PAKSE!

We took an overnight bus Friday night at 8:30pm to Pakse arriving Saturday morning at 6am. It was a sleeper bus where each person buys a ticket to share half a single bed with another person. I was told by someone who I respect and admire that buying 2 tickets is a waste of money... so, I bought only one ticket intending to get myself ready (mentally) to share a bed close quarters with a stranger. Well, needless to say, this blog entry is not about the incident of the sleeper bus, but I will not share a single bed with a stranger again (mostly because I just can't sleep in a small cramped bed with a stranger).

But this blog entry IS about Pakse, the city in southern Laos where I will be teaching for the next year. This trip is the first time to see the place and exactly what I got myself into with teaching in Laos. A few words and numbers about Pakse; Pakse is considered the second largest city in Laos with about 70,000 inhabitants. It is in the Champasak province along the Mekong river. A short distance away from the downtown area are magnificent waterfalls that are some of the most beautiful in Southeast Asia. There is a bridge over the Mekong in Pakse that connects the city to the Thailand border and the Thai city of Ubon Ratchathani just a couple hours away.

We stayed at the Pakse Hotel in the downtown area. A nice hotel with 6 stories and a restaurant on the top with a fabulous view of the city and the river. Here is a sampling of pictures from Pakse. Click on one of the, to see the full set on google's picasa web.

From Pakse Scenery

From Pakse Scenery

From Pakse Scenery

From Pakse Scenery

From Pakse Scenery

From Pakse Scenery

From Pakse Scenery

From Pakse Scenery

From Pakse Scenery

From Pakse Scenery

The Guest House of Villa That Luang

This was the place of our residence while we were in Vientiane, Laos. It was a nice place located a short distance (maybe 1/2 a mile from the That Luang... which will be featured later in blog posts). The That Luang is a national symbol of Laos and the area around it is referred to as the village of That Luang (or in Lao, Baan That Luang).

The laptop is situated by the windowm where I would at times get an internet connection (for a couple minutes). Enjoy the pictures:

From Guest House at the Villa That Luang

From Guest House at the Villa That Luang

From Guest House at the Villa That Luang

From Guest House at the Villa That Luang

From Guest House at the Villa That Luang

The bathroom again sports a hot water shower that heats the water as it flows out to the shower head. This doubles as a bathroom cleaning tool; just turn on and spray the dirt...

From Guest House at the Villa That Luang

From Guest House at the Villa That Luang

See the whole room on video:

Lao Language - the ups and downs of tones

We began learning the Lao language and I just found out that I might not be entirely tone deaf (just really, really close!).

The basic Lao alphabet has about 27 consonants and 28 common vowel sounds (although nearly double that in various symbols for writing). The consonants are arranged in order of tones. The ones on the left and middle left are low and the right middle and right are high. This is only a general rule though, because the tones can change with tone markers or when the high tone consonants are next to the low vowel marker.

The Consonants:

From The Lao Language

The vowels are arranged in pairs of short and long (with four at the end that are dipthongs, or combined vowel sounds ... like 'ei' in eight). The vowels have similar comparisons to English except for a couple that make us move our lips into a smile (or a grimacing face when you've tried saying it 500 times).

The Vowels:

From The Lao Language

Overall, the Lao alphabet is actually more systematic when sounding out than English! Even with the tones! For example, the English words 'like' and 'lick' have two different sounding 'i' vowels. Now, we know the difference immediately, but its not based on a regular system of pronunciation that is easy to define.

The real difficulty with the Lao language for English speakers is twofold: first, there are several sounds we are just not used to distinguishing. They have two letters that are extremely similar to our letter 'd'; the only difference between the two is that one is harder or more enunciated than the other (while you might say the other is a bit more slurred, but that is only a limited description of it). There is a similar instance with two letters similar to our 'b' consonant (one's hard and one is slurred).

The second difficulty is the tones. The difference between 'friend' and 'pig' is whether your voice is raised at the end of the word or not. The sound 'sew-a' can mean 'tiger', 'shirt', 'mattress', 'believe', 'family', 'fuel', 'infection', or 'agent' depending on how you use the tones or context.

Food - Part 1: The morning market - fresh is fresh

There needs to be a basic introduction to the food here in Laos...

Food here is fresh... very, very fresh! The basic day for the Lao market goes something like this. At about 4am-6am, the animals are led to the slaughter - every day! They begin cutting up the chickes, cows, pigs, or other large animals and sorting the meat out for distribution. The morning market opens around 6am for the local villagers to come and begin buying the meat and other fresh vegetables wholesale. They take the meat and veggies back to their respective villages (there are over 60 villages that make up Vientiane - its still divided this way, much like the way we divide a town or city into districts) to sell to the locals. There the locals will pick up whatever they are planning to cook for that day and take it home to prepare it.

This happens every day in Vientiane!

The selection at the morning market is quite astounding considering that it was done all that morning and will be gone by that evening. The Mekong River provides a selection of fish, eels, and squid. There is also the usual selection of smaller land animals such as frogs, rats, and even bats. One particularly interesting choice is the coagulated blood... which looks oddly enough like pudding or jello.

We enjoyed some fried bananas. It was kinda like eating a banana filled donut, only the donut was a little thicker and harder than usual.

Enjoy the pictures and videos...

Here we enjoy fried bananas:

From Morning Market in Vientiane

This was just hilarious to me, that amidst all this, there is a man with a cell phone getting the job done:

From Morning Market in Vientiane

Fresh meat:

From Morning Market in Vientiane

From Morning Market in Vientiane

This is NOT pudding!!! This is coagulated blood... great for soups!

From Morning Market in Vientiane

Fresh chickens:

From Morning Market in Vientiane

These are LIVE catfish... they kill them after they get home:

From Morning Market in Vientiane

....and some bats and rats:

From Morning Market in Vientiane

...and the frogs:

From Morning Market in Vientiane

Frog video:

...and my favorite.. the EELS!!!:

From Morning Market in Vientiane

This is the video of the eels at the market, just to prove that they are alive:

From Morning Market in Vientiane

From Morning Market in Vientiane

From Morning Market in Vientiane

From Morning Market in Vientiane

From Morning Market in Vientiane

Happy Sheep Shake

Come one, come all Health nuts!!! This is the blog for you!

Here is Southeast Asia we have the refreshment that combines taste and health in what is called "mak nam" or a fruity water drink. Let me explain the basic ingredients... you have ice and some fruit (banana, pineapple, papaya, apple, etc.) pureed with a blender; next add some condensed coconut milk or condensed sweetened milk of some kind (mysteries here are best left as such). Boom! Put it into the swinging little happy sheep cup and you've got a treat of Asian proportions!

It costs anywhere from 3,000 kip to 7,000 kip (or between 35 and 83 cents). Woo-hoo!
Makes me want to do the Happy Sheep Shake! (that one was for you, Melvin and Scott!)

Phone Numbers

How do you choose your phone number? Well, here in Laos there is a premium placed on certain phone numbers... numbers that are luckier than others.

So, for example, when we went to purchase SIM cards for our cell phones, the standard cost was about 100,000 kip (pronounced like keap which would rhyme with cheap) or about $11.76. Now, there are the extra-special neato numbers for 300,000 kip (or about $35.30). And we opted for the extra-cheapo numbers at 50,000 kip (or about $5.90).

What's the difference? Well, it depends on how many times the number 6 or 9 appears. Mine has neither. The more 6's or 9's in your number, the luckier and possibly better your life will be or become as a result.

Mine has 11... which is prime and mathematically superior... or so I thought in my western, logical mind.

I also bought a cell phone that is the black-white display without any extra gadgets or special mp3 playing capabilities. Love it. Just the simple cell phone. The kind you can drop and beat and throw 11 times a day and it still works after 5 years.

Word on the street on internet in Laos

Word on the street was that internet was not so great in Laos....

Well....

Yes, the word on the street is correct. Skype does not really connect that well, and the internet comes and goes as it pleases with google wanting really badly to load itself for an hour. Sometimes its going, mostly it feels like its not. There are internet Cafes here, and we like them alot (usually, but not always they work).

In brief, this means, that updates might be slow coming. BUT they will come! ...promise! This whole blogging thing is somewhat therapeutic for me.

Signed... yourinnerteacher

ps... a quick picture to brighten your day: This is the bike I bought in the first couple days of arriving here. Yes, it really does say "Uranns Pegasus" ... BUT, it could be worse; my teammate Russell's bike says "TURBO Fairy"

Leaving Hanoi and arriving in Laos, FINALLY! (still one more stage to go... Vientiane to Pakse)

Arrival in Laos! Finally, almost to our resting place in Pakse!

We left Hanoi today and arrived in Vientiane (pronouned Vee-en-chen because Vientiane is a bad transliteration of the Lao spelling) in Laos. We said goodbye to 7 people (6 people staying in Vietnam and 1 going to Cambodia)... and some tears for my favorite kid in the world, Isaiah (zaya to the inside club). ...here he sports a manly pink fan for keeping cool.

And we got to play cars... thanks Zaya! I haven't gotten the chance to play cars in a long, long time!

We left Hanoi with a beautiful sunrise warming our backs. We had several delays at the airport (and some gate switching at the last moment). Also, something hilarious that caught my eye was the packaging on cigarette boxes (see the picture beneath the scenery below). Marlboro says, "SMOKING KILLS" and "Smoking seriously harms you and others around you" in bold letters on the box. Wow! Wish they'd make signs like that for McDonalds too ("Cholesterol from a Big Mac WILL eventually KILL you). The flight was about an hour (from Hanoi, Vietnam to Vientiane, Laos) and we were served a meal and full drink (take that cheap American airlines... not just half a plastic cup, but the full can!). I have a video of the landing which felt like we were either going to land in the middle of a rural housing development or the rice-paddy.

From Leaving Hanoi and Arriving in Laos

From Leaving Hanoi and Arriving in Laos

GOT THAT LIGHTPOST! YEAH!

From Leaving Hanoi and Arriving in Laos

From Leaving Hanoi and Arriving in Laos

From Leaving Hanoi and Arriving in Laos

From Leaving Hanoi and Arriving in Laos

...and the SMOKING KILLS:

From Leaving Hanoi and Arriving in Laos

But, honestly, stepping off the plane and into my country of service felt great! And, I knew I was at home when the FIRST two signs to greet me were "BeerLao" signs BEFORE the official Laos sign welcoming me to the country. Fortunately, my teaching organization has this awesome policy about brewskies that does not allow me to imbibe anything close to alcohol (except mouthwash) while I'm here.

From Leaving Hanoi and Arriving in Laos

From Leaving Hanoi and Arriving in Laos

...and Heather, who already had a multiple entry Visa, guarding our things as we fill out papers to get into Laos.

From Leaving Hanoi and Arriving in Laos

Pictures from the Hanoi Hilton and the Temple of Literature

While we were in Hanoi, we had time to visit several places that held ancient cultural interest. One such is the Temple of Literature, which is a university-like-school founded nearly 1,000 years ago by the emperor at the time. It is no longer a school, but a very interesting cultural museum.

Another less ancient place is the "Hanoi Hilton" which is a prison built by the French to hold criminals and revolutionaries. The Japanese also used it during WWII to hold prisoners of war. It was used lastly by the Vietnamese to hold American pilots and soldiers who were caught during the Vietnam War. Here's how the different plaques read: "The cruel and repressive French built the prison to hold the loyal, patriotic revolutionaries" ... "the vicious Japanese executed those valiant prisoners who tried to poison their captors" ... and "The Vietnamese treated each and every American prisoner with the highest standard" (while they were in the prison); in fact, the sign said, most Americans came to realize how great the Vietnamese government was and how oppressive their own acted toward the Vietnamese. They even have John McCain's flight suit in a glass case and pictures of his visit to Vietnam.

The entrance to the Temple of Literature:

From Temple of Literature

Shrines for incense to some ancient scholars:

From Temple of Literature

Van was our guide around the city that day... she was a great help in understanding a lot of things! Thanks Van! AND, I was carrying Heather's purse/bag - THAT BAG IS NOT MINE (major disclaimer)!!!

From Temple of Literature

... and Heather and I were the curious learners following Van (ONCE AGAIN, NOT MY BAG... major disclaimer... I was helping Heather out):

From Temple of Literature

These were really cool stone turtle statutes that held the names of accomplished scholars. There were rows and rows of them:

From Temple of Literature

up close:

From Temple of Literature

And Heather modeling the entrance to one courtyard in the temple:

From Temple of Literature

Entrance to the Hanoi prison:

From Hanoi Hilton

Layout of the original prison (from a photograph). Only a portion of the original has been preserved, a massive hotel has been built in the remaining area of that city block:

From Hanoi Hilton

This is the original gate to the prison:

From Hanoi Hilton

The oppressive French:

From Hanoi Hilton

And the patriotic revolutionaries in their chains:

From Hanoi Hilton

... very stoic:

From Hanoi Hilton

Again, the oppressive French and the solitary confinement rooms:

From Hanoi Hilton

Several prisoners escaped through this sewer... they say over a hundred escaped:

From Hanoi Hilton

The plague introducing the guillotine:

From Hanoi Hilton

... and the cruel machine of repression:

From Hanoi Hilton

A courtyard memorializing the atrocities committed against the Vietnamese:

From Hanoi Hilton

... and the massive hotel now behind the prison:

From Hanoi Hilton

...more of the courtyard:

From Hanoi Hilton

From Hanoi Hilton