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I mentioned in my previous post that I could eat Mekong fish all day. New Year’s Day put that statement to a test. It seems that eating fish on that day is a Lao tradition, at least among Nai’s family and friends. About 20 good-sized fish were purchased, cooked and eaten, with friends and relatives dropping by from time to time to enjoy the feast. I kept nibbling, right along with everyone else, and by the time all the food was taken care of, I was stuffed. Here’s a sampling of the New Year fare, which also includes noodles, sticky rice, various greens, papaya salad, spicy bean paste dip, and, of course, the ever present bottles of Beer Lao.
But, what’s a holiday feast without friends and family? Below, from left to right, are a cousin (name unknown), Nui (Nai’s sister), a friend of the family (name unknown), and camera ham Nai.
Of course, many other people came and went, some staying to dance to the music blaring from loudspeakers set up outside by Pui, one of Nai’s brothers. Here’s Nui and her mother enjoying a dance together.
Here’s Nai with some friends and cousins enjoying the day.
Finally, this fellow was already two sheets to the wind and was pretty much out of it by the end of the festivities.
Next up: Christmas in Vang Vieng
[Note: edited at 4:30 pm, Monday, Yeosu time.]
Wow, looking back at my archives, it appears that this is the longest time I have gone between posts; I’ll definitely try to be more diligent in the future.
Obviously, I’m back in Yeosu, suffering through the Korean winter. Located high on a hill, the university gets more than its share of wind, and when the temperature drops below freezing, it feels more like zero (fahrenheit). It reminds me very much of Montana winters, sans the snow. I wish I were back in Laos again, where, for the most part, the weather was perfect–sunny days and mild nights, with temperatures in the 80s and mostly low humidity. I’d never been in Laos this time of year and I was surprised at the number of other tourists visiting the country. It’s high season during December, January and February, and Vientiane and Vang Vieng were packed, relatively speaking. I made a quick trip into Nong Khai, Thailand, and coming back through Laos immigration took around and hour, much longer than it normally takes. I’ll write more about the trip in later posts.
I’ve been going through the pictures I took while I was on vacation, trying to decide which ones to post here. This first group will be food related, for no particular reason than that they seemed to stand out more than the others.
Many Lao people still cook in the traditional way, over an open fire, mainly because they can’t afford a gas or propane stove. The smell of burning wood brings back memories of many Montana campfires. Here’s the main “stove” at Nai’s family’s house.
Yep, a one-burner fire. Almost all the cooked food is prepared here, the day’s rice, fish, meat, chicken and whatever. Below are the simmering ingredients for “noodle soup chicken,” as Nai calls it. When the veggies and chicken are done, you add some water and precooked noodles, simmer for a while, and eat.
So, what is my favorite Lao food? I’m glad you asked. It’s just plain ol’ fish, barbecue style, stuffed with lemon grass (I think), fresh from the Mekong. I could eat these beauties all day long.
Ok, since I’m writing this early on Monday morning, I find that I’m running out of time and I must go to work soon. Check back tomorrow for more on Lao food.
P.S. As promised, I posted a photo of the Hanoi Noi Bai airport restaurant on the previous entry.
Nai and I took a tuk-tuk to his village yesterday. As expected, the Mekong was spilling over its banks for most of the way that it neared the road and sandbagging was active in the area around the capital. However, no such activity was occurring in his village, and, again as expected, his family compound was under water. The narrow dirt road running past the houses was just a bit less than knee-deep with water, but the housing area drops off a bit from the road and the water was waist-deep there. Of the 6 houses, two were under water, but they were temporary quarters, made up of plywood and tin siding. The other 4 “real” houses are still habitable, due to their having a second floor or the first (and only) floor being built a bit higher on its concrete base.
For the kids, the area is one big swimming pool, and they were frolicking in the water as I waded to one of the houses, which belongs to Nai’s sister and her husband and two young children. The adults seemed to be looking at the flood as a slight inconvenience more than anything else, and life continues as before. The major effect is that their croplands are under water and those who depend on farming for their livelihood are in a bad situation. Some of the family work outside the farm, so all is not desperation. Still, I gave them a bit of money for food and water and will give them some more when we go back to visit on Sunday, the birthday of one of the kids–Kim, 6 years old.
The water is still rising, although very slowly, and, despite a very heavy, but brief, downpour last night in Vientiane, today’s weather looks very good, with clear blue skies–no rain in sight. Hopefully, the worst is over, but one never knows. One report suggests that this is the worst flooding since 1966, and there are other reports that the flooding will abate this weekend. [Note: Edited on 11/17/09 to remove non-existent link]
After Sunday, I’m going to Nong Khai for a day, then will take the overnighter to Bangkok, staying there until flying on to Korea next Sunday. Hopefully, Bangkok’s annual flooding will not take place early this year. More later.
Sandbagging along the Mekong in Vientiane
Here’s Nai taking a walk in the floodwaters at his house.
Some of the kids having fun.
And here’s the flood from the Nongkhai side. This jetty/pier extends down a good 7 or 8 more feet, but it was underwater then.
Ok, I promised some photos of my recent trip to SE Asia. First up is one of the big boat race I wrote about earlier. (See the entry for August 23rd or click here). Here are a couple of the beautiful long boats after finishing their race. The guys in green, nearer the camera, won this one. They are the same crew that raced against the Sitthanthai team in the final race, finishing second to the Sitthanthai stalwarts.
If you click here, you can download and view a 30 second video of the Sitthanthai guys practicing on the Mekong. Be warned, though, that it’s a 50 megabyte file, so if you’re using a dialup connection, it’s going to take a while to download.
Below is a shot of some of the Sitthanthai supporters whooping it up after the team won a race. Notice the ubiquitous bottle of Beer Lao.
I’ll try to get some more photos up soon, and I’ll also post a lot more in the gallery than I will on the blog. I’ll let you know when the gallery ones are in. More later.
It was an unusual day here yesterday, with many people at the camp. When I poked my head out my front door about 7:30 a.m., I noticed a couple of awnings had been erected near one of the far fields, down the first base line, and several stacks of plastic chairs were nearby. About half an hour later, a van came in, followed by a pickup truck carrying a Presidente beer station/bar. What the heck! I’ve never seen beer on the campus before, since it’s contrary to the rules the players must follow.
Finally, after staying in my room doing reports for a few hours, I looked out the door again. On the far field a few teams of norteamericanos were playing softball and another 30 or so people were watching from under the awnings. After asking around, I found out that a U.S. Navy counter-terrorism group was staying in Santo Domingo for 10 days, and they were at the camp playing a few games of softball (and drinking beer and eating hamburgers) against a team of U.S. Embassy personnel. I think the Yankees had been asked by the embassy to donate the use of the field. Afterwards, all of the players and coaches from both the Yankee and Diamondback teams (our opponents yesterday) were invited to have some burgers. Unfortunately, yours truly had already chowed down on beans and rice and chicken in the campus cafeteria before he found out about the invite. 
By the way, the Yankee squad lost to Arizona 11 to 3. I found out later that both squads have been restricted to the campus this weekend due to poor play lately. Ouch! (Maybe the same should be done to the Big Team.)
I received the new contract through email Friday, and the start date was listed as Sept. 15th. Whoops. I hope that’s a mistake on Georgetown University’s part, because I thought the State Dept. wanted me to begin around Oct. 5th. I’m going to write my supervisor in D.C. on Monday to see what’s up. If it’s the earlier start date, I’ll have to get my return flight from Thailand changed–hope that’s not a big hassle if it becomes necessary.
Nai is back at his home today, after spending 5 days in the hospital in Vientiane for treatment of malaria. He sounds pretty good, but he complains that sometimes his “memory hurting a lot.” I think he gets migraines. His English cracks me up more often than not. For example, he doesn’t know the word for passing gas–farting. So, his phrase for it is “open wind,” as in “I’m sorry, Ron, I must open wind now.” For his own good, I should really make more of an effort to improve his English vocabulary, but his use of the language can be so creative and charming. Another example: thunder is “boom-boom.” “It go boom-boom many time today, so you cannot call back me because I close my phone.” Quickly, now, whoever can tell me what “open fire” means, as in “Now I open fire.”, could be the proud winner of a plateful of genuine roasted Lao crickets served with a generous portion of a piquant red sauce. Awesome! Seriously, I’m not making fun of him and I do have to work with him on his English. More later.
This COULD be yours. Yum, yum. Post your answer in a comment by clicking on the Comments link below the second picture.
Nai Enjoys a Plateful
On to Luang Prabang (LP), a UNESCO World Heritage site, as I’ve posted before. I must say, though, that I was a bit “underwhelmed” by the city. It’s culturally very interesting, but there was a pall of smoke that hung over the area all the time we were there due to the slash and burn system used by Laotian farmers around the vicinity. The Lonely Planet Guide to Laos warns that March-May is a bad time of year to visit because of all the smoke hanging over LP, and it’s no exaggeration, though the murky atmosphere makes for some beautiful sunsets.
The city is surrounded by mountains, many of which are the sites of numerous temples. The city itself is loaded with historic Buddhist sites dating back hundreds of years. We stayed right across the street from the Mekong River in a room with a balcony. It was pleasant sitting out at night, though LP seems to completely shut down around 10 p.m.
The guesthouse has its own restaurant across the street, where we ate breakfast, but our favorite haunt was the row of food vendors stretching along one of the main streets. We usually ended up buying a broiled chicken or a large Mekong fish from one vendor and then heading down to another who had a kind of Lao buffet. The very substantial fish cost about $1.60, the chicken somewhat less, and the buffet was 50 cents–all in all a great bargain, and delicious, too.
Here Nai picks out a fish (they’re actually larger than they look).
Good food, but it’s not all you can eat–50 cents a pop, not bad!
Of course, it’s not ALL about food. How about a balloon?
Ok, it’s starting to get late here, so I’ll close for now and do some more of LP later.
As promised, I’m finally posting some photos and comments about my recent trip to Laos and Thailand. Some of the comments I made in earlier posts, so if I duplicate myself, forgive me. I’ll post these over a period of days (hopefully), so hang in there.
Here’s a photo of my former Andong University colleague, Tyra, with whom I rendezvoused in Bangkok. She’s a Canadian and is now basking in the sun on the beaches of Bali. We also hooked up with Eugene, another former colleague (American), but for some odd reason I didn’t get any photos of him nor did he get any of me. Strange. Perhaps we were focused in on the lovely Tyra. You can see more photos of her at the Photo Gallery. This is at Wat Pho in Bangkok, site of the Reclining Buddha.
So, it was up to Laos after the short stay in Bangkok. I met Nai at the train station in Nong Khai, Thailand, and we crossed the border into communist Laos. Believe me, unless you have to deal with the bureaucracy, you wouldn’t know it was a communist state. The people, for the most part, are not political. Many of them dislike the system, but they accept it with a nonchalance that reflects their easy-going lifestyle, or so it seems to me. If another system were in place, they would probably feel the same way.
Anyway, we hung out at Nai’s house and in Vientiane for several days before heading up to Vang Vieng. Before leaving, Nai introduce me to his wonderful friends, Say (pronounced “sigh”) and his wife Joi (“joy”). Great people, who welcomed me into their home like I was a long-lost brother. I would see more of them when we returned to Vientiane later. Here are Say and Joi sharing a tender moment.
Then it was off to Vang Vieng, about which I have written. Like I stated in an earlier post, the weather was beautiful. Compare the following picture with the one I took last June.
Dry Season
Monsoon Season
Here are some photos from the river float. I’m not sure I’d want to try this during the rainy part of the year when the river is high. Here are Nai, a lady whose name I forget, and Guy (the friend of the woman) putting in at the start point.
Here’s Nai in a death defying slide at one of the many stops along the river.
And here is Robert, a fellow who was along with Guy and his girlfriend and who works in Vientiane, and Nai with a cool Beer Lao at one of the many beverage stations lining the river. Actually, it looks like they’ve had more than a couple.
There’s not a whole lot to do in Vang Vieng besides float the river. You can explore some caves or do a little hiking in the mountains. Here, Nai sits on a quaint, little, orange suspension bridge that leads to one of the caves. (Notice the Morocco cap he’s wearing.)
After a busy day on the river, though, you can visit, if that’s your thing, one of the many bars along the main tourist drag where seemingly bored tourists lay on futons watching reruns of “Friends,” something I just don’t understand. Why come all the way to Laos and then lay around like zombies entranced by the boob tube? And that seems to be all that these bars show, and there are plenty of them, at least half a dozen, all showing “Friends” reruns, speakers turned up to the max. Idiotic. Vang Vieng is infamous, though, for catering to the “pot head” tourist, so maybe the folks watching TV are actually pretty much “zoned out,” unable to do much of anything else. Just my opinion. I won’t patronize these places; the gal who came tubing with us suggested that we go to one to eat before we went out to the river, but I refused.
Or, you can walk along some of the side streets and try out some of the local food at one of the numerous vendors. Here we found some delicious chicken, broiled over the standard charcoal fire.
Ok, that’s enough for now. I’ll continue the journey to Luang Prabang the next post. More later.
At last I’ve heard from the SIT people about the English Language Fellowship position. I was expecting to go to Indonesia, if I was chosen at all. Well, I can kiss Indo goodbye. Why? They’ve given me a job in . . . wait for it . . .
Morocco!!!!
Yes, I’ve been invited to accept a position at a teacher training university in Meknes, Morocco. There, according to the SIT website, I will “help train prospective teachers at the CPR (Regional Pedagogical Center) in Meknes, and, assist local inspectors of English with in-service training during periods without classes at the CPR. Possible classes include: language learning theories, methods and approaches, intro to psycholinguistics, intro to socio-linguistics, teaching listening, reading, writing, and speaking, teaching vocabulary, classroom management, testing, research methodology and action research. The Fellow may also offer an extra-curricular culture club.” Whew. I think I’ll be able to keep busy! So, I won’t actually be teaching English, but I’ll be helping to train other people to do so. It’s a great step up, professionally, since there are many very fine openings around the world for teacher trainers, and having a year or two experience doing that certainly won’t hurt my chances in the future.
There is one potentially big problem, though. According to the SIT website, I have to attend a 3-day briefing in Washington, D.C. in August. I haven’t heard back from them about the dates of that briefing. I did find out that last year it was held Aug. 11-13. If that time frame is used this year, I’ll still be teaching in Andong (until the 12th.) My only hope is to convince my supervisor to let me out of my contract early. He can sometimes be very inflexible, so I have to keep my fingers crossed and my groveling skills sharpened! I’ll call SIT Monday night, Korean time, (that’s Monday morning, EST) and find out when the briefing actually will be held. Hopefully, it’s after Aug. 12th.
If I can’t get out of the contract early, I have two options, I suppose. One is to break my contract and flee Korea on a “midnight run.” Doing so would mean I would forfeit anywhere from $4000-$8000 in severance pay and pension refunds and my honor. I don’t want to do that. The other option is to stay here and find another job. I’ve been applying to various positions and one very possible opening is with an English academy in Seoul, which teaches elementary students after their regular class hours in public school. The job pays a potentially HUGE amount of money, upwards of over $4000 a month, in return for working a very tough schedule. For that price, though, I think I could tough it out for a while! Anyway, the company is having a job fair in Seoul on Aug. 6th, which I will attend. I’ve also asked my director to give me another one-year contract in Andong, should any of the new teachers back out. There are also a few other positions here that I’m pursuing, so I’m sure I’ll land somewhere.
So, this weekend I’ll try to get some packing done, but it’s difficult, not knowing exactly where I’ll be going. I suppose I’ll pack for Morocco, and if I end up staying in Korea, well, nothing lost. And, I have to start cleaning my apartment. Yikes, not enough time left. In the meantime, here are some tantalizing photos from Vang Vieng in Laos. More later.
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