The RETURN TO PAKSE... part 2: Typhoons, New Houses, and New Homies

I woke slowly to gray skies and the melodic sound of rain pitter-pattering outside the bus. The bus was rolling slowly through the outskirts of Pakse stopping periodically to let people off at their houses. It was cool. But I thought this was just the A/C in the bus...

We stopped at the downtown bus station located just off the Mekong River. When we got off, I realized that is was actually cool outside too (by cool I mean about 75F) and raining steady. We scurried around getting our luggage off the bus and calling our teammates who were already in Pakse. One of our teammates came to meet us at the bus station where we arrived and the other went to the kilometer 2 bus station to try to meet our stove and bicycles. We got a large tuktuk and filled the back with our luggage. Russell and Bethany sat in the back and I sat in the front next to the driver (who was driving from the middle of the front with a seat on either side of him). We had an approximate 4 kilometer ride from the downtown to our teammates house. I got wet from the waist down the entire way there.

We arrived! WHEW! Here are a few pictures of our teammates house where we unloaded our stuff and collapsed. NOTE: The weather in these pictures was NOT what we faced that day!

This is my house!

When we finished unloading, Russell went to meet the stove and bikes at the bus station and the rest of us went inside to escape the rain (yay for Russell!). It took a little while to track down our stuff (and for a while we feared it might have come and someone else nabbed it before we got there), but everything arrived! All three bikes and the stove came safe. We placed the bikes on the porch and shut the gate. We put the stove in the house and after a short visit, we all crashed for a couple hours.

When we awoke, it was still raining ... heavy! Turns out, a typhoon was over Laos and we were getting the brunt of it that day! Water had accumulated around the gate till it was about 3 feet deep. ALSO, when we awoke and went outside, the Cooper's bikes were gone! Someone had opened the gate and come up to our porch and taken the bikes while we were napping! They didn't take mine... maybe because it wasn't new like the Coopers... or maybe because it was a southern china model that are known for breaking down. Well, sad day for the Coopers!

I began moving some of my stuff to the house next door. The landlady said I could stay there for a week or so until I found somewhere else to live... or I could stay there for the year. It would cost $150 per month not including the electricity. It is a nice house, newly built; under 3 years old. It is also conveniently located near the TTC (Teacher's Training College) where I will be teaching. The landlords are also very helpful people who have helped Amy and Sarah when they needed something. The only shortcoming of the house is the lack of A/C... and A/C really, really helps to sleep at night when the ambient temperature falls to only 80F or 85F. I AM from the North where we are used to sleeping in the cold; its a little hard for me to bear the hotter temps when I am trying to sleep.

Also, it looks like I might have some different roommates living in my house. This guy is slightly larger than the size of a square sticky-note pad. Fortunately, he was DOA (dead on arrival) but... it just makes me wonder...


SOOO... we are HERE! Finally.... WHEW! A big thanks to Amy and Sarah who helped us get settled in the midst of a typhoon.

The RETURN TO PAKSE... part 1: Sleeping buses and goodbyes

Several blog posts ago, we went down to visit Pakse for two days. It was great weather and we got an idea of the area where we would be living and teaching. The Pakse Hotel had great accommodations, but we didn't really know anyone there (except for one landlord for the house that the Coopers were hoping to get...but that story has a strange twist to be told later).

NOW, we are returning to Pakse...to live! We gathered all our possessions from the Guest House in Vientiane on Monday, September 28th. Things were a little hectic as we were getting the last shots for Japanese Encephalydis but forgot to get needles from the nearby French clinic. The trip to the clinic and back left us just enough time to catch the proper buses for our larger stuff.

There are sleeper buses that leave every night from Vientiane at 8:30pm (sharp, surprisingly) and arrive in Pakse at 6:00am the next day. These buses will also carry a lot of stuff with them (including our 8 suitcases and a few other odds and ends). BUT, they would not carry our bikes or a gas stove that the Coopers bought (we were told that gas stoves were not sold in Pakse... but we found some later, at a much higher price!). In order to transport our stuff, we found another bus that left slightly earlier, but carries larger items. The problem is that there is no way to guarantee that our stuff will not get stolen along the way (since this bus stops every 20-30 minutes along the road to Pakse, the sleeper bus stops only once).

We arrived at the bus station and paid transportation costs of 100,000 kip (about $11.85) per bicycle and the Coopers paid 200,000 kip (about $23.70) for the oven. This bus left at 7pm, but arrived in Pakse around 6:30am... the only problem is that there are four bus stations in Pakse, and we were not sure which one our stuff would arrive at. The best thing we could do was become really good friends with the Lao guy who put our belongings on the bus... and pay him a little money to help him remember to keep them on the bus.

Now we waited for our sleeper bus... Heather got us all food from a nearby night market: grilled fish, grilled chicken, sticky rice, fried spring rolls, and some dipping sauce - great sendoff meal! yum. (THANK YOU HEATHER!!!) We also treated ourselves to some Wall's ice cream (very similar to the ice cream bars or dipped cones we have in the US, but much much smaller). Ice cream never tastes better than in hot weather (and when you can rhyme all the time!).

The bus loaded around 8pm and our 8 suitcases disappeared in the bowels of the enormous land roving machine. I instructed Heather to buy 2 tickets for me because the last time I had to ride in a sleeper bus, I ended up sharing it with a very questionable person with a major identity crisis. A ticket costs 150,000 kip (roughly $17.70) and provides 1/2 of a single bed, a small meal of fried rice with cucumbers, a bottle of water, some random little mints (for your breath?), and a wet towelette in the morning to wipe your face. Two tickets gets me a whole single bed (woohoo... SOOOooooo much space! Almost enough for me to breath!) and no sleeping buddy!

So, we said our goodbyes to Vientiane (and Heather, since she was the only one there to see us off... she lived close to the bus station and was immensely helpful in speaking Lao for us). And the bus took off! They gave us our meal and bottled water. An older Asian gentleman was in the bed across the aisle from me. He too was alone in his bunk (great, wise minds think alike). The bus was now in full swing with its rocking and bumping and turning... sleeeeeeppppy time...

....11 weeks later, and we are finally getting down to the last leg of our journey into Asia!

The That Luang (Tat Lou-ang)

Laos has a national monument called the Pha That Luang (pronouncing 'Pha' like "pa" as in "park your car here" only stop before the 'r'; and 'That' more like "taut"; then 'Luang' as "loo-ang") which is printed on all the money and probably one of the most visited places in Laos (next to maybe Luang Phrabang). These monuments appear throughout Laos and are called stupas (pronounced "stoop-a" like poop-a).

Click on the picture to see a larger version.

This monument is not just a national symbol, but intertwined with the very religious nature of the country itself. The country is characterized by Theravada Buddhism with some local Lao twists (little animistic tendencies we call a 2nd tier folk religion... alongside the 1st tier of Buddhism, making up the layers of belief in people). The That Luang was built to contain the essence of the Buddhist spirit for the Lao people. According to tradition and some historical records, Buddhist missionaries brought a breastbone of Buddha to the place and built a stupa to contain the essence and spirit of Buddha. The original stupa was very small, less than 10 feet high. A king in the 18th century built it higher close to the size it is now using gold to overlay it. Over following years, the monument was ravaged by the Burmese, Siamese, and Chinese for any gold that the Lao had used to decorate it. After the Lao People's Democratic Republic was established, the people completed an earlier attempt by the French at restoring the monument.

All the dimensions and facets of the That Luang are symbolic in some respect. The height of 45 meters is representative of the lifespan of Buddha after he reached nirvana and was reborn. There are tiny Buddha images placed in small insets all around the second level signifying the presence of Buddha. The dragon is a symbol of the highest achievement within the hierarchy of this world - power, prestige, and achievement.

The monument is constructed with two levels, the second level is inaccessible because they are afraid that someone will try to steal whatever is inside. We walked around on the second level, about 10 feet off the ground.



The That Luang is located within near several Buddhist Monk monasteries. These were used as school to teach people from the local village as well as train the monks. They are not in use now, but look spectacular.

We went with a tour guide who spoke English fairly well, and I hope to post later some more of what we saw... but it was a stark reminder to me of the worldview that underlies the Lao life and culture. There are bridges between Truth and the culture, but it will be a lot of learning before I understand how to cross those bridges with Hope.

This is the entire set of pictures from the That Luang collection. Hope you enjoy them:

That Luang

Team Laos ... is in the HOUSE!

We spent a week in training with all 16 people from what we call "Team Laos" (which is everyone teaching in Laos from ELI both in Vientiane and Pakse). We were joined by Team Cambodia (which was 3 people on it - hence why they joined us to enlarge their numbers during training). Here is the entire group (with Vandenn running on a 2 sec timer to get into the picture on the left - you can see that his feet have actually not touched the ground!).

We also took the Team Laos photo:

...and the goofy version:

...What is with Maurice and I sticking our tongues out?!?...no idea! Crazy minds think alike, I guess.

And Team Pakse:

(which is... FRONT from L to R: Sarah, Amy, Bethany BACK from L to R: ME and Russell)

...and someone thinks their funny putting my bike in front with the "Uranns Pegasus" on it for the goofy picture!


....and Yes, I did not introduce the people from Vientiane... unless I get a lot of flack for this, then I will! After all, they are so far away from the rest of us down in Pakse. And its like they are their own hub of fun and excitement...

But here's a random picture that proves we have coke and iced tea in Laos, complete with Thai writing for the trademark "Coke" and "Lipton"... YES! I can continue my coke addiction!!!:



... ok, ok... I feel bad...out of the good graces of my heart:

FRONT(L to R):

Deedee the dog, Kat the human, Miranda and distracted baby, Pam, Amy, and Linda with the bright yellow!

BACK:

Doug, Kenton the tall, Mark, Maurice,

Corinne, and Heather the smiling one

...and I didn't even crop Deedee!

Lao celebration meal... mat style!

I was privileged to be invited to a Lao party celebrating graduation from a university. Heather's friend, Weung, graduated the first week of September and she was throwing a party to celebrate. Now, in Laos, the person who is celebrating is supposed to do all the work...this means that if its your birthday, you're going to be doing a lot of work to make other people feel like your birthday was worth it!

So, we drove out to Weung's parent's house which was a fair distance from where we were staying in Vientiane (but apparently, it was still part of the larger Vientiane city area). Right before we left for the party, we were given these awesome coconut ice cream cones...problem was riding on a motorbike with them! Here is Amy trying to keep her's from dripping over the motorbike:

Now, when we arrived, they were just beginning to prepare the meal and setup the mats, so we got to mull around and see the place...Click any photo to see a larger version:
FOOD PREPARATION:
The Yard and Surrounding Area



The meal was placed on mats spread over a part of the yard; it consisted of sticky rice (kept in these wicker baskets) which went with several dips and vegetables along with a spicy soup and rice noodles. Some of the vegetables were leaves that I had never had before... the spice in Lao is not really comparable to the spice in America because... it just isn't. Lao spice is much hotter, and its a good thing I like spicy food! Some of the food was good, but several things were a little hard to get used to. Here are some good pictures of the spread:
The Lao use a lot of mint with their soups and rice and spring rolls. In the first plate of leafy greens on the left, there should be some mint, lettuce, and another bitter leafy vegetable.Here is the full crowd celebrating! A couple things to note: The order of people is important. Laos is a very hierarchical society that has rules and protocol for how to sit and interact between people. Those who are of higher status sit toward the head of the table. Age has a lot to do with status, but other factors affect it such as jobs, government positions, wealth, family name or status, and even being a foreigner. We are given a higher status automatically because we are American and teaching. Notice, the people at the far end are at the end of the 'table'. I'm not sure what status we are right now; I'm just really happy to eat (I was STARVING in that picture).This is me...trying a very bitter leafy vegetable. This was definitely before the full taste of bitterness has hit my tongue.

And this is their home of bamboo and thatched roofing:

Food - Part 4: Eggs and chickens and what really came first

Continuing the story of attempting crazy Lao foods....

We come to that age old dilemma of which came first, the chicken or the egg. Well, after you see these photos, I think you'll agree that we just need to stop asking the question!

First, a basic introduction to the Lao egg at the night market. They are usually steamed over a charcoal grill that looks like such:

Because I was told that anyone could eat liver for their camera... and because it wasn't really unique to Laos, I chose to push the envelope and make manliness known again! So, here is me eating a developed chicken egg:

Notice that there is more in the egg than just yolk and white:

YUMMMM!!!




This series is also an advertisement for Miles and Semitic studies!