2-17-2008

Still in Vientiane. Sometime the days move so slowly with so little to do, but we also meet many people who live and work here, people who have spent years in foreign placements: government, business, NGO’s, military. It is always a delight and surprise to hear the world perspective expressed by those who have truly lived in some of the most exotic or some of the more base places. The restaurants in Zimbabwe are as familiar as those in Goa, India or Pakistan or Israel or Georgia in the former USSR. Politics are discussed or dismissed, local customs analyzed with great joviality. We are novices to this global community but are growing more confident. We are given many suggestions as to good routes by these folks who have been there before.

Art’s anecdotes from a life of leisure in Vientiane, Laos:

A shout of expletives from the one butt kitchen followed by more jabbering and the sound of water pouring on the floor! I arrive to find Judee standing at the sink with the metal drain strainer in hand looking down at the floor where the sink has disgorged its contents. It seems that Judee has pulled the strainer out and all the plumbing with. What a mess of dirty dish water she is standing in. Easy to clean up but what are we going to tell our Laos landlady? How long will it take to get it fixed? Guess we’ll go out tomorrow for breakfast. All’s well. We shared our plumbing snafu and it was repaired when we returned after lunch.

A bush run with the Hashers found us riding out of Vientiane in the bed of a pick up truck one late Saturday afternoon. Twenty kilometers and we were into dry rice paddies sprinkled with knots of dense brush and forest patches dotted with small family huts. For the next hour and a half we took off following the “hash hare” who laid a trail of pink toilet paper sheets marking the route we were to follow. Through open rice fields hard as rock but very bumpy; into the dense over growth on narrow paths with vines reaching out to snag skin and clothing; on through slash and burn with downed hundred-year-old trees going into charcoal making mud ovens popping up now and then. We find our way back to the trucks with the red fire ball of the setting sun slowly dropping to the smoky haze behind the city. Soon we formed a circle to toast and roast the new and old runners/walkers and I was introduced to a new for me Hasher tradition of sitting bare assed on crushed ice in the midst of the group while I am roasted for not wearing a Hash shirt. Now we are both proud owners of new shirts!

Hashing with the Hash House Harriers was part of Vientiane experience. A great group of expats, others who work here and Laos get together twice a week to run/walk, eat and drink – not necessarily in that order. The food was always ample and great tasting local Lao dishes, the drink was mostly Beer Lao and the company was chatty, fun and knowledgeable about local places and attractions, so we really benefited from much local expertise. Not only did we learn the best restaurants, but on the bush walks, locals picked vegetation used to cure different maladies. One such stick was used by the locals as a medicine for Malaria, obviously necessary knowledge in this part of the world. (J)

Vientiane is a hub of north/south traffic and we have come across many touring cyclists here: one couple Damian and Judi from Toronto, Canada had emailed us with questions regarding riding conditions and routes in South East Asia since they were arriving in January for an eight week touring vacation. We were parking our bike down town and this couple said “You must be the Wickershams!” Yes. Damiane and Judi had caught up with us so we adjourned for dinner to exchange stories and our plans.

Two days later while riding from our favorite breakfast spot JoMa (hot coffee with refills and a very good bakery including bagels and croissants) we ran into a Korean couple on a Burley tandem. They had ridden through China, Vietnam and into Laos. Over lunch we found out they too had a round the world bicycle plans. They shared their knowledge of China and Vietnam and we of Thailand and Malaysia. We invited them over for lunch and an afternoon at poolside. Wonderfully young, twenty-somethings, we saw them off as they were leaving town. Wow, what a load with trailer and all!

General pics around Vientane, Laos 1.That Laung 2.Arch de Triomphe nock off 3.Peoples statue 4. Buddha 5. Monk reading 6. Cow crossing Mekong 7. Korean couple 8. Little monkeys 9. Learning to ride

 

 

2-28-08

Ho Hum - another breakfast at JoMa. The weather is cool with rain drops this morning. Today we have odds and ends to tend to readying ourselves to get back on the road in two days. This past months of forced rest mostly off the bike has been good: lots of time to read by the pool and watch the building construction next door blossom upward before our eyes. Laos PDR: “Please Don’t Rush” is truly our mantra!

We rented a motorbike for three days to explore the outer regions from the city including a visit to the Buddha Park south; the reservoir for the city north; and the dirt roads along the Mekong. The moto is a love-hate relationship. It is fun exploring the outback where we really would not take Bici, but at the same time it is really not comfortable for longer excursions.

The Buddha Park is one man’s creative effort to memorialize his visions in concrete. Set on the bank of the Mekong these enchanting creations come to life amidst the shrub and tree lined paths with only birds and butterflies to distract the eye. The sculptor fled Laos for Thailand where he created another grand garden to honor Buddha. Only recently was his work recognized locally once again. We had lunch in the park restaurant looking out over the Mekong into Thailand.

 

Our trip north took us over unpaved dirt roads which lead to dirt tracks, over hill and dale we bumped, bounced and coughed through the dust, turning a light shade of red to match the iron rich earth around us. On these trips we tend to just head out and get lost. Our map has little detail so we just wander until we feel we need to find our way again. Scary, exciting and fun all at the same time! We usually only carry a small bottle of water and now no compass, so we really are at the mercy of the locals to get us home. Asking for directions is always a giggle as they look at our map turning it over in their hands. Map reading is not a local skill and they speak little or no English but we have made it home each time!

 

Motorbike trip North

 

As we have spent more time in Lao we have gotten to understand better a little of their history. The most disturbing facts deal with the Americans’ illegal bombing of Laos during the post-Geneva Convention, from 1964-1973. The US sent planes with bombs loaded with bomblets (as many as 620 p/bomb casing) that were dropped on average one every 8 minutes, 24 hours per day for the entire 9 year period. When a plane could not find a target, they dropped their load randomly so as not the take the risk of landing armed. Many of these bombs are still live and buried in the land the Lao people till and where they build their homes and villages. During these illegal bombings the innocent were killed and mutilated along with military targets. Today, there are at least five groups we have been told of who are working full time de-mining Laos. A Swiss gentleman living in our building is a UN technical advisor for these projects. He told us that at the current rate of clean-up, Lao would be cleared of bomblets in a little over 3,000 years!

Today bomb explosions still maim or kill hundreds each year. There is an exemplary project in Vientiane, the National Rehabilitation Center that provides medial care and orthotics for victims. Their scope is larger: also caring for birth defects; training Lao medical staff to carry on this work independently; developing orthotics that can be made locally by Laos with local and reasonably priced materials, and more. The project coordinator of COPE (Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise), Jo Pereira assembled a very educational museum providing a heart-rending look at the bomb problem. How can we help now? www.copelaos.org The web site has directions for donations via pay pal! How can we prevent future debacles? I feel ashamed of our country and its misdirected military might.

 

COPE 1. Shower of bombies 2. Prosthetics

Tomorrow we leave Vientiane and head north toward Luang Prabang, the old capital of Laos. And the mountains!!!