the jungle was over. I thought I might even dream leeches.

Bicycling among rice fields

After the jungle hiking I rented a bicycle in Luang Namtha for a day of sightseeing around town. I discovered that bicycling is a much more pleasurable sport than hiking in the hot and humid jungle. There are no leeches on the roads, the wind blows so it isn’t so unbearably hot, the traffic goes on the right side of the roads in Laos (it's on the left in Thailand) which is fine with me and there isn’t too much of it so that is seems reasonably safe to be on the road.

Lao hill tribe villages Part 2: Lanten village

Lanten woman and her children returning from the field

On our second night we visited a Lanten village. This village seemed more advanced than the Khmu village from the previous night. Most of the houses in the Lanten village have electricity which was evident from fluorescent lights on the porches. The houses don't have indoor plumbing, but unlike at the Khmu village, there wasn’t just one central communal water fountain to be used by all. Rather, there were many such outdoor fountains, each one serving a small number of houses.

Curious village children gather around the falang

The villagers were much less shy in this village compared to the previous one. It seems that all the children from the village gathered around the house where we were staying. They mostly just observed, and they certainly didn’t beg. They probably knew that we would buy them candy, which of course we did. They asked questions, showed us magic tricks, played cards with us and so on. Some of the children spoke quite a bit of English so that we were able to communicate basics such as how old they are, how many brothers and sisters they have, how to count, how to name parts of the body and colors. I noticed that some of the girls spoke English just as well as the boys because they all go to school, despite tribal traditions which would allow only men to know how to read and write.

The village children joined us at the table

Upon our arrival in the Lanten village we noticed that the water barrel in the tourist toilet was almost empty. It was my impression that only women carry water in hill tribe villages so I offered to fetch water for the toilet. I asked our guide for a bucket and he wasn’t too thrilled. Apparently tourists, or falang as they refer to us, don’t work. But he obliged anyway and handed me the smallest bucket from the kitchen. I got a surprise at the water fountain: in this village, both men and women carry water! During the time it took me to bring the one small bucket of water to the toilet, someone must have sent the village boys for water and the barrel was full before I even had a chance to go for a second bucket.

Although the water carrying is shared equally between men and women, bathing is still a no-no for women. We all bathed in the river, but just like the previous night, falang women were covered up. One of the girls in our group thought that there may be a way to find a shower in the village. I found that slightly bizarre, because even if there was a shower, the water definitely came straight from the river so it would make no difference if she just soaped up in the river. But she asked the girls who were milling around and they understood what she wanted and were happy to show her where she could shower. I went along because I was curious. The girls danced happily down the path – and led us towards the river! Sure enough, behind some bushes we saw two local women dressed in sarongs washing themselves in the river. So much for a shower.

Village girls playing with our hair

The adults of the village were not as forthcoming as the children, but some of them, both men and women, did join us after dinner. One very old man who spoke some English asked outright if we would buy him a beer, which we did. Another one joined us at the table, bringing a bunch of bananas and we offered him beer in return. It wasn’t until later that our guide told us that the guy wants to be paid for the bananas, which we had mostly eaten by then, thinking it polite to accept what he offered. We naturally assumed that if a guy joins our table and drinks our beer, his bananas were meant as a gift. Well, they weren’t.

Overall, I couldn’t say that I had much connection with the local people from the hill tribe villages on these two short visits. In the first village, they mostly didn’t care that we came and in the second, although they didn’t beg, they knew well enough that there would be plenty of beer for them if they approached us. I did learn a few Lao words such as "hello" (sabaidee) and "thank you" (kupjai). There was no need to find out the Lao word for beer. Everyone, including locals, calls it just by its brand name, Beerlao.

Lao hill tribe villages Part 1: Khmu village

A boy from the Khmu village

Trekking to a hill tribe village in Laos was one of the activities I wanted to do even before I left on this trip. As usual, the actual experience was quite different from how I imagined it.

I was lucky to find a group that I could join on a three day and two night trek from Luang Namtha. October is still the low tourist season and agencies don’t have a number of people lined up for treks so they only book pre-formed groups. Fortunately Luang Namtha is a small town, there is only one major road and a few restaurants where all the tourists hang out and most of us were looking for trekking anyway. It was easy to spot each other and very quickly eight of us formed a group so that we could sign up for the trek at one of the agencies.

Khmu village

We spent the first night in a Khmu village located on the Namtha River. Contrary to what I expected we didn’t actually have much contact with the local people. The villagers mostly ignored us. They are probably used to the hordes of tourists that come to their village and may even be annoyed by the intrusion. They have their own life to live and their own work to do.

A decent road leads up to the village where a truck delivered our food and bottled water. The villagers apparently don’t own any vehicles, at least I didn’t see any. Electrical cables run up to the village, but only a few houses actually have electricity. There was one house with a satellite dish and the village shop has a refrigerator. None of the houses in the village have indoor plumbing.

Water fountain

There is one communal water fountain in the village and it was busy from earliest morning until it became dark at night. Only women gathered around, to wash clothes, dishes, brush their teeth, and mainly to fill water buckets that they carried back to their houses. I approached the fountain to brush my teeth and wasn’t sure what was the protocol, how should I let them know that I’m waiting for my turn at the faucet. The women were very nice and motioned for me to go ahead.

There is a school in the village with two classrooms for the many children who live there. I was able to give them the school supplies that I carried with me from home. They seemed happy to accept them although I got the impression that since so many tourists bring stuff to them they aren’t really all that in need of pencils and notebooks.

Village boys swimming in the river

The boys spent all afternoon having fun in the river. The girls were probably at home because I didn’t see any except when they came out to get water at the fountain. We, the tourists needed a swim after the long hike up to the village. The guys could go right in, but it was more delicate for the women. None of the local women were in the river and the guide told us that we could go if we cover up. I decided to jump in fully dressed since my clothes were so sweaty from the hike, they were wet already. Some of the other girls used sarongs that the guide borrowed from the village women. In the evening, a couple of local men came to join us as we sat around, drinking beer. Unfortunately they didn’t speak any English, but they accepted beer and the rest of the evening was spent singing.

Piglet running freely in the village

It was my impression that while life in the village is basic, the people are not really poor. They appear well fed and nicely clothed. The village is clean, the fields around it are cultivated and they have domestic animals running around.

Cooking a banana flower in the jungle

Here is a step-by-step procedure how to cook a banana flower stew in the jungle.

The first step is to spot a banana tree with a suitably ripe flower. In order to reach the flower, the banana tree must be chopped down:

I was horrified to witness the sacrifice of an entire tree for a single flower. However, a banana is technically not a tree but a herbaceous plant that dies after bearing fruit. So the plant would have died anyway after it produced bananas and I guess it is acceptable to kill a few plants for their flowers before the bananas ripen. The jungle is overgrown with banana plants so I hope we didn't cause too much environmental damage by taking a few banana flowers.

The banana flower looks heavy! It is hauled out of the jungle from where the banana plant was felled:

The outer layers of the banana flower are peeled off:

The jungle is also abundant with bamboo which can be used to make many useful tools. The thinner bamboo stems can be made into walking sticks, the thicker ones into cooking utensils and the thickest to make benches and tables:

Here are the finished bamboo cooking vessels:

A fire was started using dead wood that can be found all over the jungle:

This is how the cooking vessels are placed over the fire. They are first soaked in water and water is added for cooking the stew:

The banana flowers get a final cleaning in the stream and additional outer layers are removed:

Pieces of the banana flower are added into the simmering stew:

Additional ingredients go into the stew including salt, two different types of green leaves (don't ask what they were, I didn't recognize either), slices of pre-cooked meat, mushrooms (also abundant in the jungle), and brown sugar:

The stew is stirred occasionally and the vessels adjusted over the fire so that it doesn't boil over. Finally, after about a half hour, the stew is done. It is served from another bamboo stem that has been cut in half lengthwise to create a trench:

Banana leaves are used as the tablecloth. And little origami boats made from banana leaves serve as spoons:

Side dishes are green beans and mounds of sticky rice that were left over from previous night's dinner.