Given my last post, the obvious place to start would be: I'm still
stuck. A more more accurate description of my situation would be that
for about two weeks I have said, 'I am leaving tomorrow' and 'I guess
this means that I'm staying one more day' at some point during each
day. The thinking that has led to the first statement has been the
same during the last couple of weeks; 'It feels like I should be moving
on by now, I've got more things to see than time to see them. So, I am
leaving tomorrow'. 'I guess this means that I'm staying one more day'
has been a response or reaction to a dizzying (and even nauseating)
variety of circumstance.
I enjoyed the two day boat trip to
Luang Prabang from the north of Laos with a big group of people and
made some good friends. The slow boat was an incomparable experience-
floating lazily down the Mekong on a boat packed with tourists. In
retrospect the slow boat experience seems a little like the kind of zoo
where the people are contained in a bus or train and the animals are
free; here all the tourists are crammed into a boat from which they can
see but not touch Laotian life. From Houay Xi to Luang Prabang, the
Mekong moves slowly through a landscape of jungle and mountains. There
are occasional villages on the banks of the Mekong as well as isolated
plots of agriculture near the river which are worked by farmers of the
hill tribes who make their way from their mountain villages to the
river to make use of the unique environment. The life which I saw on
along the river was as free of the effects of tourism and modernity as
any that I have seen. Many people and probably every child waved and
smiled, but the interaction could not go much further as we wouldn't
get off of the boat. The slow boats are intended to carry tourists,
but as they are just about the only boats making the long trip from the
north of Laos to Luang Prabang in the center, they also carry Laos
people and occasionally deliver goods along the river. We stopped a
couple of times to exchange cargo- we took chickens and dried grass
which would become brooms and delivered bags of rice and for one very
excited child, a bike. These stops only lasted minutes and ended with
people hanging out of the boat and taking pictures at waving children.
I posted one of these pictures here and could not have felt like more
of a tourist taking it, but the children were really happy for the the
attention so i went for it.
We arrived in Luang Prabang at twilight after two full days of
floating on the river. For everybody this was enough time; for most
too much. I was lucky to have met made friends with at least six
people and enjoyed my time with the group, individuals and just
watching Laos pass by. In Luang Prabang I searched for a guesthouse
with my group of friends and for two weeks, I have been the only one of
us still there.
After four or five days in Luang Prabang, my
first intended departure was delayed because it had rained and my
laundry had not been able to dry- I had planned on leaving with a
couple of friends for a smaller town to the north but had to postpone
it. I stayed the next couple of days with a couple i had met on the
boat, went to the waterfalls and saw most of the wats (temples) of
Luang Prabang. The day before the couple, Thilo and Kavita, left I was
playing ukulele at the street market and met a couple of guys who were
traveling by bike- Lauren from China and Devon from northern Laos.
Rather than continue by bus, I was inspired to find a bike and see some
of the rural life that they were raving about as I made my way south.
During the next two days, I got everything together that I need for the
trip together and was ready to leave the next day. That night I was
waiting for Devon (who i was sharing a room with) to return with the
key. Devon hopped up the stairs around eleven o'clock with a sprained
ankle. Devon plans were changed at this point and so mine too. I
spent the next week helping Devon get back on his feet... It took six
days to find him crutches and during this time he was completely unable
to walk. After finding what I believe to be the only available pair of
crutches in Luang Prabang and bringing him a sandwich and a fruitshake
three times daily, my conscience freed me to leave Devon and begin my
bike tour. On this particular 'last day in Luang Prabang' I went
swimming with a group of friends- we walked away from town along the
Nam Khan river a ways before getting in and moving with the current
back to the Mekong river and the heart of Luang Prabang. The journey
was really fun and I am glad that I did it. The current was strong in
places, though not unmanageable; it was wonderful to let the river
carry us back into town and toplay with some of the groups of kids spending their afternoons in the water. This particular day was Boun Makabousa- Laos' celebration of the anniversary of the Buddha
's first teaching. This meant that for most of the day monks were
drumming in the temples and during our roughly two kilometer journey,
we could hear the pounding drums from at least one temple. The
drumming at the temples in Luang Prabang has been very different from
that which I have heard and seen elsewhere; here the rhythms seem to be
spontaneous and constantly changing and the spirit of the playing seems
to be that of wildness more than of meditation. I've seen novice monks
furiously pounding on huge ancient drums and cymbals and though it is
skillful and appears to be reverent, it really sounds like the
excitement of youth; it was a nice backdrop to the afternoon and I
really felt like a child.
The rivers of Laos not only irrigate crops and move people and
freight, but also sewage. Of course I knew that this would be the
dirtiest water I have swam in (excepting perhaps Green Lake), but this
is travel and it is sometimes necessary to suspend the standards of
cleanliness and safety of home. I ended up getting pretty sick to my
stomach the day after my adventure in the river and for the four or
five days after did little more than lay around and try to eat again.
Yesterday I went to the bus station twice to catch a bus up into the
mountains between here and Vang Vieng. I was 'early' each time; early
being a relative term. I have learned that buses leave when they leave
here- if you got on the bus, you were early, if not, you were late.
I am happy enough to still be here.
After two months of travel and a month of school, it has been nice to
be in one place for awhile with nothing that i have to do. Luang
Prabang is certainly unique among the many places I have been on this
trip. I am daily impressed by the feeling of contentment and ease of
the Laotian people here and more than anything, i think that it is this
feeling which has kept me here. I have been content to wander or sit
here, to talk or not; each day I have been as happy to stay as to not,
happy to realize when enough is enough.
