When I wished I was a millionaire, lighting that Lok Kratang
lantern into the northern Thai Sky, I didn’t specify what type of Millionaire I’d
be. So it turns out that changing 7000 Thai Bhat turns you into a Lao
Millionaire at the exchange rate of 1 of my good English, to 18 thousand of
their Kip. The God of Wishes was being
too literal, and now I have a debt of good Karma to offset it. Bah-Humbug.
Welcome to Lao everybody, two days here and it’s already the weird, but not quite
wonderful…yet.
Time here slows down, and it’s been a big change from the
hustle and bustle of Thailand. The people are either lazy, really chilled out,
or they just couldn’t give a shit. Either way it seems as though folk move in
slow motion- In Matrix style, I saw a piece of toast drop off the table this
morning and do a 180 degree flip down onto its butter side. I caught it in my
teeth. Can’t let good food go to waste. I am in Luang NamTha, a northern region
of Lao in anticipation of doing a trek, but also to see much of the mystic north
that not many backpackers bother to see. So far I have been stuck in a dusty
town with goods costing in their thousands. And it is bloody cold. I had to buy
some clothes from the market today and realized that the massed produced goods
were reminiscent of the crap you get on Wembley high road, and clothes that wouldn’t
look out of place at a Polish ex-pat gathering in a North East London night
club. I plumped for skull embossed fingerless gloves, a hideously fake Puma
wooly hat, and a woolen jumper that would smell if it were to rain. Here’s to a month in Lao.
The remainder of my time in Thailand- after the twilight two
weeks in Udon- were spent in Chiang Mai and the hippy-esq town of Pai. I met
two lads in my dorm in Chiang Mai and we headed up to Pai where we proceeded to
laze the day, and drink the nights. It’s a great place for live music, and it
was a treat to hop from bar to bar listening to anything from open mics, covers
bands or a Jazz band playing to no one in particular. This spilled back into
Chiang Mai where we met another couple of travelers during the main weekend of
the Lok Kratang festival. Having met up again with Luis, a 40 year old Mexican
writer I met in Malaysia, there was some regret in not going out of town to
celebrate it with real locals in what he described as “the most spiritual experience
in my life [I was crying]”. We as travelers celebrated in more debaucherous
fashions involving three litres of Sang Song Whisky. Less spiritual, more
inebriating. In either case, the people made the place, and spending my final
week in their company set me up to take on Lao. So cheers to them, and much
Nazi Love to ‘em.
Love from Lao,
Mike xx
*I’ll say one thing about development which is that it
creates a decent infrastructure. So far my road trips in Lao have been bearable
compared to the legendary awful multi hour trips of Laos fabled past. My worst
by far was still the 3rd class 13 hour train ride from south Thailand,
which soldered my bum together into one giant arse cheek.
** How strange that I have no concept of the marauding presence
of Christmas that you will all have at home. It’s rather pleasant in many ways,
but as its my first away from home it might be a little strange. FYI my
shopping list includes: An iPod, designer fridge magnets, Family happiness and fulfillment,
A job, A f.2.8 Camera lens, and peas on
earth. In that order.
