Amit Sinha's Travelog

(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.

Ok, so the word ‘exile’ might be a little strong, given that I am
sitting at a Starbucks, using an incredibly fast Wi-Fi connection
while looking at the bustling lunchtime traffic of bankers and other
sundry professionals walk around the Collins Street business district
of Melbourne. However, for a short while at least, that’s what I’ve
been reduced to, courtesy the United States Government.

The United States of America is truly one of the great nations in the
world. Its educational centers and corporations are known for their
efficiency and innovation. Its consultants have made billions
advising the world on better customer service and communication
methods. The internet found new uses and legs thanks to US-based
entrepreneurs, financiers and large telecoms. A walk down the crowded
and busy streets of New York provide the appropriate image for the
old adage, “Time is Money”. However, this concept of efficiency,
customer service and communication does not appear to have made its
way across to its foreign consulates and embassies, which continue to
vie with third world government organizations for a place in the
Customer Unfriendly Hall of Fame.

Over a month ago, on May 12th to be precise, I made my way to the
U.S. Consulate in Melbourne to have my U.S. Visa renewed. Everything
went smoothly at that time, and the lady at the counter assured me
that I would get my passport back with the visa within two days. A
week passed, and there was no response, and I had to leave the
country for New Zealand. Getting in touch with the consulate was
another exercise in futility. The very American concept of a Toll-
Free number was replaced by an equally American innovation, the 1-900
number. Its Aussie equivalent was used here, and for a mere $15 I had
the privilege of listening to a recorded message that provided me
with positively zero information. By now it was time for me to head
to Sydney, where I had a couple of days before New Zealand. Finally,
in response to an e-mail I had sent a couple of days earlier, I
miraculously received a response saying that they would return my
passport so that I could make the New Zealand trip and they would
contact me when my visa was ready. While my passport made its way
from the U.S. Consulate in Melbourne to my relative’s place in
Melbourne from where it was forwarded on to my hotel in Sydney to
arrive about fifteen hours before my flight to New Zealand, I decided
to set the stage for the next level of negotiations by sending an
email to the consulate asking them to provide me with an estimate of
when I could expect the visa, and also what could be the reason for
the delay. I figured if they required additional documentation and
suchlike, I might be able to help them. Needless to say, i received
no response to the aforementioned email.

Anyway, not allowing such trivial matters to come in the way of
enjoying life, I figured I’d let the U.S. Government’s affairs take
its own course, and put my faith in the fact that when the
authorities of a ten trillion dollar country say they will get in
touch with me, they would, I continued on my tour of Australia,
arriving into Melbourne a day before my departure to South East Asia.

And that brought me to this morning, when, without any email in my
mailbox, I decided to head over to the Consulate and try and
penetrate their defences and meet with some human being who might be
able to help me. At the entrance, I was stopped by security, who I
will admit was kind enough and extremely helpful. He took my
information and call somebody upstairs while I waited.

Anyway, so finally here’s where we stand- They have taken my
passport, and are going to ‘look at their system’ to see what the
issue is. They cannot tell me when they will know the status, and
neither can they tell me when I can expect to hear from them, and of
course, they cannot tell me when I will get my visa or what the
reason for the delay is- as a result, I am now confined to remaining
in Melbourne for anywhere from a day to an eternity.

I have the utmost respect for Governments wanting to protect their
borders and their citizens from brown-skinned young men who have a
penchant for dong things like flying aeroplanes into big buildings.
Protecting a nation, its people and making it safe to live is noble,
and I have no issues with things taking time in order to ensure that
all the boxes have been checked and the consulate has verified all
details. Providing a visa to an Indian whose been in the U.S. for ten
years, and has been working in New York for the past six with the
country’s second largest bank, may require checks that are a little
more onerous than say someone who decides to hide in a crate and make
his way into the country.

What I do have an issue with is the lack of communication. I believe
I have a right to at least know what’s causing a delay, how long they
expect the delay to be, in order to make my plans instead of spending
time and money switching flights and travel plans around. I might
also be able to help the matter, providing them with any information
that might be lacking. However, that would just be making life way to
convenient for the public I’m afraid.

Ok, so I am done venting now. I shall get back to my Venti Soy Chai
at Starbucks and figure out what to do with my extra time in
Melbourne. Maybe look for a job or something in case its a long wait.

Normally, going tothe middle of nowhere meant going away from civilization and basic amenitiews such as running hot water, electricity, heating, internet, cable TV etc. However, today I visited a place which manages to provide all amenities yet in an environmentally friendly and economic way.

SECMOL is an organization in Ladakh which has a campus about 20kms away. You reach it after a 30min bus ride followed by a 3km walk into what looks like nowhere. But once you are there you see a campus which is completely reliant on solar energy. Through ingenius construction they are able to achieve a temperature of about 10-15 degrees celsius in an area that sees temperatures as low as minus 20 to 30!They also have access to all modern tools such as TV and internet. The placeis designed keeping local architecture in mind and recycling waste and other eco-friendly practices. At the same time,its not like you have to “rough it”. It really shows that a viable eci-friendly life can be lived without sacrificing modern amenities (except maybe ironing your clothes as the iron uses a lot of energy).

A thought that also came to my mind while visitingthem was that maybe development cannot be measured in per capita GDP. Someone with the same amount of wealth, if given access to hygenic conditions, education, entertainment and other basic items that they currently don’t have, it leads to a better life, and uses less resources.

The west is consumed by stories of rising energy prices, and India and China are scrambling around the world trying to secure energy supply for a growing economy. While infrastructure may require conventional fuel, maybe we as individuals can try and implement energy-smart practices such as better designed homes, solar etc. ???

Two very interesting experiences today. Headed out in the morning to the offices of the Snow Leapord Conservancy. Learnt some amaziong stuff about how to promote conservation through economic development. They’ve successfully setup homestays, where tourists can stay in the homes of local villagers and go trekking. Through this, the local villagers earn substantial income directly (instead of the organized tour operators), and at the same time reduce their dependence on livestock for their livelihood. Additionally, they learn about conservation and the environment and its importance- after all, the toursits come to see the wildlife and nature, and that’s what provides the locals with livelihood.

Additionally, the group has several unique educational programs as well, and it was really nice learning about that.

Rachel, a junior from Skidmore College in NY who was also staying at the Oriental Guest House and doing an independent study, joined me on my visits today after over-hearing a conversation i was having at dinner last night.

After the Snow Leopard place, we headed to Chushot, a small village about 15kms from Leh, where Namgyal had their hostel. It was located in a wide open area, with nothing but mountains around. The hostel, and the adjoining government school have a really unique approach to handling disabled children. At the hostel, disabled children mingled freely with regular children, as at the government school. You could see the benefits of this in the way the children interacted with each other and with outsiders such as us. It also gave a lot of confidence to the disabled chidlren, one of whom was the top student in the entire village!

The children were extremely friendly and playful, and included us in whatever activities they were doing. We also got a chance to take a look at their text books, which had been published by SECMOL, a local agency that made text-books catering more to the local children, and you could see how useful that was.

Over here you could see NGO’s working closely with the government, and the government supporting the various efforts, In fact, the government is looking to take over the hostel that Namgyal currently runs. Its just fascinating seeing all this at work, and the efforts put in by the project co-ordinators Madhura, Vidhya, Sujatha and Madhu- its really commendable, and was really educational for me to see first-hand what they have achieved and are working on.

I have a bunch of really nice pictures that I took today which I shall post when I get back to Delhi and greater band-width.

I am finally sitting in front of my mom’s computer, after having spent the past 10 days or so visiting various educational/community development projects in rural/suburban South India. The experience has been incredible. Aside from the lack of email facilities leading to cellphone posts with “tuing tu” from the middle of nowhere, its been a real learning experience.

So far we have visited five projects, and have a few more to go. My notes for these extend to several pages and I have unfortunately not had the time to write them down coherently. Until then, here’s a brief description of each, and stay tuned.

Also, I shall update the photo gallery as well. Unfortunately some technical difficulties have resulted in some very buggy HTML in the photo gallery.

Project Descriptions: 

Odanadi, Mysore: A center for victims of human trafficking run by the very inspirational Stanly and Parshu with the help of Ramesh and a bunch of dedicated volunteers, has setup a remarkable facility for children of prostitutes, abused children, as well as children/people subjected to any kind of human trafficking. We spent two days here, learnt about the steps being taken to develop them mentally and socially through psycho-social techniques (dance, arts, etc.), and also how to empower them economically through entrepreneurship.

Kuvempu: Located in the remote villages around Shivaganga in Chitradurga district in Karnataka, after a four and half hour drive from Bangalore we had a wonderful experience visiting the Vidya Kendras in various villages that helped kids study after school. We also learnt about vocational programs and had a really eye-opening conversation just before leaving which brought out a lot of issues that affect people in the area.

Timbaktu: A collective focussed on simple living, five to six hour bus ride away from Bangalore, here we met some really smart individuals who have developed a collective that is helping educate children and develop the local community through agriculture, environment, awareness and economic programs

RHEDT: A project that works in tribal areas near Coimbatore, and involved spending two hours in an auto climbing up remote hills.

you can see the pictures in http://www.sinhatravel.com/photo/India