Amit Sinha's Travelog

Sitting in a hotel room in Beijing, with a view of construction
cranes, concrete slabs that are apartment complexes, and as I try to
make out the mountains in the background through the haze of
pollution, I think back to Laos, where, less than twenty four hours
ago, I was in a country that was still ‘unspoilt’ by development.

I am in two minds about development. It is easy to go, as a tourist,
with a fistful of dollars in hand, into a poor, under-developed
country like Laos, and live large, and enjoy the nature, and friendly
people. Its easy to come back to the modern world, sit at a fancy
restaurant, or in the air-conditioned comfort of your home, and wax
eloquent about your trip, sipping a pinot noir, and talking about how
you enjoyed a place like Laos because it still hasn’t been developed,
and then, as a rejoinder, you sadly mention how you feel its all
going to get corrupted, as the country is opening up its economy. To
me that feels hypocritical. Who am I to deny a country the chance of
improving the lives of its people just so that there is a place that
still has its “charm” for me to return to when I want to get away
from all the luxury that development has bestowed upon me. I see the
modern International terminal in Vientiane airport, managed in co-
operation with the Japanese, and think about the jobs its created,
and think whether its right for me to say that progress such as that
is wrong, because its changing something that in my modern,
westernized mind I find “quaint and exotic”.

Development is good because it provides an opportunity to improve the
quality of life of the people in the region. However, the unfortunate
aspect of development is corruption- both in the conventional form,
as well as social corruption, where, blinded by dollars, people lose
their basic moral fibre, history and culture, and pander to tourists,
or switch to aping the West. If development can be achieved without
such corruption, then I think a healthy balance for both the people,
and the visitors, as well as the environment, can be achieved.

I don’t want the Laos I saw to change. I want to be able to go to
Luang Prabhang and walk the streets without being harassed by
shopkeepers. I want to be able to walk into a village and have a
conversation with the local villagers without being expected to throw
money at them, such as in Tonle Sap in Cambodia. I still want to
retain my faith in the basic genuineness of people. And if this can
be achieved while having better roads, schools, airports, and maybe a
couple of ATMs here and there, then I have no issues with
development. I think its possible, and not just in Laos, but also in
say India, which is probably at a stage that’s early enough so that
development can be channeled in the right way, without unduly harming
the environment, culture, and corrupting the people.

(Written on July 5th, 2006)

Airports in Laos can prove to be venues for really unique
observations and experiences. Firstly, you have to go through
passport control, even for domestic flights. The weighing scales when
you check in, are old manual scales, the kind used to weigh rice and
vegetables in neighborhood markets across Asia. Being small, with
just a few flights every day, the airports have a relaxed, lazy feel,
and the authorities really don’t seem to have much to do.

At Luang Prabhang, the x-ray machine at security check was out of
order. Next to it, the security officer sat nonchalantly, waving
passengers through without nothing more than a cursory check.
Meanwhile a female assistant of his, in police uniform, stood by his
side and was either massaging his head, or looking for lice, I wasn’t
really sure.

Experiences such as these just add more to the charm of a place I am
already sad to leave. Luang Prabhang, is truly charming, and the
experiences I’ve had here have been wonderful. From trying to change
British Pounds at 8am, trekking through jungles, hanging out with
tribals, meeting an elephant, kayaking down-river to the city,
haircut by a beautiful Lao girl and a Gay guy, spending an evening
with charming British girls, all in the course of a day.

At 8am, just minutes before I was to head out for my trek, I realized
that I did not have enough money on me to pay for my trip. ATMs are
still foreign to this town, and luckily I had some British Pounds
tucked away in my backpack somewhere. Grabbing a fistful of pounds, I
headed to the main street to find a place that would change it into
liquid currency like the Kip, or the almighty dollar. of course, at
8am, the options for International Finance in the bustling trading
center of Luang Prabhang’s pretty limited. The first place I went to
just did not recognize the Queen, while the second tried to buy them
from me for $1.10, trying to convince me that it was Euros that I had
on me. By now I was getting dangerously close to missing my ride to
the Trek, and took my chances by stepping into what looked like a
high-end handicrafts store. The lady inside spoke no English, but
took a look at my notes, and then started talking to her cell-phone,
and then surprisingly agreed to change my pounds for a relatively
decent rate!

The trek was truly magnificent, and educational. For about three
hours, we trudged through dense forests, walked on river-beds, went
up and down hills, and witnessed some spectacular views. At various
points, we would find clearings in the forest, and farmers growing
sticky rice. My guide mentioned that the increased farming was
leading to erosion, water problems and depletion of the forests. The
government had therefore initiated a program to resettle some of the
villagers in Luang Prabhang, promising them compensation and jobs.
The guide, who was pretty frank, felt it was a good idea, as that
would provide children with access to schools, as now hardly any
existed in the villages up in the hills.

After a couple of hours, we made our way to a village populated by
the Khmu tribe. While I was having a simple lunch of fried rice, corn
and bananas at the local store, the store-owner, a young lady,
brought some papers over to my guide and they had an animated
conversation for several minutes. She did not seem to happy with what
my guide had to say. Apparently, a few weeks ago, a group of men came
to the village, selected seven women, and she was one of them, and
told them that high paying jobs could be arranged for them in
Thailand. They had to sign some papers, and within a month, the men
would have their work permits and passports ready. My guide tried to
tell her that its not easy to find jobs in Thailand, especially if
you are uneducated, and that in most likelihood, they would end up
working in bars, or worse. Plus, its took six months to officially
obtain a passport in Laos, so he was not sure how these men were
going to get all paperwork done in a month. Its unfortunately a story
that’s repeated across the countryside in Indochina.

After a brief stop at an Elephant sanctuary, we hopped on kayaks and
made our way back to Luang Prabhang over a nice leisurely three
hours. Whenever the heat got too much, a short dip in the waters
cooled you down. On the way we passed fisherman casting their nets
and setting their traps, little kids swimming and playing in the
water. It felt like miles away from anything.

On the way back to the guest house, I stopped by a hairdresser to get
a haircut at a place that I was attracted to by this absolutely
charming and beautiful Laotian young woman, and then a little more
than a tad bit disappointed when it was her gay colleague who ended
up giving me the hair cut!

The rest of the evening was spent with three charming young women I
met at my guest house. Cathy and Phillipa are teachers in Thailand,
and Cathy’s sister Tess was over visiting from England. They were
traveling around Lao by bus and train, and it was fabulous chatting
about their experiences, backgrounds, and just talking about the
world in general. Having grown up in very multi-cultural backgrounds,
and having traveled extensively, their perspective on life and the
world was truly refreshing, and I found myself quite enjoying their
company and listening to them talk.

People in Lao are genuinely friendly. I’ve made really good friends at the travel agency a friend recommended to me, and they’ve helped me out and have gone way beyond the call of duty. From providing me with USD to frantically calling me to let me know that Lao Airlines cancelled my flight, to just making sure I enjoyed my stay in Lao. I’m definitely coming back here again, and spending more time exploring the countryside… its a fascinating, unspoilt country, that you need to see by road, and not hop from place to place on a plane.

Just finished a dosa and chicken curry at a tamilian restaurant in Vientiane, run by a guy from Karaikal. He’s been here for about thirty odd years! Also met a couple of tamils from Malaysia and south TN. Apparently, according to the restaurant owner, Vientiane falls on an immigration route- Folks from TN/Sri Lanka make their way to Malaysia/Thailand, and then by road come to lao, enter China through Lao’s northern border, then on to Mongolia, and into Russia, from where they head into Germany or other western nations, with the ideal being London. Apparently four people did this last year, and two made it to London, but he’s not heard from two others… there’s such a fascinating ‘other world’ out there that we don’t think about!

Was good to know that my broken Tamil could actually be understood in laos!