New Security Feature

This is our new puppy. She is a Lao security system and theft deterrent, not a pet. She is a vigilant guard who sleeps in front of our door. She is constantly alert to any threats and even the frogs in our yard are afraid of her. She is so terrifying she doesn't even have a name yet. 

This is, in fact, our new puppy and it is true that houses with dogs are not usually burglarized in Vientiane. However, our poor little dog spends most of her time sleeping in the gutter trying to stay cool. She rarely barks but constantly whines for attention. I'm sure if a thief came to our house she would only whine until he petted her. She is still a little afraid of the frogs in the yard. She is definitely afraid of the squeak toy that I bought her. The few times people have walked by our house she hasn't even noticed. Maybe she isn't the best guard dog but she is fun to have around. We told ourselves that we wouldn't fall in love with her since we know we cannot take her with us when we leave Laos. Unfortunately, just as the puppy hasn't been the guard dog we anticipated, that idea hasn't exactly worked out the way we planned either.

As for a name, I temporarily named her Mee, which means Bear in Lao. However, Beth and I quickly realized it is hard to talk about a dog who has the same name as a pronoun in English. Beth will bestow a name on her when she gets back from the U.S.

Movin' On Up

Packed and Ready to Go

A few items that made the long trip from Georgia

Goodbye Old Road

Goodbye Old House

Hello New Road

When we started the move, the skies just opened up and there was a downpour for about 45 minutes. By the time, I started driving down this road it was completely flooded with about 8-12 inches of water in some places. Rainy season only lasts 3 or 4 months right?

Actually we heard that the road will get paved next winter if there is enough money in the government's budget. Usually there isn't but it just so happens we live on the same street as a government minister. I figure the road gets paved to his driveway at the very least.

Hello New House

The neighborhood rice paddy

We also have a neighborhood cow who wanders up and down the street. She is apparently a little camera shy though because she always runs away when I try to take her picture. 

Neighborhood Construction

Apparently all of the construction workers are Vietnamese because they work faster and do higher quality work than the Lao.

Freedom! This was such a beautiful sight.

Diplomatic Plates

From the Dark Ages

Apologies for the lack of posts lately. We moved into our new house last week and, with Beth in the U.S., I've been busy taking care of all the little things involved in moving. Fortunately most of the little things have been resolved and the new house is great. Unfortunately, one big issue remains to be resolved: Internet access. Hopefully it will be up and running soon and when it is I promise lots of new posts about our house, neighborhood, and our new security feature.

A Public Health Story

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8091764.stm

Mekong dolphins

Below is a link to a BBC story about the Mekong dolphins. Neal and I are planning on seeing them sometime in the next two years.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8106323.stm

Signs, signs, everywhere a sign

This is the first posting of what I hope will become a recurring theme on the blog: funny signs. This particular sign will be tough to beat though. New restaurants come and go in Vientiane so it is not necessarily a big deal when a new one opens. It IS a big deal when the new one opening is called Hooder and clearly stole its logo from a restaurant in the U.S. known for its great wings. I have a slight quibble with their transliteration of the Lao (should be more like Hoodeu), but apart from that and the copyright infringement, I'm impressed. I don't think they have officially opened for business yet so no word on what the waitresses will be wearing. 

The Rope Swing in Vang Vieng

As if drinking lots of beer and writing inappropriate comments all over each other wasn't enough, the bars along the river in Vang Vieng provide various sorts of contraptions to catapult you into the river such as swings, slides and zip lines. The bar that we stopped at during our kayaking trip had a trapeze that would swing you out over the river where you could drop about 35 feet into the water. It's a little intimidating seeing a small platform above the water so one of our kayaking guides demonstrated for us.

As you can see, he had excellent form and as I recall he actually swung back and forth several times, at one point hanging from the trapeze by his knees--show-off. These photos give you an idea of the parabolic journey you make on the trapeze (If you don't remember your high school math classes check out the Wikipedia page on parabolas). If done correctly and safely you should drop at the other end of the parabola when you are high above the river and out away from the bank.

Beth accused me of being a scared old man so I had to prove her wrong. Here you can see me making the climb up to the platform. 

Here you can see me expertly swinging through the low part of the parabola as I prepare for my dismount. As I recall, I did a pull-up and then half twist before releasing the trapeze. Just a little skill I learned from the Chinese gymnasts at the Olympics last year. 

After my successful jump, Beth didn't want to be left out. Here she is gingerly making her way to the ladder. I say gingerly because there was a lot of sharp gravel but it could also be because she was terrified. 

Here she is climbing up the ladder. 

This is Beth preparing to jump off the platform. We actually had several false starts before she actually decided she wanted to jump. At this point, most of  the drunk revelers had turned to watch to see if Beth would jump or not. 

Unfortunately we don't have any pictures of Beth's jump. This is not because the cameraman is unskilled or inattentive. Rather, expecting Beth to follow the path of the parabola, I had positioned the camera so that I could get a picture of Beth right as she let go of the trapeze. I watched Beth jump from the platform and then turned to look at the place I expected her to release the trapeze. Unfortunately out of the corner of my eye I saw a splash from Beth falling into the river. All of this happened in about 3 seconds and the cameraman and swinger have varying accounts of what occurred. The swinger claims she swung all the way back to the original height before she let go while the cameraman contends she let go just after hitting the low point of the parabola. Unfortunately, we couldn't rely on the drunk tourists around us as witnesses so the story varies depending on who you ask. I'm the one writing this posting though so...

Kayaking, Caving and Biking in Vang Vieng

During our time in Vang Vieng we tried to take advantage of the variety of activities available. There are no shortage of things to do. Given our limited time we could only do a few things but we thought we were able to see a little bit of everything by kayaking and spelunking with a local tour company and then biking on our own. 

This was the launching point for our kayaking trip. As you can see the raging Nam Song River is powerful enough to destroy a bridge. Not the most encouraging place to start. 

At least one of us was ready for the Nam Song River.

Ready to paddle

The statue of Buddha in the Elephant Cave (Tam Xang), named for an elephant carved into a stalagtite or stalagmite (I can't remember which is which), which was used as a temple and shelter during the Indochina War.

Entrance to the Water Cave (Tam Nam)

During the rainy season, you have to use a rope and inner tube to navigate this cave which stretches for anywhere from 7 to 20km. We only made it about 200 meters into the cave because it was so flooded. It was also raining at the time and our rational side thought it might not be best to be in a cave that floods while it is raining.

The bridge across the Nam Song River makes use of some relics from the Indochina War.

Just taking a break

Bike Path and Scenery

Vang Vieng

Vang Vieng is a little village on a river plain surrounded by mountains about a three-hour drive from Vientiane. Vang Vieng is also the prime destination for backpackers in Laos because of its tubing, cheap alcohol, cheaper drugs, endless supply of Friends episodes and cheeseburgers. When not surrounded by drunk Westerners, Vang Vieng is undeniably beautiful. I loved waking up in the morning and seeing the fog hanging over the mountains. The purpose of our trip was to see what Laos was like outside of Vientiane and to conduct a little research about "tourism" in Laos. I'm a full believer in active research so we had to participate in kayaking, spelunking, biking, swimming, rope swinging, and a little drinking while there. We had a great time, learned a lot, fell in a mud puddle, and plan to go back because there was so much more that we didn't get a chance to do. I'll try to post more about our various activities in the next coming days but for now...enjoy the scenery.

Vientiane Prom

I've had the honor of attending high school proms, the Grinnell Waltz, the Zinder Prom and now I've had the pleasure of going to the 2nd annual Summer Ball in Vientiane sponsored by the Women's International Group. The Ball was held at the fanciest hotel in Vientiane and was black tie only. Unfortunately the majority of our wardrobe is on a boat in the Pacific somewhere. This minor fact didn't stop Beth from looking absolutely beautiful though while I had to settle for a normal suit and tie. The other unfortunate aspect of the timing of the Ball was that our car is still not in our possession (it's at least in Vientiane now). With little transportation options in Vientiane we had to settle for a humble tuk-tuk (the local motorcycle/truck taxi). When we were ready to leave for the Ball, I stood on the street corner in my suit trying to hail a tuk-tuk. Fortunately, when one finally stopped it turned out to be the nicest tuk-tuk I've ever ridden in (notice the speaker in the back). While standing on the corner, there was no shortage of strange looks shot in my direction and the eyes of the tuk-tuk driver got pretty wide when I explained to him that we were going to go to the fanciest hotel in town but first we had to drive back to my house to get my wife. In the end I think he really enjoyed it although there was no way he was going to pull up to the front door of the hotel. The rest of the night was exactly what you would expect: auctions, raffles, dinner, dancing, and a Lao cover band doing Garth Brooks, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, and Sixpence None the Richer (I couldn't make this up). 

We had a great time with our friends and colleagues and it was a wonderful way to spend the last night with Beth before she went back to the U.S. for a month.  

Rockets, Alcohol, and Bugs

Last Sunday on our way home from Vang Vieng we suddenly found ourselves stuck in a huge traffic jam. In Laos, a traffic jam means some extraordinary must be happening and we soon realized that we had stumbled upon a village celebrating Bang Fi or more simply, The Rocket Festival. Originally this festival was used as a way to call for rains after the hot season. Villagers would shoot homemade rockets into the sky hoping to cause the rain to fall. Today, as our experience showed, this festival is used primarily as an excuse to hang out with family and friends while getting very drunk. The village just happened to be the hometown of our driver and we were quickly invited into people's homes. At each home we were offered large plates of food and copious amounts of alcohol. Shots of beer were offered by the host and these were quickly followed by only slightly smaller shots of lao lao, a local whiskey made from rice. We were also offered plates of bugs. We would have pictures of Neal eating bugs but Beth was to squeamish to take the photos. Instead, we just have pictures of Neal checking them out on the table. His verdict? The crickets are not nearly as good as the ones in Niger. The other bugs, which we still have not identified, were tasty as long as they weren't too squishy. 

We watched a few of the rockets being shot off  and they soared impressively high. Our Laotian companion wasn't as impressed as we were and kept insisting that we be careful because, as he rightly pointed out, the rockets have to fall back to earth eventually. This is why the Rocket Festival is actually banned in many of the larger towns in Laos. The whole thing took place in atmosphere reminiscent of a carnival in the U.S. There was lots of food being sold, games, music, dancing and cross-dressing. We certainly had a good time and were said to leave it all behind. We were stuck in traffic for 45 minutes trying to leave the village because the demand of cars trying to enter the village was more than the single lane road could take. 

Look what we found outside of our house

That Louang

Two weekends ago Neal and I decided to see some of the tourist sites in Vientiane.  One of the sites we went to see is called That Louang, which is a large, bright yellow, Buddhist stupa.  This stupa has a long history, it is believed it was first built in the mid-sixteenth century on an ancient Khmer site.  Over the next hundreds of years the stupa was raided and then restored many times until it fell out of use in the 1800's.  The French then came into Laos in the late 180o's and "discovered" the stupa.  The French decided to restore the stupa in 1900, unfortunately the French weren't masters of Buddhist architecture and most people were dissatisfied the new design.  This dissatisfaction lead to another restoration in the 1930’s, which created the stupa that is there today. 

That Louang is just a short tuk tuk (three-wheel motorcycle) ride from our house.  We went relatively early, around 9am, to miss the heat of the day.  Other than walking around the stupa there isn’t much to see.  The stupa does house some ancient Buddha images, but most just look like rock after years of weather.  I think this is one of the few things is Laos that looks better in pictures then in person.  After walking around a few times and attempting to investigate the near by buildings we headed home in time for lunch.