Monday, December 10, 2007

Nam Ha Protected Area - Day 3

After waking up, I sat around for awhile by the fire to kept warm until breakfast was ready. This was the only night where we were not located close to a river, so there wasn't an option to wash my face in the morning. In some regards, I didn't regret it because it was the one morning when I didn't have to splash ice cold water on my face, causing a pseudo-ice cream headache. However, I wasn't clean (which is as annoying). Our meal this morning consisted of steamed rice (the Akha people traditionally do not eat sticky rice), an omelet (eggs & onion), and some chili paste. Pon had picked up some instant coffee at the market before we left Luang Nam Tha, so having a cuppa every morning in the cold was a luxury. (The instant coffee was Nescafe; even in the northern reaches of Laos, Nestle has customers!) Since James doesn't like coffee, he was served hot water each morning (tasty!).

After breakfast, our Akha guide took us on a little bird watching trek. I brought my camera along, figuring that if I didn't bring it I would see something cool. Well...I was right. I brought my camera and I didn't see anything. Our guide was calling birds for over an hour as we walked through the forest, but to no avail. The best sighting was a squirrel! We heard birds all around us, but none of them were close enough to see. The reason for this is the trees in Laos are at least twice as tall as the trees back home. I'm not sure if it's the species, or if it's attributed to Laos year long growing season. Regardless of what it was, if the bird was in the canopy, there is no way that you could see it well without binoculars.

When we got back to camp, Pon had cooked us lunch for the day (hard-boiled egg, rice, chili paste, and the 'empty heart' vegetable. We packed our bags and set out for the day. Today was another moderate day of trekking - we walked for about 5 hours in total, but it was fairly flat. We ate lunch at another Khmu village, in the village chief's hut. It was one of the best lunches of our trip. We had plenty of food that we shared with the chief & his friends, and in turn they shared their omelet (eggs & onion again) & rice whiskey with us. We were careful not to have more than a shot, since we had another couple of hours to walk in the afternoon. The chief was very gracious during our short stay, so I dropped off one of the books I had purchased in Luang Prabang, hoping that they could put it to use in the local school. James also left some paper & pens for them.

As we bid everyone farewell, we came across some women planting rice. James snapped a few photos, since this was new to him. Looking back on the trip, this is the first time that we've seen someone planting rice during the dry season. They were irrigating the rice fields using a bamboo pole to divert some water to the field. As the field became filled with water, the water naturally ran back down to the field. We passed through several Black Thai & Red Thai villages on our way to evening camp. We were walking along a dirt road after lunch, and Pon had pointed out snake tracks. It was apparent where the snake had slithered across the road; there was a narrow 'S'-shaped line from one side to the next. I was counting my blessings that I hadn't been there for the snake crossing. I have a phobia of snakes - I absolutely hate them. They make my skin crawl. You may wonder why the hell I'm going to a place in the world that is known to have a plethora of snakes - I'm not going to let my fear of snakes stop by, but I do occasionally think about where those scaly demons are hiding.

We arrived at a Black Thai/Red Thai/Lao village around 3pm. This was one of the earliest days of our trek thus far, but I was thankful for it. The sun was still out, so after lounging around for 15 minutes, I decided it was time to take a bath. I picked a great time, because when we got to the river there were about 6 ladies also bathing. (Most women bath in their sarongs, while the men usually bath in a pair of underwear.) James & I were definitely the objects of attention. I heard giggles as we stripped down to our underwear and waded into the center of the river. While I was washing my hair, I turned around to see 5 women staring at this hairy, half-naked white guy. No one was pretending not to look...I felt uncomfortable for a few seconds before I realized that I had everyone captivated. Although I couldn't communicate with anyone, I could do something funny to make them laugh. I've found that when I can't communicate, one universal medium is a smile or laughter. It puts people at ease, and is a good way to check out people without just staring at them.

After my bath, it was time to wash my t-shirt, which had become salt-stained from sweat. I was determined to make use of all of our sun time today... After I took a bath, the ladies of the village had laid out their silk scarves on a bamboo fence. Pon had mentioned that if we were interested in buying them to go look, but that there was no pressure to purchase anything. I do have to say that the buying experience was very pleasant. I didn't have ten other people yelling at me, saying 'mister, you buy 1' or 'mister, you buy now'. I bought a couple of scarves for my female family & friends at home.

We met 'Uncle Mai', who was one of the village elders. The chief was supposed to come visit us, but he must have been busy that day. We did meet his granddaughters, who ended up cooking dinner & breakfast for us. Pon informed us that tonight we would have a special meal of duck & duck blood soup. He really knew how to get a vegetarian salivating... At some point in time, dinner came. Uncle Mai and both granddaughters came to our bamboo hut. Someone brought a bottle of lao lao (which was a nightly occurrence). The granddaughters served as our food, and sat a bit away from the mat where the food was laid; waiting for us to eat before they ate. I had to insist that they join us (for several minutes) before they actually came to sit with us. The custom in Laos is that the women will serve the meal, wait for the men/guests to eat, before they have the opportunity to eat. I think that's absolute shit, and I thought about what would happen if we brought the chief's granddaughters to America - they probably wouldn't know what to do with all of the freedom... Another custom that I learned about was that the women usually do not drink with the men. I was also convinced that I needed to change the system. Via Pon's translating, I asked them to join us for both food & drink as this was the custom of my country. It took some convincing, but they finally joined in the eating & drinking. After dinner, the bottle of rice whiskey continued to be passed around.

At some point after dinner, we received another visitor. This 17 year old student wanted some help with her homework, as she had an English exam the next morning. She had about 6 words that were scrambled; the object of the exercise was to make the words into a meaningful sentence. Soon after we started going through her homework, I realized the state of her English teachings. She was very good at the alphabet & pronouncing some easier words, but she had very low comprehension when it came to understanding what the words meant. She was supposed to put together sentences that used a past tense verb, but it seemed like she hadn't learned past tense yet. While I was helping her, the local cop came to join us and (of course) brought another bottle of rice whiskey. By this time, we had all had about 8 shots and everyone was getting buzzed/drunk. Mon (the student) also had a couple of shots, urged on by Uncle Mai. It seemed like she was there for about 15 minutes, but I guess it was about 1.5 hours. After we finished with her homework, all of the sudden the booze hit me. I glanced at the 2nd bottle and it was almost finished...and I was wasted! I remember laying on the floor on my back and telling Pon to give me his guitar. I played the guitar for awhile, and at some point I rolled under the mosquito net to go to sleep.

Now that I look back on the day, this village was the best one of the entire trip. The people were the nicest & the most fun. Even if we hadn't drank as much, I'm certain that I would have had a great time. James agreed so I knew that my opinion wasn't entirely formed under the fog of lao lao.

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