| Half Way Around the word without a plane |
Exploring the Bolaven Plateau
We are just coming back from a 1 week motorbike trip around the Boloven Plateau, in South Laos.
Great scenery, friendly locals, small villages and hilltribes communities...a very varied and out of the beaten tracks adventure... 
Coffee, banana and tea plantations, along with lush jungle, misty mountains and resounding waterfalls make for a delightful scenery and a breath of fresh air.
Boloven Plateau is famous for its coffee, served strong with condensed milk, it leaves a nearly embodied taste of caramel long after the last mouthul... Our trip wander on out of the tourist beaten tracks, through small villages and dirt roads...here no french is spoken, even less english (there is more french than english speakers here...but this will not last long...). Our knowledge of Lao gets a head start, thanks to a very good phrase book (by James Hagbie), the few thai words that we gathered in Thailand (Thai and Lao are closely related...) and, last but not least, the patience and good will of the people on the way, all very eager to learn some english, and happy to help me with my prononciation. Lao is a tonal language with 4 tones and 2 different vowel length...which makes 8 possibilities of getting a word wrong! Every stop on the road is a new friendship, smiles, sharing in total trust... In Thatheng, in a small road-side stall. I just bought some of the local delicacies in the market; dried buffalo skin. Cut up in stripes, a bit like jerky, its still full of hairs and a yellow turmeric-like powder. I was told in the market that the local love it, so I bravely give it a bite... The woman next to me shout out...no, no...and says something to the lady of the stall. Her young daughter, takes the buffalo strings and takes me to the kitchen. There she grills the skin until all the powder and hairs have burned, then beats on it, to get rid of the black carbonized skin, and give me a nice cheewy spicy flesh to eat... This is really good!!! 
The Kitchen of the stall...the weird basket in the front is to cook glutinous rice!
To thanks the young lady, I give her half of my buffalo skins...which looks to me as a fair exchange... But 5mn later, she comes back with a handful of delicious bananas...saying the new word that she just taugh me; "present present" One of those rare moments of true friendship and "same wave length" that make travelling an enrishing experience. 3 days later, as we come back from our trip, we will stop at their stall again, and be welcomed like old friends!  Some kids that were calling us from a road side stilt house. I gave them a Polaroid (instant picture) They were so proud that they started running around all the village to show it...we had to run away before everybody ask for their picture taken!!! 
Invited to drink Lao Lao (rice whisky) at a road side stall with some farmers...at 2pm!
When I ask them about their job, these men answer "no Job"...apparently, they are waiting for the rainy season...but I have mu doubt about that... In every country we've been throught so far, women are working; gathering woods, working in garden, looking for kids, selling stuff, transporting water, washing clothes, cleaning...while the men are drinking in the cafes or dozzing in front of TV. I wonder if the dry season is not just an excuse...wil anything change when the rain comes...will the cafe empty and the field be busy...It would be interesting to do the same trip in Rainy season...  Travelling merchant; he sells carpets, dishes, cutlery.. and travels in the villages, where women gather to bargain... 
Stopped by a colored ribbon across the road, we have to give money to the buddist temple.
Those young ladies in traditional dress pin a colorful ribbon on our shoulders, aiming to protect us from any accidents, and give us a glass of Lao Lao (rice whisky)...seemed to be aimed at exactly the opposite... 
Playing the traditional gane; Katow (also played in Cambodia); volley ball nets, players can use foot and head and the ball is the size of a Handball ball, but made of Rattan...They do some interesting accrobatics!!!
Flowers of War
We also met the local team of UXO LAO (Lao operated and Japan Financed), in charge of demining the area. They are very welcoming, speak soe english and are really willing to share their knowledge and experience. This is a very interesting meeting. Not all of you might be aware, but Lao, albeit neutral in the Vietnam war, has been heavily and secretly bombed by the USA army (there is a movie about Kissinger which explain the history aroun those bombings...but I can't remember the name now) The Ho Chi Minh Trail, used to bring gear and food to the communists was going throught this area, so it is one of the more heavily bombed, and they expect to be working for 6more years before they have it all secured. We saw some disabled people in the villages...but unlike Cambodia, they are very weel taken care of by their families and gouvernement. In this same area, there is a lot of ethnic minorities. They are animists, and from a mongol-tibetan back ground. Their clothes and architecture differenciate them...or at least they used to...but now, the governement has done a really good job with bringing roads, education, electrcity and TV to those people, which are slowly giving away their particularities to embrace the way of life of the "|Lao Loum"...the ethnic Lao, majority of the country. It is difficult to say weather its good or bad for those people, as they loose their identity but they win an easier life... We are glad we were able to witness some of their way of life, before it disapears uder the pressure of globalisation; chineese motorbikes, indonesian sarong (clothe), Thai TV and Vietnameese food... As those mountain hilltribes are quite shy, we were not able to take any pictures...so we will have to keep in our mind those beautiful faces of farmers in their fields, old people carrying ratan basket on their back, young girls in traditional dresses smoking their bamboo pipes...
After this week rich in encounters, smiles, beautiful scenery and warm people, we are hoping to go hiking in the hills near Savanhaket, in order to learn more about the hilltribes, and witness a little bit of this fast disappearing culture.
More in our next post!
06:35 - 8/05/2007 - Ajouter un commentaire
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From New-Caledonia to France without using a plane.
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