| Half Way Around the word without a plane |
Plain of JarsOn our way between Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang, we did a side trip to Phonsavan, to visit the famous "Plain of Jars"This attraction is spread out in various sites, of which the 3 biggest have up to 500 huge stone jars. The people who made them, how and why is still shrouded in mystery, althought the hypothesis of funerary urns, seems to be the best explanation. They are up to 2000 years old, and could have been part of a civilazation which left remants in Vietnam and India as well. Pongsaly could have been a crossroads on the commercial routes of this civilization...  One of the biggest and more beautiful jars. A part from the jars, which are located in a nearly New-Zealand scenery, with rolling green hills, we could also see some remnants from the tough and secret war that was fought in the area. Russian Tanks, Bombs craters, and all sorts of land mines and unexploded ordnance, which still hasn't been cleared. All in all, this area wasn't worth the 6 hours return side trip...Especially with the terrible mountain road!!! Luckily, the scenery was really stunning; rolling mountains, jungle, jagged karts pics shrouded in mist, little traditional Hmong villages... 
French expression of the day; here are 2 cruches (empty pots=empty brains) with a jar!!!
02:05 - 29/05/2007 - commentaires {0} - Ajouter un commentaireVang Vieng organic farm
On our way up north, towards China, we stopped in Vang Vieng.
Our little house in the Pairie...This is some sort of a mecca on the south east asia backpacker trail...lots of rasta, piercing and tatooed gap year sort of people, crowding there for the tubing trip, the cheap booze and the readily available drugs (just ask for the "happy" menu in any restaurant). As you know, this sort of "Katmandu" spirit is not quite what we are looking for...but we found a way around this... Upon some other travellers advice, we went to volonteer in an organic farm, 3km from town. Do not worry, we are not becoming some sort of 70 hippies...(althought coming to an organic farm after doing a massage course might sound like it!!!) This farm is actually a very rare and interesting project. Entirely led by a Lao guy, now in his 60s, is combines organic farming and breeding of silk worm, with community projects. This has some sort of a vision about how to developp the developping world, without endangering the environement...a bit of a hot subject at the moment...huh??? This is quite interesting to meet the people who are working and volonteering and see how it works...   Organic banana flower...good in a salad!  Organic Pineapple...  
Vang Vieng valley...rice field, karts pics and ever present mist...stunning views to say the least!
All the best from your hippie-organic-gost cheese making friends!!!
01:55 - 29/05/2007 - commentaires {0} - Ajouter un commentaireSavanhaket and VientianeOur few days were happily spent discovering the 2 biggest cities of Laos.
Savanhaket or Savanh, for the locals, has our preference... The smallest of the 2 cities, it is still a bit of a backwater, with relaxed and friendly locals and quiet streets. When staying in that city, we had the feeling it was sunday everyday...not so much traffic, kids playing in the streets, men playing "petanque" near the Mekong at sunset, families walking the central plaza in front of the church...
The Laos temple
Bo and Biew, friendly monks. Bo speak really good english!
The Vietnamese Buddhist temple
Sunset along the Mekong
In Savanh, we felt at home very quickly and it was difficult for us to leave...
Vientiane, on the other side, is taking some efforts to get used to and appreciate... Actually, it looks a bit like a southern french town, from the tree lined streets, the high number of white people walking the street (outnumbering slightly the number of Laos, in the center), the Boulangeries, cafés and french restaurants and the odd colonial house that make us feel like home...
...only that at home, they finish the 1st section of the main street before digging out the next!!!
Peak hour in Vientiane...we read in the paper that the ministry of transport complains about the traffic...shall we give him a ticket to Auckland???
There is also a lot of Wats (not Whats?...Wat is actually the name of the temples...) which makes for interesting sights and breaks from the exhausting heat...
Please don't ask about drainage...this doesn't seem to be a priority in Laos...after all, it rains only 3months in the year, so why bother???
The buddhas here are different from the ones we saw in Thailand and Cambodia...they are more "simplistic" in their shapes and have a very pointed nose...
Pointed noses buddhas...
Reclining Buddha
Would-be reclining buddha...!
We have extended our visa in Laos for 2 weeks, to have enough time to wander our up country, along the Mekong, taking in some "cultural sights", in Luang Prabang, Unesco classified city, some kiking in the minorities and some volunteer work somewhere in between... We will arrive in China in Yunnan, the very south tip of the country, and wander our way up to Sichuan, where we will be studying Mandarin from september... Our first contact with Sichuan has been delicious food in a Sichuanese restaurant here in Ventiane, and the owner of the internet cafe, which is really friendly!...This seems like a good sign for the future...
More about Laos and China in our next posts... 07:39 - 18/05/2007 - commentaires {0} - Ajouter un commentaireMeeting the Khatang...
Following our motorbike tour in the Boloven Plateau, we felt the need to meet more of those populations of Ethnic Minorities, whose lifestyle and traditions is slowly fading away.
For this, we decide to go for a 3 days guided hike (or tramp for the NZ crowd!...) in an area populated by Khatang Tribes. The hike, organised by the tourist office of Savanhaket, involves homestays nights in two different communities and hiking through a National Park and Khatang Sacred Forest.
A bit of background
This project was warmly recommanded by a french girl that we met in the Boloven.
She is biking around the word, auditing on her way some "sustainable" or "responsible" tourist initiatives, thus helping set up a web site (www.echoway.org) for "responsible tourism". Laos, witnessing what happened with is Indochina neighbours (Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia) is really reluctant to enable mass tourism to come to their country. The government is therefore promoting "Eco-tourism" as a way to generate income for both Lao and ethnic Minorities and protect the environement without loosing their soul. The way this project works... This project is funded by Nederlands and was set up by a number of foreign advisors. It is now managed by Lao peopl...but it is visible that the whole project has been well thought and well implemented, thus avoiding some problems that could have previously undermined that sort of projects. In this, Laos is very lucky that they start very late their tourism developpement and can benefit from the experience of other countries... It would be very long to describe why we got that impression, but for exemple, the way our money is spent is quite tranparent and spread out between the villagers. The village head choses a different family for each group of tourists. This means that the families won't feel invaded, because they only get tourists once a year or so. Plus, they don't "professionalise" it, which means they are curious and open to the tourists, and not "blasés" like we saw in other places. Moreover, this means the revenue from the tourism is shared between the households. Same with our food, which is purchased from different sources. As for the guides, we have different guides each day. Some of them were meeting Falang (foreigners) for the first time! This makes it very interesting, but also a bit difficult, because those people are so shy that it takes a bit of time for them to feel confortable with foreigners... Luckily, we also have 2 great english speaking guides, Nic and Kuang (whose pictures you can see in the other article), who act as interpreters and sometimes help the guides think of the stories and tricks of the forest that might have some interest for us...
Faces and smiles...
We went for this trek with our 2 "communication instruments", namely;
- Our Polaroid camera (which spits out the pictures straight away); the villagers all come to check out the "magical camera"...and it enables us to thank the homestay family and the village chiefs. 
Polaroid session-Ban VongSikeo
- Our small picture album, showing our families.
The ripe age of our Grandmothers (86) makes the villagers nod with desbielief, as their elder is about 70... I get a lot of wedding offers for my brother, pictured barechest, with his long blond hair and green eyes...but I refuse; not enough buffaloes (plus his girlfriend would kill me!)!  But actually, what interests more the people are the "backgrounds"; high rises, New-Caledonia Beaches, a nice appartment in Marseille...and, above all; the snow...which sent me showing off a very convincing (or so I thought!) ski ride to a crowd of dubtfull villagers, wondering what is the fun about risking to break an arm or leg while jumping in cold sugar with bended knees and sticks in the hands!!!  Anyway, the ice is broken (ha ha ha), and we spend a long evening (very tiring for our2 interpretors) in a "questions-answer" session, where we learn a lot about their life, the way they see their future and the possible lost of their culture and the way they see the oustside word...  One of the 3brothers who welcome us in Ban VongSikeo 
One of the wifes and the mother of the 3 brothers.
A lot of smiles...but communication is difficult as they are really shy and do not talk Lao. Only the men and the boys have been to school and interacted with the outside word enough to speak some Lao!
Women have a hardlife...going to school only until 12yo (for this generation only!), then getting married and having kids...
Waking up at 3am to break the rice, make the fire, prepare breakfast, then go to fetch water, look after the kids, cook, some find time to weave... 
Water pump in the village.
Before that, they were going to the stream...  Looking after the little ones... We also witness a "healing ceremony" which happens to take place in the village. The symptoms are those of a "cyatic" (he has wood in his buttocks" we were told), but the "sorcerer" is interrogating the spirits to find out which one has been upset by the man, and what he should do to be forgiven. This usually involves killing a buffalo, a chicken or a pig...which will then be eaten by the whole village after the spirits had their share... 
Forest spirit, can you hear me? House spirit, can you hear me? Ancestors Spirits...
In the second village, we are given a traditional Baci ceremony.
This is usually given for wedding, birth, or when a personn is sick or going away, and needs all her "spirits about". In the ceremony, the 32parts of the body are called back (in case they were wandering around) and tied to the person with cotton bracelets around their wrists. 
"Baci" Ceremony
Sitting on a mat, surrounded by villagers, we procced to a cultural exchange, each one in turn singing one of their traditional song. The Khatang people use the traditional Lao instrument, a Khenne, to accompany their singing. The Khenne is a crossbreed of Syrynx (south america pan flute) and armonica and has a beautiful sound! 
The village singer and Khenne player.
We come back from this trecking full of souvenirs and knowledge about the forest and the people and happy to have share some precious moments with those villagers. 
Sinatron, village head daughter, Ban Nyang
 And her friend Lampeng We are now heading to Ventiane, were we will undoubtly be seeing a lot of the french colony heritage...more in our next post! 06:06 - 14/05/2007 - commentaires {0} - Ajouter un commentaireExploring new gastronomic territories…Anthropology may not be a hazardous sport (cf. Nigel Barley’s “Not a Hazardous Sport”), but can be a gastronomic adventure…I’ll explain... Laos’ mountains areas, where ethnic minorities live, are rather inhospitable places: dry heats, rocky grounds, thick forest, etc. Food resources are therefore quite limited: few vegetables, mainly sticky rice cultivated using slash and burn methods (though irrigated rice paddies are getting more common). A few farm animals too: pigs, buffaloes, chickens … but these are mainly used for traditional rituals (sacrifices for healing or for burial ceremonies) and for barter transaction with low land Lao (the majority, more economically developed). So, where do mountains Lao find proteins? Sensitive soul, don’t read further down! (some of you may have notice that my gustative curiosity has no limit…) 
Grasshopper kebabs … taste like a mix of dry shrimps and meadow grass … very crunchy. The only problem is the legs, which tend to get stuck in your teeth!
Tarnish plant bugs kebabs, leave a foamy squirt in the palate, taste like cheese.
 Monitor lizards (alive) on their way to the central market – too difficult to prepare, I didn’t test it. It’s fairly simple, while tramping in the forest, each time we would spot an animal the guide would reply “good for BBQ” (gecko, gecko’s eggs), “good for soups” (red ants, red ants’ eggs), or just “good as it is”, i.e. raw! We also tried all kind of plants, including flowers, roots, cardamom shoots, bamboo shoots, etc. 
Our guide, Nic, is preparing cardamom shoots for tonight’s soup.
Kuang, our other guide, show us which flowers to pick up for our diner.
Romain too is pushing out its own gastronomic limits when eating pumpkin … and finding it good! I think that the  The proof!!! In the “low land”, we’re also enjoying traditional Lao specialties, including pork (or buffaloes, or chicken) Laab (raw minced meat marinated in chili and served with fresh mint leaves and “sacred” basil, tasting like licorice) and the omnipotent sticky rice, a variety of rice different to the ones usually sold in Europe, steam cooked. At the crossroad of Thai, Chinese and Vietnamese gastronomy, the Lao cooking comes in variety and quality, chili and perfumed as we like it! We are collecting hips of savory recipes in our backpack for your pleasure next time we meet … no grasshoppers or Tarnish plant bugs, promise! 01:00 - 14/05/2007 - commentaires {0} - Ajouter un commentaire
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From New-Caledonia to France without using a plane.
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