The Wild Northeast

The 16 hours to Sam Nuea actually wasn't too bad.  I mean the first 6 hours we were surrounded by more things than people.  Apparently, the attendant wasn't putting any freight underneath the bus, so it was all going on the bus: bags and bags of God knows what was in many of the seats and the aisles.  Walking the aisle was like jumping stones crossing a river.  People were getting on and off constantly and each time, lights went on to figure out a way to get their crap out of the disorganized pile of things.  We were the last few to get picked up so we sat in the back with the majority of stuff in a huge pile. All the locals staring at us like they couldn't believe there were foreigners getting on the bus.  Once again, it all made for a more interesting ride. No A/C so we opened windows for a cool, night breeze.  It was actually nice to be cold after the intense heat of the past week. One thing you can count on during these bus rides is the side of the road pee stop. Typically, only one official stop is made for food, but that's not enough for a 16 hour journey so side of the road pee stops are made; everybody gets out and pees in the bushes, women, kids and me included! We woke up in the morning to beautiful view after beautiful view of mist over the mountains, which thanks to Paul, we got some good shots of.  

We got to the bus station but had to go to the other bus station to catch the hourly song-taew to Vieng Xai, where we were headed for the caves of the Hidden War (about 30km from Sam Nuea). We got this information from guide books and internet travel information. When we actually got to bus station number 2, the conversation with the attendant went like this:  

Me: We would like to go to Vieng Xai by song-taew.

Attendant: oh, the last one left at 9am.

Me: Ok, is the next one at 10am

Attendant: No, there are no more.

So much for the guidebooks providing guidance. The attendant got all flustered because she couldn't give me what I wanted so she put me on the phone with some guy who says there's a local bus, but it'll drop us off 5 km from the center of town. We figured we would walk if we had to, or hitchhike (which I'd never do with just marj and I, but Paul was with us - hitch hiking is pretty common around these parts and I've done it numerous times in Thailand). After some confusion we get on a rackety bus, with locals staring once again, surprised there are white folk on the bus. It was a beautiful ride and the bus ended up dropping us off 600 meters from center of town, rather than the 5km we were expecting. I love it when things end up working out.

We walk the 600 meters or so in the blistering heat, tired and hungry, and stumble upon the only other foreigners within miles.  It was a relief to see them drinking coffee, knowing they could be of assistance (as it turns out, those guide books I told you about became less and less reliable with every step we took) and that coffee was in our future.  The 2 foreigners were an absolutely lovely couple, Jacob and Christina, from Czech Republic and showed us where to get a cheap place to stay in this adorable, sleepy town.  We got food and met a french women running a Women and Children's program through Doctors without Borders. It was interesting to talk to her and gather some health information here - that always gets me going.  We carry on to the Cave Information Center and we pass a statue of Laos people stepping on a USA bomb in victory. I had done a bit of reading about this Hidden War, but this statue spoke volumes to what I had been so ignorant to and would learn a lot about over the next few days. 

Later that evening we went back to the same restaurant for dinner. An Indian man runs the joint; he moved to Laos 4 years ago to work in the mines and opened this restaurant 6 months ago. He spoke fluent Laos and English and was a gem. His Indian food also rocked my world.....we completely overate and Marj hit the sack early after the long stint of traveling. When I went to the room later that night, Marj was sick. She had all the symptoms of malaria, which I had heard was still prevalent in Laos.  I did the math and the incubation time would've meant a mosquito bite from our time in Luang Namtha where Marj spent 2 days kayaking on a fairly stagnant lake, in the midst of the jungle with many mosquitoes.  I was concerned but it was late and figured I'd see how she was in the morning.  

Next morning she was still not well.  Paul, despite him being English, was raised in East Africa and has had malaria many times; he suggested Marj get tested.  We went to the local health clinic and we learned they test and have medicine but it was Saturday and they don't test on weekends, go figure.  The more time went by, the more I thought Marj was dehydrated and / or had heat exhaustion, but we didn't want to take any chances so we decided to go to Sam Nuea where there was a hospital.  Sam Nuea is still a remote and small town, but it was our best option.  Transport back and forth between Sam Nuea and the even more remote Vieng Xai, is not easy to come by, so we hustled to get on a song-taew with Jacob and Chrisitna.  The ride in the song-taew was not comfortable and I imagine awful for somebody not feeling their best, but we got there an hour and a half later. 

I'm actually really glad we ended up going to the hospital because it was a really good experience, sans Marj being sick.  As it turned out Marj was, thankfully, free of malaria, typhoid fever and lime disease. She had heat exhaustion, was dehydrated and exhausted.  The nurses/ladies at the hospital were unbelievably helpful and patient. I was impressed with how clean the hospital was - much nicer than many of the hospitals I've been to in Thailand. I was unable to understand some of the medical terminology of the blood results, so they brought over a Laotian doctor who spoke English well to help. Through this doctor, we met 2 Swiss ladies: Gabby was a doctor and Claudia was a midwife. They use their 5 weeks of vacation every year to volunteer through a program that sends them to the same hospital to assist with Ob/gyn related issues, train staff and provide equipment. They were remarkable women and really helpful with Marj. While Marj rested, Paul and I went out to lunch with them and randomly bumped into Christina and Jacob who also joined us. It ended up being a nice afternoon.  

Our song-taew guy came back to the hospital later that day to bring us back to Vieng Xai where Marj slept until the next morning. I went for a run through this lovely little village. Huge karst limestone popping out everywhere. I'd look up and be right next to this beautiful and enormous mass of limestone and was impressed each time. Later that night, Paul and I went back for dinner at the Indian place for another nice evening. The next morning, we hit the caves with a tour guide named Neg who was a young 30 year old Laotian man. We learned a lot about the Hidden War and the caves through this tour, but the next blog will include details.

After our tour, we went back to our Indian guy for some delicious Laos food. We left later that afternoon back to Sam Nuea as we were moving on to a new destination the following day. Of course there was haggling and much debate before actually getting a ride - you have to work for everything here, but we made it. Marj was still run down so she relaxed the rest of the afternoon in Sam Nuea. Paul and I walked around the lovely town and ran into Gabby and Claudia again, the 2 Swiss volunteers.  We ended up spending the night with them, drinking, eating and having a great time. We went to this little fair (when I say little, I mean little!) with a game or two where Gabby and Claudia were determined to win a stuffed pillow by shooting 3 darts into balloons.  We all tried and nobody succeeded, but we had fun trying. I bought some of the grossest, sweetest "ice cream" I've ever had and we had a few laughs mocking the market clothes. It was a fun night with 2 very cool women.

The next morning, we walked to the bus station to catch the jankiest bus I've ever been on heading to see the Plain of Jars in Phonsavan. The bus didn't actually look neglected, but once we started driving, I felt like we were on a roller coaster with the little engine that could through the mountains.The van would randomly stall out and the man who regulated the van would get out and place a huge brick behind the wheel so it wouldn't roll back. And as much as I like roller coasters, this was not a fun one. The ride was so bouncy that we would periodically fly out of our seats and slam back into non-cushiony chairs. When this would happen, the brick would fall out of the back of the truck and the van guy would run out to retrieve it. But the driver would never stop the van and wait for him for fear we wouldn't be able to get moving again, so the van guy would have to run back while holding this huge brick. Despite the discomfort, the ride was kind of funny to me. The nice thing about the ride was meeting 2 french girls, Marion and Pauline and an English guy, Shaun. We were glad when we all arrived and set out in the rain to find a place to stay. We chose a place run by an Italian man named Marcello who was married to a Laos woman who ran the show. 

The following day Paul, Marjie, Shaun and I got a tuk tuk out to visit one of the Plain of Jar sites.  Well, a tuk tuk driver and guide rolled into one took us. The Plain of Jars is a plain covered in large stone jars. There are many questions about these jars and fewer answers. The jars are guesstimated to have been in this location since 500 B.C. A written Laos language was created only 300-400 years ago and so there are no written records. The stone they are made of resembles absolutely nothing in the area and so nobody knows where the stone/materials came from to make them. Research has been done to determine a mixture of other materials to make the stone, but none of that stuff resembles stone nearby either. Yet, researchers have ideas of what the jars were used for, which is pretty interesting: to hold whiskey, to cremate dead bodies in, or both! Later that afternoon we visited an organization called Mine Advisory Group (MAG) - I'll share information and the experience of all of this in the next blog. 

We wanted to leave the next day, but the bus was broken and needed some fixing, so we hung around on day 2 and relaxed (I went for the 2nd of only 2 runs in Laos). Paul left this afternoon as he was carrying on to a few other places that Marj and I were not going to, but we planned to meet again in a few days. Marion, Pauline, Marj and I went out for dinner and I got a chance to really get to know these young, remarkable women. They were both positive, creative, idealistic and cared so much about people. Pauline aspired to be a women's doctor while Pauline was a dancer and an artist. They gave their left over food to a poor man outside of the restaurant, willingly, not because it was taken from their hands which has happened a lot in SE Asia. They had a genuine love and belief in people and it was inspiring. They were 24 years old, but were well beyond their years, old souls for sure.

After dinner, us 3 girls were interested in checking out the local club. There is a curfew in Laos in most guesthouses (10:30pm) but every guesthouse has someone who sleeps downstairs if anything should come up and who will let those in who come in after curfew. We ran into Marcelo and told him we wanted to grab a beer and he wasn't very pleasant in his way of telling us that we couldn't come in after curfew. Even though Marcelo had been cool to talk to, we all discussed how his wife was basically his slave. It was the typical "farang man with Laos woman" situation that is so prevalent and awful in Thailand, and throughout Asia. So we decided to take our chances and went out for a beer.

The club was bumpin......with a bunch of teenage boys. Many approached us just to practice their English and all were still in high school, it was crazy. There were like 10 girls in the club, but none approached us and Pauline was really curious about them so we approached a few. They were much more shy than the boys, clearly not as confident in their English skills so I spoke to them in Laos. The girls were 16 years old....we couldn't believe it! It was a random week day too and we couldn't understand why they were at a club.  It was a little sad. 

We got back to the guesthouse a little after 12, almost 2 hours after curfew. Let me state that I've shown up much later after curfew in other guesthouses and nobody has ever given me a hard time. We Marcelo was clearly not happy and showed his discontent with us the following morning. Our justification was that we finally made him, rather than his wife, work for a change so it was a good thing for him! Either way, the 4 of us gals said our good-byes to our friend Shaun and set out to the next destination.