Muong Ngoy : The real Laos

I woke up at 5:00am Friday (July 24) and watched the Alms ceremony- A sort of monk "parade" where they march down the street single file collecting food offerings from people lined on the streets kneeling. It was pretty cool.

Later that day, I went to Mgong Ngoy, a small rural village 4 hours drive and 1 hr boat ride away. It was soooooooooooo amazing. First of all the scenery was breathtaking. There were carved limestone clifs on rolling green mountains with just the right amount of cloud to make it seem mystical... The village was great! So many adorable children playing happily on the dirt roads with nothing more than a stick, or a rock. They saw the Ko Sahn Monkey "Ping Pong" hanging off my backpack and were fascinated! Once they realized they could squeeze the monkey and he'd let out a HO HO HAAA HEEE HEE HEEE! They were even more excited. Squeezing him over and over again, and passing him around (or sometimes fighting over him). There were so many kids, I couldn't bear to give him to just one, so when they gave him back to me I put in back in my pack, but I knew at this point, it was highly unlikely Ping Pong would be moving on with me for my next adventure....

The following day, I went on a kayak trip on the Ou River to two even further remote villages (Ban Hat Sa Phiue, and Banvattanatam I'll call them HSP and B) about an hour (by long boat) away. It was even more amazing - which is hard to believe. I brought the books and pencils I bought in LPB with me and they were greatly appreciated. In HSP I gave a colouring book and some crayons to a grandfather who was minding 6 children I was playing with, and some to a teacher in the village to save for the school year starting in September. We walked around the village for over an hour, and saw some pretty cool things. One guy was making a wooden bowl from a big stump of wood. Kids were running around everywhere and stray chickens, dogs and ducks were a dime a dozen. On a side note, there are chick-ducks roaming around the villages, spawned when roosters attack the ducks for some polygamy action.

We had lunch in B and it was a really gorgeous little weaving town. I bought a handmade scarf, and went to visit a school house built for the people there by a school in Richmond, BC in 2006. I gave the a stack of books to the teacher's wife as he was out working the farm fields when I was visiting. I saved three books for our trekking guide for his family (he had the cutest little boy with him - 6 years old and he sat with us all day, and kayaked too... never complained once... he got to keep the monkey too), and gave ten to the first village

The next day was a travel day back to LPB. When we got off the boat from Muong Ngoy, we all had the choice of waiting around for 3 hours, or getting in the box of a pick-up truck (tuk-tuk) for the 4-6 hour ride back... I didn't want to sign up for that, but I asked the driver if I could sit in the cab and he said sure, so I rode there with him and his 6 year old daughter. She was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo cute!! We played patty-cake, and she taught me some laos hand games, tried to teach me laos go fish, and random laos words. It was pretty tough, cause she didn't speak any english, other than 12345 and ABCDEFG. hahaha Later we picked up another local who came and road in the cab with us. He spoke some english and told me that the little girl's mother (driver's wife) had died suddenly less than a week ago... suddenly I noticed the girl's eyes were puffy, and the driver looked exhausted.. I had to fight back tears. He told me she has two older brothers as well. I decided this little girl also needed some books... but I had none left.

When we got to LPB, I arranged for a tuk tuk to take me, and the girl and her father into town to Big Brother Mouse, and I picked up ten books, 8 for the girl, and 1 novel each for her older brothers\dad (if he can read). It didn't seem like much, but I thought if the books distracted her from reality for 15 minutes, it would be worth the fifteen dollars it cost me. The father was very humble and thanked me with a long meaningful look and a "Khawp jai" (Thank you). The tuk tuk then drove them back to the bus depot where we were originally dropped off so they could sleep in their truck for the night.

Today was ANOTHER travel day to Vang Viang. It was a looooooong twisty, gorgeous drive through mountains. We almost hit 2 chickens, 5 pigs, 1 motocycle, 1 semi truck, and a dog on various occasions... We also passed a farmer carrying an AK47- no big deal... then we passed another one. Perhaps they were farming poppies??! Tomorrow I will tube down the river, and I'm looking forward to a lazy day. I think I'll stay here for a bit and decompress. They have lazy looking restaurants all over the place that play family guy, and friends reruns alllllllll day long. Giggidy!