June 25, 2007

241206 Muang Khua town centre - 02

Travelling alone through places with patchy cellphone network coverage, the cat relies on blending in with locals to move around without attracting attention, for safety. Especially when it is highly unlikely that anyone it manages to contact in an emergency would be able to respond with help within a day or two or many more. Blending in also means not having to deal with farang prices ;) It also means that locals are not the least bit shy & will not hesitate to yak on & on:

maa tae/jak Wiang Jarn/Luang Phabang maen bor? you're from Vientiane/Luang Prabang right?
baan keut yuu sai? where's your village/hometown/birthplace?
maa haa phor mae/phii nong? you're here to look for parents/relatives?
maa thula/thiaw? here on business/holiday?
hian mahawitthayalai thii pathet Wietnam? studying in university in Vietnam?
bpen khuu/ajaan maen bor? you're a teacher/lecturer right?
ayuu jak pii? taeng ngaan laew bor? how old are you? married yet?
lot nii pai Muang Xai bor? does this bus go to Udomxai?
waylaa bpai theung Ban XXX suai bork khoi dai bor? when we reach XXX village could you please tell me?

& when they realise that the cat barely understands anything they are saying:

khawp khua jaak bpai pathet Lao meua dai? when did your family leave Lao?

...with the assumption that the cat is an overseas Lao born in USA/France/some Thai refugee camp & making a trip back to discover its roots...!

Blending in also means this reluctance to put a camera in people's faces. It just creates an instant gulf. The cat has found itself on the receiving end before, in the crosshairs of farang photographers in villages & Luang Prabang temples. Hence most of its photos of humans are taken from afar, like through grimy tinted bus windows:

PC240217
PC240218
PC240217a

Local pirated VCD/DVD store:

PC240218a

Lottery ticket seller:

PC240218b

241206 Muang Khua town centre - 01

Cold season Sunday morning - all bundled up & huddled around a fire:

PC240215a
PC240214

Town centre - with the nicest vehicle the cat has seen in a week:

PC240216
PC240216a
PC240216b
PC240216c

June 24, 2007

241206 Muang Khua from an alley cat's point of view

PC240193c

Through the maze of paths near the market...

PC240191
PC240191a

Beware of crashing into low overhanging structures if you are taller than a five-feet-nothing straycat ;)

PC240192
PC240192a
PC240193
PC240193a

Someone's rainwater collection system:

PC240193b

The cat first saw this type of flowers at the house of an Akha village herbalist in 2005:

PC240206 PC240202

A week & a half from now, it would see this plant exhibited at a conference on traditional medicine attended by Akha, Tai Yai (Shan), Yao (Mien), Hmong, & other ethnic group herbalists & healers from Thailand, Lao & Myanmar at Chiangrai Rajabhat University.

241206 life along the Nam Ou - Muang Khua

People gathered around an earthmover on the riverbank...the usual standing, squatting, staring & waiting for something nothing to happen - Lao is so not a place for Type A personalities ;)

PC240186a

Old enough to learn how to walk = old enough to learn how to ride pillion:

PC240186b

Do these homes shift to higher ground during the rainy season?

PC240185b PC240187

More 'laundry gardens' (below left) & the green pool of sludge-y stuff (below right) that blocked the riverbank path from the boat landing to Nam Ou Guesthouse the previous afternoon:

PC240185a PC240187a

241206 morning views from Nam Ou guesthouse

Muang Khua boat landing:

PC240185
PC240186

The tugboat + 'floating platform' vehicle crossing:

PC240184

Didn't get to watch them in action as both stayed put for the entire duration of the cat's brief stopover. Four transport options - bus, songthaew, tuktuk & slow boat:

PC240190

Another cold, languid, foggy morning along the Nam Ou:

PC240188

June 23, 2007

231206 removing the Nam Ou

...from the cat's backpack:

PC230114

The slow boat leaked quite a bit, & from time to time sleeping passengers would be shocked awake by a wave of water sweeping *SMACK* into their faces, especially when a speedboat roared by...

At times like these the cat is more than grateful for its Olympus mju300 camera, which has functioned from 0m to +4095m a.s.l. through acid rain, salt-laden ocean spray, fog & condensation, several villages' worth of dry season dust, guano, snow, ice, hail, spilt drinks, plenty of knocks & a few falls...as weatherproof as the manufacturers make it out to be (remains to be tested in tornados & lightning though).

Plastic bags, rubberbands, sandwich bag clips & ziplocs recycled from the cat's lab kept everything except the backpack itself dry:

PC230115

Singaporeans might recognise the folded national icon in the foreground - the NTUC Fairprice supermarket plastic bag...the cat has lost count of the number of times it has spotted Singaporeans with it in USA, Europe, Australia, NZ & Asia ;)

Mr 36L Tatonka:

PC230170

After about 10PM when all the lights, radios & TV sets in town went *poof*, the cat was more than grateful for its little Maglite & the way it can be used like a candle, as well as the peace & quiet with which it could enjoy the starry sky in the pitch darkness of the empty badminton court =) If the cat had a straw mat & if there were no wandering dogs, it would have spent the night out there in the open. But Nam Ou Guesthouse Mama & other Muang Khua villagers would be pretty freaked out by the idea of the cat spending a night together with the local spirits & ghosts.

1000kip instant noodles from Hat Sa - made in China with Japanese wording on the packaging:

PC230174

Interesting how the language of a wartime enemy who massacred thousands can be used to snazz up a product & increase its appeal to consumers - the green Chinese characters 日式鸡丁味 ri4 shi4 ji1 ding1 wei4 mean 'Japanese style chicken flavour' ;)

How are carrots & shallots 'dehgdrated' & pork & fresh shellfish distilled?

PC230173

If Getafix the Druid (from Asterix) or Macbeth's three witches won't lend us a cauldron, we can still enjoy by 'direct edible':

PC230171

end of day 7 (231206):
noodle soup/pho/feu/khaaw soi eaten to date = 05 bowls

231206 Nam Phak

Looking upriver - the road to Pak Nam Noi aka. Ban Sinxai runs parallel to it:

PC240194
PC240194a

Looking down - the tripod-like contraptions are weighed down by large stones or sandbags & have what looks like boat propellers (can be found in local markets) attached for generating electricity:

PC230167
PC240197

Looking downriver:

PC230153

Lao love their country, yet treat it like a big fat dustbin:

PC230153a

As a little kitten, the cat wondered why Cabbage Patch dolls from America were the rage...cabbage patches were muddy places where people spread buckets of human waste as fertiliser, not exactly the kind of place one would associate with expensive toys:

PC240195b

Confluence:

PC240196

231206 Nam Phak bridge

Muang Khua lies at the confluence of the Nam Phak & Nam Ou rivers. From the open space that serves as the bus station parking area, a path slopes down to a suspension bridge over the Nam Phak:

PC240201

To watch out for - motorcycles & gaps:

PC240201a
PC240200

Muang Khua's most scenic laundry line:

PC230160
PC230159
PC240195

All decked out with yellow Beer Lao flags - restaurant with a view?

PC240195a