Finding shelter in the storm - my house in Pakse

So, we arrived at the end of rainy season and it rains about 2-3 times a week. It is great when it rains because the weather gets so much cooler afterward. Which leads me to a great entry about my house in Pakse. I showed a couple pictures of it from the front, but lets take a quick tour of the inside...

The place is cozy and it has a great location near to the TTC (Teacher's Training College) ... where I teach. The A/C is just awesome during the hotter seasons (when it doesn't cool down at night... hot season is relative to cold season, the only major difference being that instead of steamy, humid, hot, miserable weather, cold season is dry hot in the afternoon and cooler - read mid 60s - in the evenings).

Its also nice to have a place to escape at times with a book, oreos, and some instant coffee!

Spirit Worship Houses

So, Laos is a Buddhist country, but there is usually a pragmatic element adopted within the belief system. Here in Laos there is in every house or building a small house built to burn incense and offer gifts to the local spirits. This is a picture of a house built on the property that my teammates looked at buying. Apparently, the landlords send someone to offer incense, food, drinks, money, cigarettes, flowers or anything they think the spirit will like. You can see the burned sticks of incense to the left in the picture with flowers on the right.
These houses are sometimes attached to trees or sitting at the entrance to a restaurant (often off to the side in a nook or cranny). Sometimes, there will be a miniature Buddha statue within the small house. The houses are made as decorative and ornate as possible.

Eating sticky-rice, coconut, and sugar in a bamboo stick

So, a quick entry about food at the Water Racing Festival...

They sell this on the street... its a bamboo shoot that is cut at one end and filled with a mixture of sticky-rice along with shredded coconut and sugar mixed in with the sticky-rice. Apparently, you peel the bamboo back ... which is a little tricky since the bamboo is hard to peel. Once you get the bamboo back... its preeeeettyyyyy good!

There is another recipe we have made here in Pakse that is delicious...capital D. Sticky-rice, with sweetened coconut milk, and either bananas or mangoes. It is "sehp elee" (Lao for 'really good').

Top Ten Things Learned in Laos (recently):

• 10: Hot water is NOT necessary to wash the dishes.

• 9: Any temperature control for that matter is a luxury (such as A/C, hot/cold water, refrigeration)

• 8: Dirt is THE way of life... you will meet dirt in this world.... in Laos it comes in enormous clouds.

• 7: Following that, clean is relative to dirty. The less dirty something is, by default, makes it cleaner!

• 6: Some food is universal... some food is NOT! (unless you are starving, then almost all food is universal)

• 5: Road rules and rights are reborn when an oncoming bus is passing a slow tractor on a less than 2 lane road... and you are the one facing the oncoming bus with a motorbike!
  
  
• 4: Everything is cheaper in Laos... except the foreign stuff that is cheap in America... such as Peanut Butter, Jelly, cheese, and butter. (Exception: the cheap Asian food like ramen noodles, they are cheap here too!)
  

• 3: I cannot get out of things by talking my way out... especially since I don't know the language! Instead, I get out by "memory lapsing"... if they ask me, I don't know any Lao and I can't speak it! Smiling also works better than talking most times!
  

• 2: People in the States tend to be waaaaaay to worried and high strung. I haven't met any worried Lao person who has a single anxiety problem and most of them are struggling to survive on a day-to-day basis. Loosen up America! They also let things go waaaaay faster.

• 1: Life is still very similar. They laugh, cry, eat, sleep, and live life with all the same emotions and needs. Its not so different here on the other side of the world.... when you add everything up.

"Boon Nam" - A Water Festival pt. 2 ... and colorful boat racing

The day of the festival is a fun day of boat racing and celebration. This means: a lot of people, boats from all over the provinces to race, a lot of loud music and muffled speaking (albeit obnoxious to those who don't care for the cowbell-driven, Lao music and the never-ending talking/awkward laughing from the microphones), along with many thousands of gallons of Beer Lao being consumed (it is the only drink I know that is in EVERY remote village... even when there is no clean water, there is Beer Lao available).

As we went down to the riverfront, I noticed a couple Lao children playing alongside the street. Other than flour... what else is really needed for fun?

Also... someone is going to have some heavy duty cleaning-up to do after this is all over:

There were many small stands dotting the streets with excellent wares. I bought some coconut ice-cream ('saeph elee'- Lao words for really delicious) for about 1,000 kip or roughly 12 cents. We headed toward the pavilion where the main audience was sitting and watching the boat racing. Loud speakers were giving a Lao music ambiance and someone was obviously commenting on the happenings on the river (however, I don't know how anyone understood him because his voice was so muffled I couldn't tell for the longest that it was a someone talking... i thought it was someone who was humming along very poorly to the songs). We were arriving mid-afternoon and it the races were probably over at that point. What we saw was the parading of the various teams along the river audience. Check out some of the pictures and videos:

The movements they are doing with their arms is the Lao style of dancing. Also, The colors represent their village.

Some random shots of the festivities in the downtown area.

My kinda kid... toting the toy gun with pride:
And, another appearance of the balloon salesman.

Buying the caramel flavored, kettle-popped popcorn, yes we are addicted. I love the Asian camera sign which even my students will do in the classroom when I try to take their picture:

...and my favorite picture of this set. I asked them (through gestures) if I could take their picture and they gave me some great smiles!


Here is a link to the entire album...

The Pakse Water Festival

Also, here are two links to more info about the festivals in Laos:
Laos Festival Events
Boat Racing Festival

"Boon Nam" - A Water Festival ... fireworks and devil boats

Around the beginning of October of every year, the Lao people celebrate the Water Festival. This is a time for thanksgiving to the spirit of the river and the sending away of evil through little boats. The water is thought of as a sanctifying force carrying the evil spirits away (symbolized by the little boats). Some great boat racing on the Mekong River follows the next day. There is quite a party in the downtown area. Normally, this area is fairly quiet with few people... BUT during the festival, it is jammed packed with everyone from the surrounding areas.

The evening before, we went down to the river area to see the Lao release these small boats made from banana leaves and incense plus optional candles, money, sparklers, beads, or flowers. They hire small kids who are waiting in the water to push the boat out into the river (great time for the munchkins who are willing to get wet and dirty in the river). There is a lot of fanfare going on around the river. Loud fireworks ignite screams from unsuspecting Lao (mostly girls). This is also the time when the monks come out of their long period of fasting (its a Buddhist season of lent during a 'rain retreat').

Its all really a spectacular thing to see. All the people carrying these little boats lit with candles. Here are some attempts at pictures... note: its not easy to take pictures at night let alone when there are a ton of little candles and other lights.


Here are the massive 'little boats' market with many plain and exquisite versions of the exorcising vessels.

This is one made from mostly flowers and incense.

This is a picture of the river where some of the boats are caught near a tree. Does that mean those people will be extra bad this coming year?

And another shot of the tree hugging boats!

And here are some people bringing their boats to the river's edge.

Here are some monks teaching near the river's edge. Didn't know enough Lao yet to understand what they were saying.
One thing that is funny is that Lao people love to get some big speakers and talk nonstop through them to the crowds (complete with awkward laughing at moments when they need a break from talking... I really can't describe how eerie it is to hear that laugh).



Many people visit the temple (Lao: 'wat') near the river and pray to the Buddhas sitting there. They pray for prosperity, health, love, or anything they feel need.


There is also a parade that takes place in the downtown area. There are a number of floats made by the monks to celebrate the festival. Here is one that Amy C. is checking out for a photo op...
They also have a really neat lighting to them, as shown by the following photo:
There were also some really cool vendors during the festival. One such was the balloon people. They had some of the funniest balloons. There were also some great food vendors who sold caramel-flavored, kettle popcorn... yum!

Tune in to the next post for the boat racing part...