It's been a while since my last post, but I've not been in Laos for a few months, so strictly speaking, wasn't letting you down. That's my story and I'm sticking with it...
Anyway now I'M BACK in my favourite little piece of Paradise after a useful and extremely pleasant interlude from May to July in Oz, then August in Canada and the US to see family and friends, followed by another two weeks in Oz for my birthday. I remember a lot of preparation and packing and partying, but....
Back in Luang Prabang, the magnificent Mekong is flowing fast and deep like a vast stream of chocolate milk and is almost unrecognisable as the the sturdy, rocky little river that I had come to know.
And it's doing it's chocolately thing right outside my window, well, across the road but hundreds of metres closer to the river wall and my little house.
I can see it especially well from my comfortable little re-vamped verandah, especially since the boys went down and hacked back a lot of the vegetation along the bank.
I can also see my growing garden of pots of bamboo and bougainvillea and portulacca and croton and cordyline arranged around the lovely new terracotta terrace the boys made with all the leftover floor tiles.
They were beside themselves with pride at all they have done and seemed utterly deligted to see me, so I think it's going to be great.
I was quivering with fatigue from a typical all-night flight scenario, with the added difficulty of dealing with a groovy-looking, but rather garrulous and sometimes outright grubby New Zealander who couldn't stop talking, breathing whiskey fumes all over me and leaning heavily on my right arm to "help" me with my crossword....(as if...).
He'd already been thrown off one flight and collared at gunpoint earlier in the day. This was because security guys refused to let him take his duty-free onboard and he solved the problem by simply drinking it. All of it. And then blamed the authorities for getting him drunk.
Anyway, I arrived, exhausted but elated and was immediately folded into the bosom of my "family" here and then whisked off to see the last of the traditional boat races when various village teams compete, paddling very long, lovely and narrow high-tail boats down the Nam Kahn while huge crowds line the riverbanks drinking beer and making a very loud and joyful noise with drums and loudspeakers.
I thought it was all over at first and saw only a few tired and emotional crews weaving their way past along with colourful fun boats full of people in costume who were also fairly full. Then it started. Two boats of about 50 rowers each, one lot clad in in green and the other in chartreuse t-shirts were paddling so furiously past us that they moved in a mist of muddy river water turned to a golden cloud in the afternoon sun. They went at a furious pace, leaving our team, sadly, in sixth place out of 13, a big disappointment after coming second last year. Sommay says he'll row next year and the result will be different.
I cannot tell you how nice it is to be back amongst all the sweet people that I have come to know over the past few years. I've dropped in to see a few of them, revisited old haunts, handed over school fees and lots of motherly advice to a couple of my lads, revived old family jokes, marvelled at the new restaurants and businesses that have gone bust, and enjoyed seeing the smiles of recognition on the faces of shopkeepers and people one passes in the street.
Best of all, I went to see my friend Vanh, who I was afraid had too much on her plate to be able to help me, and she said great to see you, let's go talk with my cousins right now. The upshot is that I am the newest employee of the Pasabandith College of English, preparing to teach MY course and the visa process is already under way. I seem to have impressed the guys who run it, brothers called Oupadith and Oupasith, would you believe, and who I will NOT be able to resist called the Oompaloompas. Sorry. They are not strange little people in Santa's helper costumes, but nice guys, one with good English who is also a teacher and the other a businessman with a travel agency in town.
So the adventure seems to be gaining momentum and now that I can sit here in my house and write without having to schlepp all the way to an internet cafe every time, I hope to be able to keep everyone up to date on what I am doing. Right now I'm busy being domestic, acquiring furniture and teapots and training my maid to do things my wayand trying to remember the Lao words for things.
The various recipients of the generosity of my birthday friends are overcome with gratitude and I will let them say so in one of these posts very soon. But now it's gin o'clock and the lads are back from a ceremony in which a female spirit who has been giving Sommay nightmares has been exorcised in a two hour ritual resembling a wedding, in which he has persuaded one of his many girlfriends to take part as a dummy bride. I must hear all about it. Yes, this is an interesting country.... Stay tuned.
Anyway now I'M BACK in my favourite little piece of Paradise after a useful and extremely pleasant interlude from May to July in Oz, then August in Canada and the US to see family and friends, followed by another two weeks in Oz for my birthday. I remember a lot of preparation and packing and partying, but....
Back in Luang Prabang, the magnificent Mekong is flowing fast and deep like a vast stream of chocolate milk and is almost unrecognisable as the the sturdy, rocky little river that I had come to know.
And it's doing it's chocolately thing right outside my window, well, across the road but hundreds of metres closer to the river wall and my little house.
I can see it especially well from my comfortable little re-vamped verandah, especially since the boys went down and hacked back a lot of the vegetation along the bank.
I can also see my growing garden of pots of bamboo and bougainvillea and portulacca and croton and cordyline arranged around the lovely new terracotta terrace the boys made with all the leftover floor tiles.
They were beside themselves with pride at all they have done and seemed utterly deligted to see me, so I think it's going to be great.
I was quivering with fatigue from a typical all-night flight scenario, with the added difficulty of dealing with a groovy-looking, but rather garrulous and sometimes outright grubby New Zealander who couldn't stop talking, breathing whiskey fumes all over me and leaning heavily on my right arm to "help" me with my crossword....(as if...).
He'd already been thrown off one flight and collared at gunpoint earlier in the day. This was because security guys refused to let him take his duty-free onboard and he solved the problem by simply drinking it. All of it. And then blamed the authorities for getting him drunk.
Anyway, I arrived, exhausted but elated and was immediately folded into the bosom of my "family" here and then whisked off to see the last of the traditional boat races when various village teams compete, paddling very long, lovely and narrow high-tail boats down the Nam Kahn while huge crowds line the riverbanks drinking beer and making a very loud and joyful noise with drums and loudspeakers.
I thought it was all over at first and saw only a few tired and emotional crews weaving their way past along with colourful fun boats full of people in costume who were also fairly full. Then it started. Two boats of about 50 rowers each, one lot clad in in green and the other in chartreuse t-shirts were paddling so furiously past us that they moved in a mist of muddy river water turned to a golden cloud in the afternoon sun. They went at a furious pace, leaving our team, sadly, in sixth place out of 13, a big disappointment after coming second last year. Sommay says he'll row next year and the result will be different.
I cannot tell you how nice it is to be back amongst all the sweet people that I have come to know over the past few years. I've dropped in to see a few of them, revisited old haunts, handed over school fees and lots of motherly advice to a couple of my lads, revived old family jokes, marvelled at the new restaurants and businesses that have gone bust, and enjoyed seeing the smiles of recognition on the faces of shopkeepers and people one passes in the street.
Best of all, I went to see my friend Vanh, who I was afraid had too much on her plate to be able to help me, and she said great to see you, let's go talk with my cousins right now. The upshot is that I am the newest employee of the Pasabandith College of English, preparing to teach MY course and the visa process is already under way. I seem to have impressed the guys who run it, brothers called Oupadith and Oupasith, would you believe, and who I will NOT be able to resist called the Oompaloompas. Sorry. They are not strange little people in Santa's helper costumes, but nice guys, one with good English who is also a teacher and the other a businessman with a travel agency in town.
So the adventure seems to be gaining momentum and now that I can sit here in my house and write without having to schlepp all the way to an internet cafe every time, I hope to be able to keep everyone up to date on what I am doing. Right now I'm busy being domestic, acquiring furniture and teapots and training my maid to do things my wayand trying to remember the Lao words for things.
The various recipients of the generosity of my birthday friends are overcome with gratitude and I will let them say so in one of these posts very soon. But now it's gin o'clock and the lads are back from a ceremony in which a female spirit who has been giving Sommay nightmares has been exorcised in a two hour ritual resembling a wedding, in which he has persuaded one of his many girlfriends to take part as a dummy bride. I must hear all about it. Yes, this is an interesting country.... Stay tuned.
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