Zen and the Art of Motorbikin'

Needing to feel the wind in my hair, sun on my face, see some rice fields and feel glad to be alive, I suggested hiring scooters for a day and heading off into the wild green yonder. So we did...

Four Australians on three Japanese scooters.  We looked tough; we looked like a bikie gang. We WERE a bikie gang.

Tough - but fair

(yeah, I'm not convinced either)

 

We headed off in the general direction of Buddha Park. I have vague recollections of having been there before. It remember it was tacky and a bit decrepit.

 

We followed the guy with the GPS. He suggested the scenic route. I naively agreed.

 

Country roads - that's Martin in the distance

 

As we reached the outskirts of Vientiane (which didn't take long) the roads started to get thinner and wobblier.  Then they got dirtier. In fact, for a lot of the scenic route, the roads were dirt. And holes.

 

Dirt roads with many wet potholes

 

This picture shows one of the rutted red roads we negotiated. It's by no means one of the bad ones. There was no way I was going to try to ride one handed, manoeuvre around those holes and piles of dirt and the odd goat or two and take a photo at the same time. I would have been eating dirt in no time!

 

On the way we saw a lot of temples. Maybe about 20 or more. Every village had one or two. We stopped at one. A monk came out to chat and take photos.

 

Martin and a monk

 

Amidst the blue sky, fluffy white clouds, bright green rice fields and red-brown roads, the temples were strikingly gold and glittery. There's a lot of attention paid to the glittery bits. They shine and twinkle and make you forget that you are standing near a dead cat and a pile of old plastic bags.

 

Village temple

 

We rode alongside the Mekong River with Thailand on the other side.

 

Riverside Riding

 

This is an Isaan/Lao style temple on the Thai side of the river.

 

One of the things I was keen to see was Laos countryside. I knew it was out there. I'd seen it once a long time ago and more recently I'd seen pictures. It's not far away. Within a couple of kilometres I was seeing rural scenes that are postcard-worthy. Or at least blog-worthy.

 

Stay there, kids, I'm comin' through.

 

At one point a herd of stampeding goats came running at us with wild eyes and tails high and barking dogs at their heels. One of us was slightly startled and had to dodge a few galloping goats. (Not me). It was hilarious. I wished I had my camera in my hand!

Here's a family out for a day trip on the tractor

 

 I remembered the green of young rice fields as almost luminescent. It still is. Not sure if you can see this colour in the same way as I did but it hurts your eyes it is so fresh and crisp and gorgeously green.

That green is astoundingly, um, green.

 

Eventually - and I think it took about two and half hours of rumbling and shaking and dodging potholes and concentrating on the flattest part of the rutted road, we arrived at Buddha Park! Phew.

 

 

Buddha Park

 

Buddha Park was built by a rich eccentric guy in the 50s. It's bigger than I remembered.  And better. It's basically full of concrete statues of Buddhist and Hindu deities and characters. There are Shivas and Buddhas and Ganeshes. they were astounding.  And weird. And some were just tacky.  It was great! Here's some pictures:

This one is eating the moon.

Lots and lots of statues

Love these creepy guys!

 

Rows and rows of stones

 

Lots more statues (sick of them yet?)

 

Elcira climbing out at the top of the pumpkin

 

Here's some risk takers on top of the pumpkin. We endured some of the thinnest, steepest, unsafest staircases to get to the top. But it was worth it!

 

And here's a picture of the pumpkin thing. It's actually a structure representing various levels of hell.

 

Great pumpkin of hell. Or something like that.

 

And here's the view from on top of the pumpkin thing. The great big lying down Buddha was about, oh, lots of metres long and pretty tall. The topiary was interesting, too.

Buddha park from the top of the thing

 

On the way home we saw more pretty rural scenes of (probably poor and definitely nonunionised) farm labourers and green rice fields and we copped a whole lot more sunshine without the protection of conical bamboo hats.

 

Planting of the green stuff

 

Digging the red-brown stuff

 

Arriving home slightly sunburnt and tired I was satisfied I had seen a little bit of rural Laos - or at least the edges-of-the-city rural bits.

 

Vols on wheels. Heading back into the city.

 

Oh, and I am DEFINITELY going to buy a scooter now. I loved the freedom, the independence, the wind in my hair (despite the helmet that would have Eric Estrada green with envy) and what a great way to get away from squealing tuk tuks and the smell of death (or is that just rotting mangoes?)

 

Sad News

I came home tonight after an evening of exercise and fun with my new friends to find out that my boss died today - suddenly and unexpectedly.

She was young - maybe early 40s? Went into coma less than 2 days ago. I am not sure what happened. Possibly a brain haemorrhage.

She had kids. She laughed a lot. Often at me. On Tuesday, (the day she went into the coma) she thought it was hilarious that I had spent an hour getting to work because I took the wrong bus and had an unexpected trip around town. She told everyone. Several times.

Somphanh spoke pretty good English, had a great grasp on what was going on in the LFTU and was a great resource and support for me for the past 3 weeks. Our desks were close, she was in charge of my project. I was looking forward to getting to know her better. She has been telling me to stop eating sticky rice or it will make me fat.

Somphanh has worked for years on workers' welfare projects, HIV projects and was managing the training department at the Laos Federation of Trade Unions. She was well respected. She was a strong sister and advocate for bettering Laos workers' conditions.

It's really sad and a great loss to many.

Could have been any one of us. May you live long and prosper.

Transport in Laos - Getting around and carrying stuff

This post is especially for my nephews and niece who might find this interesting - Lachlan, Thomas, Finn, Alanah and maybe even Joel will enjoy it too.

Here's just SOME of the ways that Lao people get around and carry stuff. Although it's a pretty quiet place really, there are lots of cars and motorbikes and tuk tuks around - especially when you are trying to cross the road and it's raining and there's no gap in the traffic!

You can see these pictures more clearly if you click on them - they should open up as a larger image.
Hope you enjoy them!

Getting a lift home from work

All the vegie carts in the car park (cart park?) at the market

Traffic on one of the main road of Vientiane

My bus on its way home

 

A tuk tuk

Ewww, Pooh on his motorbike seat

A truck

An electric bus

Playing his DS while getting a lift with Mum

 

Monks on the way back to the temple

 

Bikes and Tuk tuks and cars

 

A tuk tuk truck

lots of tuk tuks

Tuk tuks can carry whatever you want them to

peak hour on the main road

 

 

A bike on a bus

Coffee? Tea? Worm Excrement?

There's a jar on the coffee\tea table at my Friday office labelled (in English):

"Mulberry Worm Excrement Tea (Xiengkuang)
Reduced cholesterol, reduce high blood pressure"

Glad it is labelled. It looks just like coffee granules.

 No I will not try it. Thanks all the same.

What I reckon about this place

The following "opinion piece" (essay? ramble?) is just what I reckon and may not have any relationship with “the truth” (whatever that is)

Lao People’s Democratic Republic. Laos. One of the "last bastions of communist ideology".  It's tranquil. It’s hot. And often bit wet. Definitely confusing at times. Sometimes surprisingly organized. Usually it looks like chaos but everyone seems to be calm. I rarely hear a raised Lao voice or see anger or frustration. Except in crying babies. And even then not so much. Road rage doesn’t seem to exist – it’s certainly not common. It would be seriously frowned upon. The Lao way to deal with an idiot on a motorbike who cuts you off is to just make way for them. And smile. Plus the food is fabulous.

 

People generally seem sweet and caring. Twice I have lost my umbrella and twice people have made an effort to find me to give it back. One tuk tuk driver was doing laps looking for me to hand it back. People have asked me if I need help quite often (must be the confused look on my face). Haggling over prices is expected and done with a smile and a laugh.

Workplace health and safety stats how this place is a disaster zone. The APHEDA website  explains how this slow, beautiful, little country is one of the poorest in Asia and has one of the highest occupational death rates with 28.8 fatalities per 100,000 people, around nine times higher than Australia.

The importing and use of asbestos is scary. Canada, Russia and China are making a mint - not many other countries will buy their asbestos anymore. Laos will. The dangerous behaviours I see as I walk past any of the hundreds of construction sites is scary, too. I was sure the other day that I was about to witness a worker fall 20 metres to a nasty end. (He didn’t). The legal minimum wage is now $78 USD per month. Mid-level public servants earn around $300 per month (I think – hard to determine). (And my rent on a 2 bedroom flat is $400 per month)

 

Road accidents are common and fatalities and head trauma, especially in motorcycle accidents, are common and expensive. Helmet laws exist but are not well enforced.

After cremation, some people’s bones and ashes are placed in a jar (sometimes a recycled food jar with a plastic lid) and cemented into small spirit-house memorial things on pedestals with a picture and dates. No avoiding the reminder of your own mortality.

Religious things – temples, statues, spirit houses, monks, parades of people throwing rice, strings of flowers for hanging off religious things, offerings to the ancestors – are everywhere. Strangely, though, no one has asked me about my religious beliefs yet. (I copped this question often in Thailand where I think religion is generally a bigger deal than here).

As for many countries experiencing poverty, issues like saving the environment, raising the status of women, helping disadvantaged people achieve their potential, protecting owls and tigers and reducing the national intake of palm oil and MSG are pipe dreams. Or not even dreams – not even thoughts. Yet.

I’m told Vientiane is not like the rest of Laos. It’s not even like the Vientiane I remember from 15 years ago. It’s richer, there are fancy cars on paved roads, money has been poured into large, dramatic and impressive public buildings.  Many, many rice fields and traditional wooden homes have been bulldozed to make way for large concrete apartment blocks, hotels, office blocks and suburbs. There are fat locals around. Some people are doing well.

 

The rate that this place is growing is astounding. I can’t imagine how confusing it must be for older locals. Then again, most older locals are probably living in much improved conditions with running water and electricity (most of the time) and access to good quality tobacco. ‘I no complain’.

But there are still beggars, poverty, disease, infection, cross-infection, poor grubby hospitals, doctor shortages, long waiting lists for blood from the Red Cross, poorly constructed drains, broken footpaths and food handling standards and OHS regulations either don’t exist, are not enforced or not known. And it’s mostly really hot.

I haven’t seen the rest of Laos for ages but I’m reliably informed that’s where the abject poverty, lack of education and infrastructure, desperation and the farming of fields rife with unexploded bombs still are. I have heard several times about areas of the country that can’t access enough food for a couple of months each year so they all go hungry. No wonder people eat moles and bats and grasshoppers.

Rivers that I once was lucky enough to slowly traverse in a small local boat, are being dammed and villages and mountainsides are being flooded. Chinese money (mostly) and lots of foreign workers are changing the landscape. Powers-that-be want to change the economy of the nation by becoming the “Battery of Asia” – creating electricity to sell to Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, China and Cambodia. The Mekong is being depleted, the dolphins are nearly all gone (I heard there are 6 left) and elephants, tigers, rhinos and the Asian Unicorn (seriously! its called that) are endangered.

Unexploded bombs litter great tracts of land making it useless or dangerous. Limbs and lives are lost because of these little balls of horror.

Laos girls are sold into the sex industry and trafficked across the border. Access to young girls is promoted online by westerners seeking a Thai-beach-style experience for a few days. Women are generally seen as equal – equal pay, not-yet-equal-but-not-too-bad representation in government positions, power within the household – but held on tight leashes that control their behaviour, dress, looks and living arrangements. Mistresses are common, but a cheating wife is totally ostracized. Female sexuality is micro-managed so that they do not entice, infect or reduce protective charms or seduce boys, men and monks – unless they are supposed to (and then the skirts are very short and the bare shoulders shimmy).

I’ve heard people say they think the work ethic here is one of laziness. Sure, things work at a different pace, but I keep meeting really hard working people.  Many people have second jobs. Even third ones. My colleague Noy works all week and studies all weekend. She is doing a masters degree as well as raising two young kids, running the household and taking care of her husband and her widowed mother. She never has time off. She rushes home some lunch times to cook. Other lunch times, like right now as I write this, she is studying and finishing assignments at her desk. Her mother does a fair bit of the child minding. Noy says she is lucky because that means she can study.

Education is revered and getting a university degree is on the agenda for many, many kids – especially here in Vientiane, anyway. And overseas degree is even more desired. In the past , USSR and East Germany had scholarship arrangements and there are many Laos who speak German and some speak Russian. It’s that commie connection.

 

It’s SO BEAUTIFUL too.  After the heavy rains last night this morning was fresh and bright and clean. Flowering trees have enormous blossoms. Gold-painted eaves and gold leaf rubbings glint off temples, statues and pretty hanging things. Everyone smiles a lot. Barbecued banana for breakfast is the best. Pawpaw salad is tasty and fresh and delicious for lunch. Family is more important than work or career, work ethic is relaxed and if things can’t be done or take too much effort then maybe they aren’t that important after all. Individualism as we know it is unfamiliar  - why would anyone want to be alone when you can have love and support and friendship around you? People work to ensure strong emotions are not generated (not just quelled but not actually generated). Meditation and just sitting around are common pastimes. So is lying around in front of the TV. Internet access is everywhere in the city and cheap (albeit not always reliable). Many people have cable TV and watch a mix of Laos, Thai, Chinese and American TV shows. Usually bad ones in my opinion (Thai soaps have not improved in the years since I tried to follow one).

I’m rich here. Even just having a passport makes me rich (I can leave). I can afford to live alone. I work in an air conditioned office. I eat out as much as I want to. I can even afford to buy a 3 litre cask of gin (if I wanted to).

Life for me is good. I really hope in a year’s time I consider myself a small part of a solution rather than just a part of a problem. (And that I have lost a few kilos and have achieved an even tan on my feet.)