Northern Exposure - Sam Neua

Way Up North

A weekend up north, when you live in Vientiane, is never a decision taken lightly. There are mountains, clouds, storms, small planes, minibuses and overnight sleeper buses - all of which can mean lateness, uncomfortableness, slowness, danger and possibly even death.

Still, it sounded like a good idea.

The mountains of the north



Clara and I in front of flooded rice fields near Sam Neua


A few days before Clara was to leave the country for a long time, we headed north to have a look around. It was mostly about the caves of Vieng Xai. We'd heard they were fascinating. It's where the revolution was planned and the strings were tugged. The history of this place confuses and astounds us both so we decided to pop up to Sam Neua and have a look.

(You can have a look here at the blog and pictures of our visit to the caves: Vieng Xai - the Communist Caves)

We bought tickets to fly, hoped the weather would be clear, took a day off work and I (silently, for fear of scaring Clara) wished that this wouldn't be our day to die in a plummeting, flaming aeroplane crash.



A very small plane



Northern villages and mountains and rice fields - not very far below



Arrived!

It wasn't. We survived (Clara slept through the good bits). After a fair bit of stuffing around trying to find accommodation that didn't stink or put our health at risk, we settled into a glorious little hotel that had this lighting arrangement in its lift:

Forever after known as 'the disco lift'

After squeezing our bags into our wee little room we headed straight for the local market. Me with my camera in hand and hopes of finding weirdo jungle food; Clara with hopes of cheap but gorgeous local fabrics. I scored. She didn't. Not yet.

I saw interesting food stuffs...

Marinara mix or chook food?

It tastes like, umm, chicken? Sort of?

This was once a bat. A big bat.

Chillies!!
I love how veggies and other foodstuffs are separated into neat little suggestion piles - here you go, this is about how much you'll want!

Not all the food was unfamiliar or different to what I might find at Brunswick's Saturday morning market at Ceres...

Pumpkin or zucchini flowers?

Cabbages!!  Apparently the most chemically affected vegetable in S. E. Asia.

Familiar meat, presented in slightly unfamiliar ways

Sliced, diced and julienned - pork (I think)

Then we wandered around the town. That didn't take long.

Sam Neua and its creek

Sam Neua and its rather unusual "jewel on a stand" (mirror ball) statue and town symbol

Local shop

Another local shop

Sam Neua

We saw some of the town  by foot - in the rain

Sam Neua - view from the temple on the hill

The head Monk at the temple on the hill

The 400 year old Buddha statue in the temple on the hill

Looking down on the rural edges of Sam Neua

A community at work

  

Clara wondering how many photos I can take of one small temple on a hill

Kids throwing stones at a small animal

Downtown Sam Neua

We waited on a bus for a while to get to Vieng Xai to see the caves. There were quite a lot of others waiting, too. Waiting, waiting, waiting.

Even these guys seemed to be doing nothing other than waiting

As we had a few days in town (the plane flies every few days only), on the third day we hired a car and driver and headed off to see the Hin Tang standing stones and drive through some weaving villages.

I wrote a separate blog post about Hin Tang.  See here if you are keen: Standing stones at Hin Tang

Water buffalo - the dangers of Lao roads

 We stopped to watch traditional sinh weaving - and to buy some fabric.

Weaving on the front verandah

colouring the silks

hand painting Chinese silks before weaving them

Clara making her choice

This one uses only natural colourings - and is therefore too expensive for me! (gorgeous though)

 We stopped to look at a waterfall.

On a  bridge over a river looking at a waterfall

a rural, open-air temple next to a waterfall

We stopped at a sign that said "hot springs"

Overlooking the flooded rice fields

There were butterflies enjoying the hot water

 

We threaded our way through the flooded rice fields (as yet unplanted) towards the natural hot spring bath



We climbed in. It was very hot. We didn't stay for long.

Our plans to head home on the 3pm plane were a tad upset by the fact that overcast skies meant no plane until Wednesday. Luckily for us we were not too phased and found an alternative method to get home as soon as possible. Unfortunately it meant 14 hours in a small minibus crammed with sacks of rice and what seemed to be fifty other people, traversing a winding, mountainous road through an enormous thunderstorm. I was glad I'd bought valium.

It was quite disconcerting and a little scary and I didn't feel very much like a tourist anymore so there are no photos. I did, however, take one picture of a rather stunning array of craftily decorated toilet paper holders and a toothpick holder that was at the little café we stopped at in the storm to have noodle soup. Enjoy this last picture from the north and be craftily inspired....

crafty inspiration