Lao Children

  As we've seen across Asia, the parents here allow children quite a bit of freedom. Children here are not the center piece of the family, they are just along for the ride.  While their mothers tended their stalls at night market, small children ( 5 years old ) wandered around alone or with friends. Tiny children play in front of their house's unattended. Very small children are sent to a store on errands for the parents. There are no hovering parents here. 

    In prosperous Luang Prabang, school children enjoy a good education at their well run schools. The are taught English at an early age. ( in Vietnam and here, their parents were taught Russian ) , Thses city kids have a bright future. 

   We saw little evidence of this in the countryside. The government appears to ignore the 40 % of the country living in small villages. This population segment lives on less than a dollar a day. Their abject poverty is hard to imagine for us Westerners. 

Night Market photos

   Although most of these people are illiterate, one old lady, through motions, showed me my reading glasses would help her with sewing. I think the smile on her face speaks for itself. 

    Karen loved the inexpensive clothing, light weight cotton with colorful elephant prints. 

    The stalls went on and on, there were probably over 100. 

    I wanted to buy bomb souvenirs, but didn't want to encourage them to dig the stuff up. 

Lao markets

   We visited the night market a couple of times, the locals sell their crafts and street food here. The silks and embroidered cloth are beautiful and the venders are mellow. The market runs every night from 6 PM till 10, avoiding the searing heat of the day. I'd brought with me reading classes from Walmart. I passed out 36 pair to the old lady vendors , they loved them.They each bowed to me, clasping their hands in prayer, a Buddhist thank you. 

   Although the street food often looked tempting, we, as usual, didn't touch it. The poor simply have no coolers, ice, refrigerators, etc and eating their food is tempting fate. 

    I also visited the morning market,  ( pictures below ) held 6 AM - 9 every morning, again timed to avoid the furnace like daytime temperatures. The morning market is where the locals do their grocery shopping. I especially enjoyed seeing the bizarre fish pulled out the Mekong. The one 3 foot fish pictured had no tail fin. Clearly the river is a healthy ecosystem, there are no pollution causing population centers upstream in sparsely populated Northern Laos. 

    Although I could identify most items, some food items were baffling. I saw plates of insects ( cicadas ? ) , snake ? , wonderful hot pepper selections, unappetizing meat, gorgeous tropical fruits and nice produce. One photo shows minuscule shrimp in a aluminum strainer. 

    As they busily shopped, The locals ignored me and my picture taking.  I was the only westerner there. 

Buddhist Temples

   Luang Prabang, being the old capital and spiritual center of the country, is full of Wats, the term for Buddhist temples and monasteries. The town has a couple dozen Wats, there seem to be one on every street. The ornate buildings always have one large sitting Buddha and numerous small ones, always under a roof or in the main Temple. The grounds are manicured with flowering trees and bushes. These are active temples full of monks and praying locals. Non believers are permitted inside with proper dress ( Karen had to cover her shoulders and legs ) and no shoes. We were told to NEVER touch anything. 

   Monks are seen throughout town quietly walking in small groups. Most seem quite young and often mere boys. I only saw one older monk. On one hot day, we watched a group of young ones remove their tops and splash and play in the river in front of our hotel, their orange wet robes hanging from their waists, they acted and sounded like a bunch of kids. We were told not to touch or speak to monks. Every morning at 6AM, they proceed through town accepting alms, food given to them by the Buddhist locals, the monks give half of it the the city's  poorest. Although some tourists participate in this ritual, we were told not to as it is a Buddhist ceremony , not a tourist attraction. 

Mekong Waterfront

   The nicest part of Luang Prabang is its waterfront. I was impressed how big the river is this close to China, it appears to be 1/2 mile wide with fairly strong currents. Across the street from the river, many of the old French houses have been converted to Inns and cafes. The river is lined with palm shaded brick sidewalks fronting restaurants overlooking the busy boat traffic and fishermen below. 

   To deal with the multitude of international visitors, many restaurants have picture menus out front. The food here is much spicier than Vietnamese. Oddly, the Loa people don't use chopsticks, you are give a soup spoon and fork with meals.  French bread is available everywhere, baguettes are served with our breakfast. 

    The locals try to sell tourists taxi trips and boat rides on the river, but it's all low pressure and friendly. Artists hang their works for sale on the local hand made paper. Massage palors ( legitimate ones ) are everywhere. The whole scene is relaxed and slow paced, very enjoyable.

UXO Center

  I apologize for including this in my blog but I felt compelled after my visit.   UXO stands for unexploded  ordinance. I was urged to visit this center to understand the problems Laos is suffering as a result of the American Air War here. Despite 2 presidents insisting we were not doing it, Laos had more bombs dropped on it the any place in history. The worst bomb was the anti personnel cluster bomb, a huge bomb packed with baseball size mini bombs. 

   The consequences are still haunting this poor country. The UN and Australia

  ( not the US ) funded this project to help clean up the unexploded bombs littering this country. They are disarming 50,000 bombs a year, there is 70 MILLION more. 

     The poor villagers dig up bombs to recycle the metals, it often doesn't end well. In the markets they sell souvenirs made from bombs. The say a Loatian is blown up almost every day , often children. We've left a terrible legacy here. 

   

Lao Mountains

  Our driver/ guide arrived early in his Tuk-Tuk, a vehicle contraption similar to the ones in the Philippines. I was assured he spoke great English. We hoped in and headed to the mountains. I soon realized he spoke NO English. Oh well....

   We stopped at a house along the road an hour later, it was an apparent bathroom break. He jestered for us to go around back for the " bathroom ". We did as told and were a bit baffled as there was nothing there. He pointed to a metal shed inside an animal pen. Well, if you've gotta go, you've gotta go. We stepped over a low fence into a pen full of ducks. Karen's in the shed in photo while I waited and contemplated the scene. The " bathroom" had a concrete floor with a squat toilet  and was clean. 

  The house had no walls, packed dirt floors,  and a large bamboo platform in the middle. A woman was asleep there when we arrived. They soon dumped a big basket of rice on the platform and started the process of wine making. The wine was very strong and sold in clear baggies, a stainless steel bowl was full of them on the counter. They cooked with charcoal and had very few possessions. They did have electricity. We bought a tourist bottle of "wine" for $1, we felt sorry for him. I gave them eye glasses and 2 multi tools, they were pleased to receive gifts.

   We later hiked into a beautiful jungle preserve where I swam in a cold river.  The area was full of birds and butterflies. It was a really a nice spot. 

    We stopped on the way back at the most beautiful veggie farm I've ever seen, all done by hand labor. We watched a woman watering the rows by hand, a watering can in each hand. The broad rows were just wide enough to reach the centers,  they were meticulously thinned and weeded, I was really impressed

.