Change is felt strongly now that we are just short of the border, and ready to enter Gone are western eating utensils, and in their place are chopsticks and (for us, eating with the locals), flat bottomed metal spoons for soups. Road signs are now in Lao and Chinese. Trucks carry Chinese characters. Chinese style conical hats are common. In Udomxai there were many more bicycles crowding the road, than in the south. Colourful sun umbrellas are now commonplace, as is the serving of very weak, leafy, green tea with meals.
As we left yet more bad roads and turned off for Luang Nam Tha (where this blog was loaded) trucks, some with Chinese markings, lined up both sides of the road, headed for Boten and the border 15km away. They carried huge tree roots. Just tree roots. I count twelve trucks by the roadside and at least eight more are parked nearby. Why tree roots? Chinese puzzle… For BSS people, Alasdair will make a special presentation to the winner…[very sorry, bad in-joke…].
This northern part of Laos is mountainous and everywhere green and lush. The green of rice paddies is intense. It rains every day, now, and the sunshine between, is strong and hot. As elsewhere we’ve been recently it is extremely humid. On the road the villages were tiny and poor. Women are engaged in food gathering crrying round woven baskets on their backs, or carry something for digging or a rake for gathering, or they sit by the roadside trying to sell an often meagre lot of vegetables. Sometimes with kids in tow. Corn seems popular, some bright orange. Seeds and grains of different colours are spread thinly on plastic sheets on the roadside, to dry in the sun, Men walk the roads carrying a machete, or scythe. Rather than a wrist watch I suppose (and around these parts, certainly more useful). Very occasionally, a man carries a rifle on his back. Farmer type we suppose. Surprisingly, in two days we have seen four snakes on the road, one vivid green.
On the way here we had a late breakfast at a truck stop. A driver finishes his meal, climbs aboard the front bumper to adjust a mirror, drives off. As usual we are little able communicate with the cook and food server but having given the nod to something, anything, we end up with a large bowl of boiled rice, another bowl piled high with meat cut in small pieces in a hot and spicy sauce, with a few slices of tomato and carrot (I asked Will if dog, he said beef), and a third of greens in a steaming broth. Delicious. Our meal has been cooked over an open fire. It blows the breakfast budget at 50,000kip for both of us (AUD7), but worth it. As we finish the cook/server hangs up dozens of thin strings of marinated meat on wooden skewers, for drying and smoking over her fire. We guess that what we have just eaten was the result of much the same process. Nearby us is a TV with a bedroom off. We have just eaten in the family’s living room and open kitchen.
As we wait to enter, the past ten days or so seems to have gone slowly, but perhaps this reflects the pace of life in this beautiful country, we have quickly brushed past. We have, as elsewhere, generally been treated well by those we’ve had contact with. The country has clearly however many needs, and its people likewise.
Laa kawn pqi kawn (goodbye) Laos, we have enjoyed our brief stay in your green and beautiful land, I hope, one day, to return.
[Photos: roadside truck stop kitchen and open fire; tree roots on a truck bound for China; market stalls; thatch houses? by the roadside]
No comments:
Post a Comment