A Loom with a View

‘Mistrust all enterprises that require new clothes.’ It is as well that E.M.Forster’s “A Room with a View” was not set in Laos, otherwise he would have had some rewriting to do.

We arrived in the “Land of a Million Elephants” after a brief passage through the Golden Triangle and made our slow passage down from the far north to the capital Vientiane. Whether it was kayaking white water rapids (so called because you go white rapidly when you see them), scrambling around muddy mountain rice fields or just enduring the soaring humid temperatures we barely had a day when we didn’t need new clothes at least once.

We crossed the border at Houey Xai and drove first to Luang Namtha, a relatively wild province in the north with some large nature reserve areas. The object was to do some ‘relaxed’ kayaking and traverse about 46km through the center of the Nam Ha protected area on the eponymous river. Following our time in the Golden Triangle where we had rainfall that can only be described as antediluvian it was no surprise that the rivers were in spritely mood. After merrily spinning round in circles and crashing into any obstruction we could find at the merest hint of a rapid we ended up lashing kayaks together with the guide, just as well given the progressively more vigorous rapids as we went downstream…no chance of a quick forty winks there!

Passing down the narrow but fast river into the heart of the Nam Ha area we were able to visit some remote villages of the Khmu and Lantan minorities. These villages are in very rugged terrain maybe a full day’s walk from the nearest vehicle track (and even then you can only walk it safely in the dry season). We stayed the night in a bamboo thatch hut in the small Khmu village of Nalan Tai, enjoying some local food after a punishing day for the shoulders!

The highlight for the evening has to be the engaging game of ‘hunt the rat’. As twilight fell local conversation picked up around our cooking fire and in the process of moving places someone startled a rat (of fair size) that must have been sleeping in the bamboo floor. With an astonishing turn of speed it made for the nearest dark space, in this case up someone’s sleeve. After howls variously of amusement and horror depending on whether it was your sleeve the rat had designs on it diverted and dived into the pile of bedding assembled by the mosquito nets. There was quite a bit of bedding (the area is more than 1000m altitude and cool at night) and so finding the rat was rather like a game of ‘Buckaroo’ in reverse – is it going to be the layer you take away that sends the rat off again?!

Aside from diversions and amusements of a furry disease carrying nature, we were able to see the Lantan people processing cotton from collected cotton plant to finished clothes, as well as buy some samples of their distinctive tribal clothing.

When not communing with Rattus rattus we stayed at ‘The Boat Landing’ eco-lodge and would recommend it – clean and nice local style rooms well designed for minimal ecological impact and great food. Unusual delicacies include rattan stew (as in furniture), local stews that have chunks of local ‘spicy wood’ in them as well as cuisine of the Akha people of that area.

Moving southeast we spent several days in the village of Ban Sopchaim, a mixed Khmu and Tai Deng settlement with a strikingly beautiful situation on a river bank surrounded with karst limestone mountains and cliffs. Braving the bloodsucking leaches and caterpillars so hairy you could make haute couture coats out of them we explored the extensive caves where the entire village lived for years during the Vietnam War as well as trekking to a Khmer village to have a look at their elaborate catfish traps made of bamboo. Must try those out in the Thames when we get back.

After Sopchaim next stop was the famous town of Luang Prabang, a dreamlike apparition of temples, colonial architecture and relaxed living on a verdant tongue of land between the Mekong and the Khan rivers with a backdrop of jungled mountains. We enjoyed our time in Luang Prabang a lot, although we did wonder a little about local mores when our hotel staff checked us into a ‘liver view room” and asked if we would like to “eat by the liver” – they had a wide selection of “flesh fly food and flutes”.

We’re now in Vientiane before a local travel marathon to get to Indonesia for next week where we don the scuba tanks again for some top quality “muck diving”… wondering exactly what that is?? Stay tuned…

Every morning at dawn monks walk along the main street of Luang Prabang collecting alms from the local people.

The juxtaposition of old and new seems more striking in Luang Prabang than anywhere else in Laos.

Lao style temples are richly decorative in design as well as in detail.

Outer walls are often covered with large golden reliefs depicting buddhist scripture as well as some local history.

Inside the temples there are a mix of large buddhas as well as small

Wall decoration inside is rich in gold as well, as with these small buddha images..

..and also this illustration of Buddhist scripture from the wall of Wat Xieng Thong, widely thought to be one of the most beautiful of Lao's temples.

Outside the towns rice cultivation covers large areas of the landscape.

In the remoter areas transport infrastructure is still 'local style'.

Most villages still lead a pastoral lifestyle focussed around rice and domestic livestock.

Thatch huts are surprisingly cool and also rainproof, as well as being very atmospheric.

Fabric is still made from natural materials by some ethnic groups - Tai Deng process silk worm cocoons (shown here) into attractive local silk garments.

Lantan villagers preparing cotton thread to be dyed and then woven into the tribal garments they are wearing.

Time spent with the very friendly Tai Deng is a window into fascinating local rituals and culture.

There are also extensive cave systems around some villages. Village elders sometimes know these well as they lived in them during the Vietnam war. Some of these caves are very large indeed... (note the man at the mouth of the cave here).

Some caves have clearly been occupied far longer than just during the Vietnam war. The Pak Ou caves are filled with buddha statues of all sizes, some of them very old.

Although much wildlife remains hidden in the deep forest there is never a shortage of colourful butterflies of many kinds.

The wildlife doesn't stop at night either, a loud chorus of frogs, insects and unidentifiable sounds of the jungle continues through the night as fireflies illuminate the jungle one leaf at a time.