Off the Grid

Pardon my absence - the last few days I was in a town with no central electricity, internet, ATM - nada. (The few days prior to that, I have no excuse - just hanging out in Luang Prabang where I continued to teach at night and relax during the day.)

We set out on the 8th for a town called Nong Khiaw. We arrived by minibus 4 hours later to see a moderately-sized village set on the Nam Ou river, with mountains lining the riverbanks. It was a beautiful place. We had planned to stay there that night and head up to the next town the following day, but decided to go straight to the second town. It was an hour boat ride to the next town, Muang Ngoi Neua. What luck that we decided to go - it was a magnificient town: beautiful scenery and a perfect blend of authentic, rustic village with some tourist benefits. Well that statement could be argued - there was no ATM, Internet, actually, no centralized eletricity. :) But it was a wonderfully quiet and beautiful town, completely in tune with the cycles of village life.

There was one dusty road (just for walking. no motorbikes or cars used within the town) on which you saw the trademarks of rural life: dogs sleeping in the middle of the street, chickens with their chicks walking around, small shopfronts of basic services like laundry, snacks, etc, (mainly geared to tourists, even though there were few of us), and, of course, heaps of children. It could seem like the entire town is made up of children, if it weren't for the adults you see tending the stores on the road, or the gardens off the sides. A vibe that is unbeatable. And this is all set with a backdrop of mountains if you look up, or the river if you look down on the other side of the road.

We settled into a guesthouse called @moon, which was run by a swedish guy, Ted, and his wife, who is Lao (and their adorable son who is 8 months). This was great luck - having a non-partial, english-speaking host makes navigating the town much easier. We could ask him about trails, boatrides, where to exchange money, etc. Plus the chance for chilled-out nights on the porch drinking tea and chatting about a range of things.

The exciting amentities about this guesthouse were: hot showers, western-style toilets and electricity all day! This was rare for the town - typically electricity only exists from 6-10pm when they run the generators, but Ted had something installed that let him make electricity from the river (yeah i know there is a term for this - hydroelectric power i guess). The toilets, even though they were regular porcelin toilet seats, didnt have automatic flush, so you still have flush them like squat toilets. What does that mean, you may ask? There is a big bucket of fresh water with a small scoop next to the toilet. You scoop water from the bucket and dump it in the toilet to "flush" it. The hot "showers" were great though - really. The shower wasn't in the room - you walk to the back of the guest house to a stall. There is a family that lives right behind the guesthouse, and heats up hot water for the baths. When you get to the stall, they bring you over a bucket of hot water. You use the bucket /scoop system to mix some cold water into the hot water basin. Then you use the scoop to pour the water on yourself. I thought it would be really annoying, but I actually really enjoyed it. There was no loud rush of water on your ears the whole time and water isnt in your face the whole time - its a more gentle shower. Of course, it helps to have a wonderful ambient temperature outside :) otherwise it could be miserable. They also have a hot steam room with herbs set up, cost a little extra ($2), but I did that one day. Amazing. Actually Ted let me go for free because Dave and I had serious money problems due to lack of ATM and bad planning :)

Every morning around 7am, the sounds outside are too loud to stay asleep: dozens of roosters crowing at each other, a radio playing traditional music, babies crying, kids talking, parents chatting, pots clanging, and more. It's an uninterupted stream. Fascinating. The main reason is that there are no real walls - the houses walls are just thatching, and anyway, most of life takes place outside, under the houses if they are on stilts, or on the streets and in the yards.

On the first night, we were lucky enough to take part in a big party in the village. There was an environmental conference of about 75 people going on from 45 small fishing villages about the dam building on the river. Many of the people at the conference were from Thai fishing villages or environmental groups. Laos, with China's backing has planned for many dams, with some electricity gain for China as a result of the financial backing. This is a huge environment problem and will literally destroy these fishing towns. But - in Laos there is no protesting, the people have no say and would be punished if they even tried to create any organized opposition. So this was just a peaceful conference, it almost felt like a goodbye to the river as it was.

Everyone gathered together that night in the village meeting place, which was an open area with a roof on the side of the main path with. The Lao community did traditional dances and musical performances, and there was a religious Basci ceremony. I befriended some of the Thai environmentalists, who were these cool, old, hippie guys. They pulled me into the Basci ceremony which was cool. After that, a showing of a river documentary. The one guy that was my friend, Guratee, also played in the Thai band and his group was the one that did the film. He was totally genuine and was so happy to see everyone together. "everybody happy, everybody together. community - you dont find this in NY." he would say with a smile.

All this was followed by food and plenty of Lao Lao. Lao Lao is homemade rice vodka that is drunk for any reason at any time of the day. In fact, we had Lao Lao earlier that day when some of the convention people came to chat to Ted at the guest house. There is one glass and one guy that controls the bottle. He pours you a shot and you take it and then he pours one for the next guy. It goes on and on. Needless to say, I was ready for bed by 9:30.

The second day, I again caught the Thai guys while walking through the town. They pulled me into the farewell ceremony - which consisted of some singing and dancing on the street (maybe only 30 people this time) with of course, Lao Lao. 10:30am is not too early to drink in this town. I eventually walked to the river with other village people to see them off by boat. I am supposed to go visit them in Thailand, we shall see :) What good people. "the soul, the soul is so important" was another thing Guratee would repeat - even with his limited english, we were on the same page.

Later that day, Dave and I trekked an hour and a half to a village. We encountered some amazing landscapes. At one point, we were suddenly in a huge empty, dried up rice field with mountains all around, and cattle and water buffalo grazing everywhere. Surreal. We crossed a few streams and eventually made it to the village for lunch, with time to walk back before dark.

The next day, with our compatriate, Ron, we did a boat trip an hour and half upriver. Ron is a cool 60-year old from Kansas City, Vietnam vet and lifelong traveler. We took the boat with two village guys: Peng who served as our tour guide and his friend. We did a trek with Peng while his friend fished for our lunch. We trekked to two villages, then the boat picked us up and we went to a small deserted beach, where Peng cooked us fresh fish and potatoes on the fire, supplemented by ferns he picked form the forest and fresh papaya he brought. During the vietnam war, when US was bombing Laos as well, the people of this village lived in a cave. Peng said that is where he learned which ferns to eat. We had a great day hanging out on the island, eating and drinking Lao Lao.

The party continued when we got back to the main town - Peng invited us for more Lao Lao at his house. We bought the bottle and he provided some snacks - the typical fried, dried seaweed (delicious), peanuts, some sticky rice. All necessary for chasing the shots :) As is common, they are generous in the hopes that you will be generous to them, in other words, give some kind of "donation." And I dont fault them for that. We sat under the roof of a wall-less two story house he is in the process of building. He said it will take 2,000 US dollars, so approx four years for him to build. You can see the cement blocks which he and some workers formed indivudually, and timber lying around that he slowly acquires. I have been in this situation so many times now and its such an interesting dilemma. I will write more about that sometime.

After all the Lao Lao, I fell into bed at 7pm. But I didnt let myself sleep and pulled myself up to chat on the deck. We met this cool American couple from Seattle. They are 37 and met in the Peace Corp. Now he is a doctor and she is a phorographer. They have two sons. It's nice to see people living a happy, fulfilled life.

I'm back in Luang Prabang now - tomorrow heading to Vang Vieng which hopefully will be fun. Unfortunately (depending who you are), its known as a spring-break-for-backpackers place, but who knows could be fun and is supposedly beautiful as well. Ciao! I gotta get some rest and expedite my Lao Lao recovery.

By the way Happy Birthday Sarah and Mark!!!