Sabaidee Luang Prabang

'Sabaidee (Hello) Luang Prabang' is the title of one of the films we've watched at the huge outdoor cinema which has been erected here for the first-ever Luang Prabang film festival.   Not surprisingly, this  film has been by far the most popularly acclaimed as far as the locals are concerned.   Made in 2008, it's a sweet romantic comedy set in Luang Prabang, Vientiane and Pakse, and it showcases some of the most beautiful scenery from those areas, as well as the local customs and cultures in this part of the region (for example, given that it's a touching romance, there's not a single kiss or even hand-holding scene in the whole film).   We watched this film, and a few others on different evenings, alongside many tourists and the crowds and crowds of local families who've attended, most of whom seem to have brought ALL of their children - who've been incredibly well-behaved and completely agog at the giant screen.    Every time there was a recogniseable scene from Luang Prabang, a great collective sigh, or cheer, or round of applause would break out amongst the locals, who seemed really pleased to point out to us, using mainly body-language, that they knew where the scene was shot.  It's been a great week-long festival, showcasing films from Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia, and we feel really lucky to have happened upon this festival while we're here.

The film festival is located right at the end of the main street, Sisavangvong, which runs through the old town of Luang Prabang, and which is transformed each night into one of the most colourful night-markets we've seen, selling silks and all kinds of handicrafts made by the Hmong people - the largest of Laos' ethnic minority tribes. Every evening, at around 5 pm, the Hmong people set up their brightly-lit red and blue canvas gazebos in a continuous stream along both sides of the street, and along the middle, leaving just enough space for two people to pass in the passages left on either side. There's much haggling to be done here, and, on the busier nights, you can hear haggling going on mainly in English, but spoken by people of French, German, Dutch, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Scandinavian, Australian, American, and even Laos origin. It's a great place to be, and it's almost impossible to pass from one end of town to the other without being drawn back to this colourful hubbub every time.

Across Sisavangvong street from the film festival, there are several small streets and alleys selling some fantastic street-food in the evenings. We've tended to frequent one tiny alleyway, which Andy has dubbed 'Scruffy Ally' (or maybe 'Scluffy Ally') where, for 10,000 Kip - just less than £1 - you can fill a plate from a choice of noodles and rice dishes, and salads and vegetables of various kinds, which the stallholder then stir-fries for you in a great wok. For another £1, you can add a delicious whole barbecued fish on a bamboo stick, or a chicken or pork kebab, or a couple of legs or breast of chicken. You take your selection to any one of the long, scruffy, make-shift tables and long benches to sit and eat, and, without fail, immediately get into fascinating conversations with the many travellers from around the world who come here each evening. Within seconds of sitting down, people are swapping travelling stories and recommendations for places to go or avoid, places to eat, customs and traditions they've learnt about. Scruffy it may be, but it's also really, really sociable.

We've been here for 12 days in total, and for 9 of those I've been working as a volunteer at the morning drop-in at Big Brother Mouse, the publishing/literacy/English language training project based here in town (again, check out their website - it's really good).  From 9.00 - 11.30 each day except Saturday, local young men aged between 17 and early 30s (never young women, at least in my experience) come to practise speaking and getting help with their English pronunciation, vocabulary or grammar from the volunteers like me who turn up when they can, and who themselves come from many different countries.  It was interesting one morning, for example, to hear a Polish girl with still very broken English herself, trying to help one young man with his pronunciation!  And then, another day, hearing an American woman inroduce herself to the kids as 'Kiddy', and then became surprised when they did not know to spell it as 'Kitty'!  Some of the young men are waiters or hotel workers, and, when discussing one day what people mean, and how to respond, when customers ask where the toilet is, I had also to explain that American-English speaking people would probably ask for the bathroom instead - and, of course, it was necessary for me to pronounce the word with a long 'a', rather than the short 'a' of English northerners, as the lads would probably never hear it pronounced except with an American accent.   It's been a great experience, and I've learnt so much about their lives, families, festivals and working conditions that it's been well worth every minute of my time. Oh, and yesterday, on the recommendation of one of my new friends there, I found a local hairdresser where I managed to get my head massaged, my hair washed, cut and blow-dried, plus a manicure and pedicure, all for just over £8!   So, it's good knowing some locals.  

Even better, on one day, two of the young men offered to take us to the Hmong village where they live, to witness some of the week-long New Year/New Moon celebrations.   So, Andy and I hired a couple of bikes, and followed them out of town to this amazing spectacle.   This is an annual event, where different villages travel to a host village to celebrate the moon phases, but particularly to help their young people to find a wife or husband.   Most of these young people arrive in their brightly-coloured traditional customes, festooned with pom-poms, beads or coin-like decorations and take part in a ritual designed to allow boys and girls to talk to each other away from (but supervised at a distance by) their families.   This match-making ritual is a game in which girls line up on one side to face lines of boys on the other side, and they spend seemingly hours throwing an orange-like fruit to each other's side.   If a boy likes the look of one of the girls, he can cross sides to stand beside her and talk to her while she carries on with the game.   First, they have to check the family names, to ensure they're not already related in some way, and, assuming all's OK, they can spend as long as they like just talking and playing.   If the girl also likes the boy, the boy can 'kidnap' her at the end of the day, and take her back with his family to their own village, where the girl stays for 3 days and nights being feted and looked after by the boy's family.   If at the end of that time the boy has made up his mind to marry her, they then return to the girl's village to seek her parents' agreement (which, of course is rarely withheld, as the girl would by now be 'sullied' by her 3-day association with the boy and might not get another chance!) and to make wedding arrangements.   Meanwhile, each evening at the festival, there's apparently much singing, dancing and drinking to be done, and the only concession to the modern-day is that the young people now have their own disco, should they choose, away from where the adults are still indulging in more traditional dances and songs.   Actually, another strange anacronysm we found amusing was to watch some of these youngsters in their traditional costumes and head-dresses throwing and catching the orange with one hand, whilst having lengthy converstions with someone else on their mobile phones - really a peculiar sight.   We didn't stay for the evening celebrations, but it was just fascinating being there over lunch with our two local 'guides'!

Whilst I've been at BBM in the mornings, Andy has been exploring Luang Prabangn with his camera.  He's also been trying to track down information about what happened to the Laos Royal Family when the Pathet Laos (communist party) took power in 1975.   He'd been reading a book given to him by Sandra for his last birthday, which said that they had been taken to a remote northern province for 're-education', but had not been heard of since.   He had, though, managed to find out that the youngest daughter/granddaughter in the family had been allowed to stay in Luang Prabang at a house called Villa Santi.   So, Andy went to this place, which has recently been renovated and turned into a very upmarket hotel and restaurant, and managed to speak to the manager there.   He was told that this particular princess is currently in Australia studying hotel management, and plans to return to Villa Santi next year.   I'm now trying to persuade Andy to contact the author of the book which started his quest, in order to get this tale corroborated.   All fascinating stuff.

We've spent some absolutely wonderful days here in Luang Prabang, visiting temples, markets, local restaurants, river-side bars, local villages across the Nam Khan river accessible only by a rickety-rackety bamboo bridge - making various local products - Lao-Lao (local rice whisky), silk-weaving, blacksmithing, wood-carving, and embroidery: you name it, they'll make it and sell it in the local market.  

But perhaps the ultimate highlight was our last full day here, which we spent riding elephants 'bare-back', mahout style, at the Elephant Village 13k from the town.   This was just brilliant!   We started off by learning some basic mahout verbal and physical commands.   Saying 'sueng sueng' whilst holding the top of the elephant's right ear instructs her to lift up her right leg (all 13 elephants here are female), so that you can use it as a leg-up onto her back, where you sit with your knee in the back of her ear, with your feet dangling down beside her neck.   Alternatively, 'map' commands her to kneel down with all four legs on the ground, so that you can more easily climb up.   Then, leaning forward, tapping her ear with your feet or knee, you say 'pie-pie' as the command to go.   Leaning backwards and saying 'how-how' is stop, tapping the right shoulder and saying 'sai-'sai' is turn left, whilst tapping the the opposite ear and saying 'kwa-kwa' is turn right.   Fortunately, we didn't ever need to lean back and say 'dune-dune', as this means reverse - and it's nerve-racking enough going forwards!   Our group of 6 each started out with a brief practice tour around the elephant's feeding hut trying out our new-found skills - all the time, of course, with the real mahout sitting behind us on the elephant's back, I was glad to hear.    After that initial attempt, we went on a more traditional elephant ride for an hour, seated on a howdah - a wooden, two-person seat on the elephant's back, with a bar across to stop you falling out.   During this hour, we walked down the middle of a shallow-ish river and into a local village, all along some very narrow, and sometimes steep, muddy tracks.   But sitting in the howdah is chicken-feed (sorry about the mixed animal metaphor!) compared with doing the same thing bare-back - there's nothing to hold onto except the elephant's massive, bristly head up there, and, particulaly going downhill, sometimes at 45-degrees, is really hairy at first.

After feeding the elephants and having our own lunch, we were deemed ready to start the next hour of riding, fully bare-back this time, though still with the mahout perched further back on the elephant.   We headed off down one of these narrow, 45-degree slopes into a deeper part of the river, the water coming right up the elephants' back so that our legs are now dangling in the water.   Here we stopped for a while to wash the elephants with a large stiff scrubbing brush.   But this was when the fun really started!   Some of the elephants started sitting down, or sucking up and spraying us all copiously with trunk-loads (around 8 litres a time) of river water.   Some of the elephants - and mine in particular - seemed to prefer ducking their head under the water for several minutes at a time, which is a real challenge of nerve and balance, I can tell you.   I was instructed by my mahout to lean backwards as the elephant's head disappeared before me, which sounds simple enough.   But, being slowly submerged to my thighs, then my waist, then my chest almost up to my neck, was really scary:  I was convinced that I would either have to 'abandon elephant' and swim for it, or hold my breath and go under with her.   I think this was the point at which I finally shouted for help, and fortunately my mahout lent forward and took my raised hand in his, laughing all the time at my scaredy-cat behaviour.   As it happens, this was as far as the elephant went, leaving my neck and head above water - though she did the same thing three or four times before I really began to believe that I wouldn't go under.   Phew!   But what a marvellous experience!   After maybe 20 minutes in the water, we lumbered slowly to the other bank (well, the elephants did anyway), de-mounted and said goodbye to our elephants - every one of us really elated and sad that the experience was now over.   As the elephants and their mahouts lumbered away, we all took to a powered canoe on the river-bank, which carried us 15k upstream to the Tad Sai waterfalls which we'd visited some weeks ago as part of the Intrepid tour - though, on this occasion, the dry season now being well under way, the falls and their pools were several feet lower than we'd seen earlier.

That said, however, overnight that night, and our last morning today before leaving for Hanoi, we had quite a lot of rain!   All the locals tell us that this is unheard of for December.   But then I and my colleagues, Linda and Jane, will also remember times in Uzkebistan when our Uzbek partners would adamantly state that it 'never rains in Tashkent in the summer', whilst we stood there under our wet umbrellas, or 'it never snows in Samarkand', while we stood up to our ankles in the stuff!   Isn't travel wonderful ...?!

Off now to Hanoi, to make our way towards Hoi An for Christmas and New Year.   More soon ...

Sunset from Mount Phousi, Luang Prabang

Night Hmong Market, Luang Prabang

Night Food Market, Luang Prabang

Hmong Village New Year Festival

Lao-Lao Wisky Tasting

Night Food Market, Luang Prabang

Wisky Still

Big Brother Mouse!

Hmong Night Market, Luang Prabang

Hmong Night Market, Luang Prabang