Greetings from Loei, Thailand! I arrived yesterday after
spending much of the past week in Luang Prabang, Laos. Loei is easily the
furthest from the tourist beat that I have strayed, and it shows—absolutely
nothing is in English, and I can’t find anyone to book a trek with. As a
result, I am heading to Chiang Khan this morning, in the hopes of doing a 2 or
3 day trek up a local mountain later this week.
Back to Luang Prabang…
Luang Prabang sits at the intersection of the Mekong and
Khan Rivers. It is gorgeous—far more attractive than the concrete cities that I
have encountered in Thailand. I spent quite a bit of time trying to suss out
what that I found attractive was original to the city, vs a consequence of
colonialism. Brick-lined streets and stucco buildings with well-manicured
gardens? Colonialist. Sunsets over the Mekong, and mountain in the middle of
the city? Original. Communist Party flags? Well…. The highlight of Luang
Prabang were the food stalls at the night market; for $15,000 KIP (<$2) you
can fill up a bowl at not one but three different vegan buffets.
The main attraction in Luang Prabang is the Khou Se
waterfall, about a 40 minute drive from the city. In classic Southeast Asia
fashion, they don’t tell you the full story before you get there. This time,
that led to a pleasant surprise, of a moon bear sanctuary that you walk through
before you hit the lowest rung of the falls. The sanctuary is run in
partnership with an Australian university. I couldn’t quite figure out why it
was at the mouth of the waterfall, but it was a fun surprise to stumble upon.
The water in the waterfalls is a bright electric blue, and
perfectly clear. In the lower rungs of the fall there are a number of swimming
areas. My taxi driver had told me that it would only take me one hour to do the
falls, so upon arrival, I thought that the swimming areas were the highlight.
Oh, how wrong I was. Four hours later I had climbed to the top of the falls
(having not realized that there were stairs on the opposite side, I took the
adventurous route), walked another 3 kilometers to explore a cave with Buddhas
in it, and then climbed down (this time I took the easy route). At the cave,
after paying your entrance fee, you’re given a flashlight, a banana, and
absolutely no instructions—there’s no guide, no warnings about where to go or
not go—you’re totally on your own, and there’s no regular flow of tourists to
keep you company. The cave was deep and pitch black, parts were slippery, and
you had to crouch or crawl through various segments. I was totally alone, and
absolutely terrified. My first instinct was to sing Tehillim. Then I thought
maybe in a cave full of Buddhas that was inappropriate. I switched to the
Hamilton and Rent soundtracks, simply so that I could hear the sound of my own
voice. To make matters even more entertaining, someone (who I have to assume
was a Harry Potter fan), carved a wooden snake into the entrance of the cave.
After my four-hour adventure, I went to the Pak Ou caves,
which involved a boat ride across the Mekong River at sunset, and a whole lot
of stair climbing. The caves had been used for Phi (a river spirit) worship
dating back to the 8th century, but the King established it as a
Buddhist site in the 17th century. Caves full of Buddhas. While the
caves were tall, they were not very deep, and there was natural light coming in
from the entrance.
On Wednesday, I went to the Royal Palace Museum, which
really threw my colonialism analysis into a headspin. The museum, which used to
function as the royal family’s palace is a totally European building,
surrounded by carefully manicured gardens. The palace includes a gallery of the
former royal family’s cars. While the public spaces are decorated in a
Southeast Asian style, the bedrooms just look like normal bedrooms from the
1960s. There are wall hangings depicting the queen’s encounter with Buddha
prior to the birth of her son, when she prayed for things like not getting fat
when pregnant like the general’s wives, having breasts that stuck out like a
lotus, and having eyes as black as a one-year old. I was getting a sense of
internalized European beauty standards. After, I went to the UXO (unexploded
ordnance) exhibit. I hoped that at least there I would see some signs of anger
or resentment towards the country that dropped over 2 million tons of ordnance
on Laos. Nope. Just lots of information on the clean-up and education efforts.
Ennen pointed out that under a Communist government, public criticism of the
western homes of tourists may be curtailed.
On Wednesday evening I went to a storytelling and music
performance. The stories were ok—the performer spoke good, if heavily accented
English. Of much more interesting note was that I somehow managed to sit next
to Anna, a Brovenders alumna who applied to CJNV and is about to spend 6 months
interning for the Abraham Fund in Jerusalem. She also knows Annie Dreazen, a DC
Minyan person. Because obviously. We chatted for a while, and on Thursday night
we went out to dinner at the Coconut Garden, which had a vegetarian tasting
menu. While I’ve met lots of people over the course of my time her, usually our
conversations are shallow, and only about what we’re doing on our respective
travels. It was so nice to hang out with
someone who I could have an ideas conversation with (also helpful for
processing the colonialism).
On Friday, I met Rudolph at the Organic Living Farm, which
was founded by a Brit to give tourists the opportunity to play in a rice paddy.
So much fun! In addition to jumping around in the mud, I got to ride Rudolph,
and push him as he plowed the paddy, work on my seeding, threshing and
winnowing skills, crush sugar cane, attempt to use bamboo carrying devices to carry
rice (it involves swinging your hips a lot), and modeling a stylish wide bamboo
hat.
I spent Shabbat at the Chabad in Luang Probing, who had only
arrived two months prior. I was the oldest person there by about 4 years. First
time I have ever been at a Chabad house here there are no children (the rabbi
andhis wife only got married about 10 months ago.) About 40 people there on
Friday night and 15 for Shabbat lunch, nearly all Israeli post-army
backpackers.
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