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Other entries in Laos

samala

tour guide sellers in offices far away from the tours they're actually selling like to point to a few photos on the wall, tell you a good story (in this case about exciting, flood-stage, class 3-4 rapids), and get you worked up and excited enough that of of course say yes but then later you wonder if maybe you were a little too hasty and next thing you know, you're actually loosing a little sleep over fear of those class 3-4 rapids but actually that fear is more about the experience of the guides than wondering if you have what it takes to stay in the raft and not fall out. I mean, I survived the futulafu at 9 times flood stage afterall.... (ego, ego, ego)

SO. fitfull night of sleep, barely over the flu (still blowing out loads of ick from my nose), wake up at crack of dawn - AGAIN, eat noodle soup, load into the truck to take us 2 hours upriver.

doesn't take long for my rapid-fears to get put TOO much at ease - we can see the river through the jungle and so far I've seen NOTHING but flat. huh. and the guides start talking about how long it's been since a huge rain (less than 2 days) and how quick the river can go down. I speak "guide" pretty good so what they're really telling us is "sorry folks, you got screwed - this water is gonna be flat!". turns out the rapids are more like class 2-3.

but whatever - still had a great time! scenery amazing, we got to jump in the river and float along with the boat, we napped during the really long flat stretches (there was some sun!), we did paddle high 5s (just like in chile), ate great sticky rice/beef/bamboo shoot lunches, waved to the naked local kids waving furiously from the river banks ('samala' is 'hello' in the local dialect). was all good.

but it was only to get better. britta and I were the only ones staying overnight. we got to the village around 5 and saw the longhouse room we staying in (hope they can produce mats and mosquito nets cause I don't see any here....but have learned to be patient, all will work out). 2 of our guides are staying with us: thong and air. they broght air up from vang vieng - he's a really good guide. I think they expected big rapids for us so I'm sure he's been bored silly today.

anywhoo, thong (pronounced 'tong') is going to cook us dinner. he's so great - he LOVES being a guide, he loves to cook, he loves his job! exciting future for this young guy - nothing but opportunity ahead of him in laos - he's on the leading edge of the tourism boom. could see him owning his own company some day. and all this from a kid from a village 10 hrs by bus + 4 hr walk north of luang prabang.

so dinner was chicken. we're surrounded by chickens in this village, and our trip money paid for one of 'em so.... thong sets about killing, plucking, choping, cooking. I hadn't seen a chicken killed since I was about 6 yrs old with my grandpa. I just remember the awful smell when the dead chicken was dipped in boiling water. somethings don't change. the whole thing was great to watch.

while thong was cooking dinner, I was watching the mom of our homestay make a cone-shaped offering out of banana leaves. was thinking "man I love these buddhists - always making offerings". well turns out, this was for US. after dinner (which was by candle-light, tho not for romance but cause there's no electricity), 10 other villagers show up and sit around this offering. they give us silk sarongs to wear around our shoulders and show how to sit with feet pointing out of the circle for respect (cool, but ouch!). there are also tiny plates of cakes, sticky rice, lao lao (whisky). and all is bathed in candle light so I'm already blown away by how spectacular this is.

the village elder starts chanting and saying a few words. next thing I know, we're surrounded by vilagers tying these strings around our wrists and saying their own chants. doooooode, it was so COOL! at one point I had 6 villagers surrounding me tying stings onto one, then the other wrist, all at different stages of the same chant. it was like 'row row row your boat' gone nuts-o.

in the end, my wrists were covered in strings. now I have to keep them on for 3 days, then cut off. I've since learned the meaning of this ceremony - performed at weddings, anytime you are leaving home (school, war, etc). its for when you are either so happy or sad that your spirit leaves you - this ceremony is to call your spirit back. I'm all for the return of my spirit so felt VERY lucky that this happened.

after the string tying, we passed around the lao lao (hurray!). everyone drank - even the old ladies with no teeth. then another cool thing happened. air noticed this guy outside who looked just like his dad. well turns out it's his uncle who he "met only once before" (which turned out to be when he was born, so that technically doesn't even count I think...). this was a HUGE deal! and turned out the uncles' wife was in the room with us the whole time. he knoew they lived 'in a village outside LP' but had no idea where. air asked us if it'd be OK if he said hello. hell yes - please, don't even ask! so he met uncle, aunt, cousins he'd never met. it really was a magical night for everyone!

the village elder had asked, through thong "why would these westerners want to travel all this way to stay in our little village that has nothing?". I could think of a thousand reasons why and I'm still coming up with them. I hope some of them made it through the translation.

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