When deciding our next stop after Phonsovan, I debated between 2 places simply to break up the long journey to our main destination, Pakse, hub of the south. One option was Tha Kaek, the province directly across the river from my hood in Thailand, this being a big draw for me. There is also a famous cave outside of Tha Kaek, but I knew it was the kind of cave that you simply took a boat ride through and I like a cave that makes me work to appreciate it (i.e. caves in Sagada, Philippines). Savannakhet, a city further south sounded appealing. Lonely Planet called it charming and said it was the second biggest city in Laos after Vientiene, the capital, but more authentic. Since we were not going to Vientienne, Savannakhet sounded like a good option. The fact that Pauline and Marion were going was also a big attraction for us. Savannaket it was!
The ride was smooth with the exception being that my stomach was in shambles. Pretty much everybody gets sick in Laos, so I figured this stint of diarrhea was the hand I'd been dealt. Our first morning in Savannakhet, Marj and I went out for a little stroll and it didn't take long for us to be convinced that Lonely Planet didn't know what they were talking about. To call this a city was pushing it, and then to say it's the 2nd biggest in the country is a joke. And charming we were not finding it!
Positive note: we had known it was Rocket Festival time throughout the country. This festival takes place in the very beginning of the rainy season to request rain from the Gods to have a healthy rice season. What better way to aggravate the Gods and bring on the rains than shooting enormous rockets in the air? I can't think of any either. Often, the rockets are shaped as penises because the impoliteness of this will piss off the Gods more. It's also known as the Fertility Festival (product being rice, the most important thing in their lives) and well, penises assist in "fertilization". They are clearly clever folk. The region in Thailand I'm from celebrates this same festival excluding a few provinces, mine being one of them, so I'd never experienced it during my Peace Corps days. Each village celebrates on a day of their choosing and we were in luck as Savannakhet was celebrating the festival on this very day!
We met up with the girls later that morning and their excitement about the city surprised us. Within the hour of strolling around, they fell in love with it because they find beauty in almost anything. After 2 days in this town, I ended up loving it too....I believe it was because of them.
The 4 of us, the only tourists around for miles (Awesome), spent the afternoon at the Wat (temple), watched traditional dancing, making of music and the main attraction, setting off rockets. The celebrations, traditional garb, music, dancing and food were exactly like the celebrations in my Thai village. Marj, who lived in central Thailand, had never experienced anything like it, which shows how my region is more similar to Laos than Thailand.
Later, we stopped at a place serving this vegetable herb shake that was known as a Savannakhet specialty. It tasted, well, like vegetables mixed with too much sugar, but the best part was the man who lived there. A Thai man, named Watt, moved to America when he was 19 to study and lived there for 30 years. Through friends, he met his current Laos and he moved there 2 years ago. He was such a cool guy, very smart, totally tatt'ed up and really took care of us while at his home. He showed us birds of his, eagles, that were babies. I was upset because I believe all birds should be free, especially those suckers. But he explained that he buys the captured animals from the local markets, such as these birds, and sets them free. He does this with any captive animal he can find: iguanas, snakes, you name it, he saves it. Made me love him even more!
The following day we set off for the museum and exhibition, but since Savannakhet is the sleepiest place ever, everything was closed. We passed by the local hospital and interested to learn more, we asked to speak with a doctor for a few minutes, time permitting. We spoke with an English speaking female doctor who told us most of her patients have Dengue Fever and Malaria this time of year (I found this funny because the Laos nurses in Sam Nuea told us malaria is no longer a problem in Laos! One never knows!). The doctor looked worn out and exhausted and she explained it's because each hospitals biggest problem is they are understaffed. The government sets a doctor quota for each hospital and they won't pay for anything more than that. Gabby, Swiss volunteer doctor, previously told us the government often doesn't even pay the salaries it sets the quota at so it leads to the attitude of "I'm not getting paid, so I'm not going to work". I can understand that, it just leads to many untreated people. Another Laotian we met said doctors will only treat people with money, and if they have none, they don't help them. Clearly, there are no health insurance policies.
The infant mortality rate is shockingly high at 4%, largely because people do not have the money to pay for a proper delivery. To address this, the government recently implemented free deliveries for everybody. But of course there is more than 1 factor to this problem! The doctors who deliver are in the big town/cities, so people in rural areas (which is most of the country) must wait for hours to find a ride. Transportation here to any destination, regardless of distance, can take an entire day. I mean, when I say these people are poor, I mean they are poor. So, this free delivery system certainly is well intentioned but doesn't address all of the factors to the problem. What the country needs is more local health stations with trained midwives who can deliver safely and provide pre-natal care close to or in home.
The discussion with the various doctors here! made me recognize how this would be a great Peace Corps country. I spoke about this in depth with a Laotian man who was curious about my time in Thailand who believed that Laos would benefit from a similar program. I couldn't agree more, but I shared with him that it's a service through the American government and we must be invited by a country. This is just my opinion, but I believe because of the sad history we have here, the Laos government wouldn't trust our good intentions. What he said next blew me away: But that was so long ago, Laos people are OK with all that happened, we want to move on, we want to develop and improve.
Maybe America has offered PC services and Laos has declined, or maybe America has simply never offered, I don't know. Either way, this country could use some assistance - I believe the people would be so receptive. I spoke about PC in Vietnam with Peter the Easy Rider I biked with, and he flat out told me that the Vietnamese government would think PCVs were spies. This is not an uncommon thought and PCVs usually laugh about it; I had to convince a Thai man once I wasn't a spy for the CIA. But considering the history we have in this part of the world, well, I can't say I'd blame them. It's a shame.
Back to reality in Savannakhet - the 4 of us carried on to have a lazy, lingering day stopping for food and staying for hours just talking. As we were walking, Marj was approached with a hug by Gus, one of the awesome New Zealand guys we met in Vietnam. Following him came Liam and Heidi! We spent some time catching up and ended up at a massage place serviced by the Laos Association of the Blind. Instead of a massage, I spoke with the leader and founder, Sai Ngeun. He had a sweet 2 year old daughter who took to me as soon as I showed her an interest. I was amazed by Sai Ngeun's enhanced senses - every time his daughter went too close to the street, he could sense it it and went to retrieve her. He shared with me the Nepalese massage style training his workers went through that provided my travel buddies amazing massages. He said that business was challenging because nobody knows of the services - good people deserve good things so I'll be promoting his services via Trip Advisor (041-252419;020-555-955-36).
We all had a lovely dinner on the Mekong River - it was quite beautiful and peaceful. Later at our guesthouse, I met 2 Laotian men from Vientiene and had great discussions with them comparing Thailand and Laos. We agreed that Thailand is developing too quickly for its own good.....just add it to the list of interesting conversation on these travels. They also generously gave me a few glasses of their boxed red wine. It had been a while since red wine went down this throat, so that was real special.
The following morning, Marj and I were off to Pakse. It was quite hard to say good-bye to Pauline and Marion. We really connected and I just found them to be exceptional women - I can't wait to learn what they will be doing 10 years from now because I know they'll be doing something amazing. Til then......
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