Learning to Count

My $2 Lao t-shirt shows the numbers in their non-latin based form

In each country we visit, we try to learn the basics of the language: thank you, please, excuse me, husband/wife, and 1-10/100. We've found that our probably silly-sounding attempts to speak like locals prompt more smiles than anything else we can do. It's amazing how a previously tired-looking Cambodian woman will smile when we try to repeat back in Khmer the price she's just given us in English. Of course, the biggest laughs are when we don't know the word and act if out. Josh's "brrrr" motion for a cold soda has gotten a laugh in every country so far.

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(Un)fortunately, learning the language in many of these countries is unnecessary if you know English. Most venders, restaurant servers, taxi drivers, and hotel staff speak the necessary English phrases (imagine a Vietnamese women and a Korean man bartering in English, another reason we are greatful to be American- our native language is English) , but we tend to think the reward for our efforts (a smile, more respect maybe) seems well worth it. Most natives seem especially tickled when we know the words for husband and wife.

Thank you and hello don't take too long to remember, but I have found that numbers are more difficult for me as they are learned in sequence but never used as such. I've found my crash courses in counting to be surprisingly interesting though, and here are a few thoughts on a topic I've rarely considered before (and Josh wonders why I'm bothering to write a post on them at all), the numbers one through ten:

• Not staying long in Laos, we weren't sure it was worth the effort to learn to count. Then we looked at our little Lonely Planet phrase book and realized that with a few tonal differences, the numbers are the same in Lao and Thai with the exception of the number 20. I didn't realize the languages were so similar.


• I am fascinated by Cambodian numbers. You only need to know 1 through 5 and then they repeat themselves until you get to a new word for ten: five-one is six and five-three would be 8. Brilliant! It gets a bit lengthy, but it sure is easy for a foreigner! Plus they all start with "B", which makes for a pleasing little tongue-twister.


• All these languages are still 10-based. Alright, you mathmeticians, anthropologists? Why?


• When I learned Spanish, I thought it was odd that the low teens were their own numbers, as they are in English. The same is often true here. Instead of ten-one or ten-three, there's a whole new word or at least the "one" part of it changes. Wierd.


• Each language, with the exception of modern Vietnamese, has a different symbol than our latin ones. I thought it was odd that they didn't seem to logically build off each other (getting progressively more complicated or something) until I realized that my own numbers are just as arbitrary! Thank goodness their currencies now tend to include the latin number as well.

Ever wonder how Lao businessmen dance?

Well, we had another opportunity to practice our manners when presented with strange forms of alcohol by locals. This time we found ourselves in the middle of a party at the conclusion of a Laos business meeting. Huh? you may think. Well, so did we. We couldn't take photos, as it seemed entirely inappropriate (and I don't know that it ever really crossed our confused minds), but the photo above is the restaurant (with blue roof) we chose to eat at on our final night in Laos as taken from Thailand.

Originally, we stopped at this restaurant because it offered a nice view of the Mekong River and the sky was dark, the wind was blowing, and a heavy rain seemed imminant. We've learned that when the sky looks like that, you don't mess around. The rain may not come at all, but more than likely, it's gonna hit hard.

This gets long, but since it's one of my most favorite experiences yet, tough... read on...
There were a few Lao families eating, so we figured we'd found a good spot for dinner. It was entirely open with a metal roof and plastic chairs and tables, a typical riverside SE Asian restaurant. Eventually, we were the only people remaining in the place besides a surprisingly large crew setting a number of tables and bringing out dishes of food. We were wondering what event was going to take place there, when a truckload of men dressed in business casual arrived. They hung around for a long time, eventually sitting down when a group of women dressed in nice short sleeved blouses and long, straight skirts showed up. They mostly sat at separate tables, about 60 people altogether.

We figured out (people would stop by to practice their English) that it was the "ceremony" (party?) at the end of a "long business meeting" (conference?). We noticed that there were speakers and a keyboard set up and crates of beer were delivered... Eventually someone sat at the keyboard and an older man made some applause-worthy comment and then sang a song in Lao.

After singing, the man came to talk to us. We found out he was the boss and had taken a 6 month English course at some point in his life. We "chatted" and eventually our empty beer glasses were filled with ice cubes and more Lao beer. (We'd already drank a big bottle apeice in celebration of coming in well under-budget for both Laos and Vietnam, but protesting didn't work.)

Hmmm. Ice. Red flag number one. Oh well, we guzzled that down before it could melt. This prompted The Boss to call over a man with a small glass bottle filled with a yellow-y version of Laos Whiskey. Now, we had tried Laos Whiskey at a village near Luang Prabang and knew it was potent stuff. However, this was yellow-y and looked suspiciously like the type our guide had told us often causes upset stomachs because it's watered-down and sweetened with something potentially impure. Red flag number two. But, after downing one shot each and being poured another, we were greatful for the impurity. Of course, we had to have two shots because we "walk two legs" said The Boss. We were toasting something, I think.

Just as we were plotting our exit, the dancing began. Yup, you guessed it. The Boss insisted that we join in. Now just imagine this. A plastic-chair type restaurant nicely situated along the Mekong River with a good 70 Laos business people and restaurant staff, someone singing a song in Laos delivered through quite large speakers, a lot of whiskey and beer in a very polite and shy culture, one lonely couple starting to dance about two feet apart, and these two white kids sitting at a table in the middle of it all, dishes still uncleared. It was all just a little surreal and we didn't want to ruin the party with our interpretation of the word dance. Eventually, about 6 other couples stepped up, and we gave in, hoping for anonymity in numbers.

Basically the dance went like this: Women on the outside of a circle, men on the inside. Men do next to nothing while the women stand with elbows bent, making small small swirling gestures with their hands at waist height, like they're buttering a huge slice of bread with both back and front of hands. This motion, with a few wrist rolling flourishes, and steps are to the beat. Couples walk side by side in the circle but about 2 feet apart. They NEVER TOUCH. Every few steps you take a half-step back and face your partner before continuing around until the music ends. We exchanged places once for about 30 seconds. That was exciting. At the end there's a quick wai (bow with prayer-like hands) to yuor partner and that's that.

We must have looked ridiculous as everyone else was fairly solemn, and we were grinning like idiots trying not to giggle at the entire situation. We sat back down: more broken chit-chat, an invitation to sing, a refusal, further insistance, further refusals, more whiskey, more iced beer poured into the melted ice in our glasses, and one more dance. Then we paid our bill and bid them good night.

As we left, we said thank you to The Boss, but he kept brushing it off with a thank you to us instead. He asked if we had had a good time in Laos and if we liked the country (which we had and did). We figured out that he was proud of his country and was genuinely greatful that we had chosen to visit it, not in a desperate way, but in a "we need you" way that made me feel both sincerely flattered and mildly ashamed at my undeserved importance. He wanted to make sure we had enjoyed ourselves, and I left feeling proud that we'd visited this country that he so proudly wanted to share.

We walked back to our guest house feeling mostly fine but increasingly tipsy and with no ill-effects from the whiskey and ice. We don't try to find experiences like these, but I think we would if we could!

Lounging in Laos

Laos (the final S is silent, thank you French colonialism) in many ways is the inverse of Vietnam in regards to tourism. In Vietnam we were always being solicited for a ride, drugs, shopping where as the Laos people... well they just sit around. In fact they do such a good job of sitting around that we thought we should spend our time in Laos joining them in this noble pursuit and consequently our time in Laos was a great relaxing time.

View from the boat en route to the Thai border. (This one is a bit traveloguey, but we need those every now and again right?)

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We spent almost all of our time in Laos in a cute little town called Luang Prabang, a sleepy little place next to the Mekong river and one of the lowest key places we've seen so far. There isn't tons to do at Luang Prabang if you don't head out on a trek, but not doing things is what was so great there. LP had some of the best weather we've seen yet. It was hot in the day (as is the norm) but at night it would cool down a decent amount, and we both enjoyed spending the evenings in pants. There were some great restaurants, the best street food we've had so far, and just some great places to lay low. After coming off the whirlwind that was Cambodia and Vietnam it was great to have a place to put ourselves back together. I should say that there were plenty of nice wats (temples) in Luang Prabang, and some neat ones at that, but we never really have an urge to post our photos of them. Megan often compares them to cathedrals in Europe, great buildings and spaces but after a while you get the attitude of "just another wat." The city also holds the old national palace with an ornately decorated thrown room and waiting rooms, but surprisingly spare living quarters. Probably not George W. standards.

View of the Mekong at Luang Prabang

There are really only two main tourist destinations near Luang Prabang as far as day-trips are concerned. The first is a place called Pak Ou caves, which has become a repository for Buddha images throughout the years. Since you can't destroy an image of Buddha, for obvious reasons, these caves have been used to hold all the decrepit ones from the region. In fact the royalty of Laos used to make voyages up here and to visit these caves every spring, though that tradition has since stopped. But this whole process of holding the Buddhas while they "die" creates this fascinating location of crumbling Buddhas. Fat Buddhas, thin Buddhas, "praying for rain" Buddhas, seated Buddhas, you name it they have it... and then they have 7 more of them hidden in another corner of the caves. It wasn't that the Buddhas were that ornate or well made, there were just tons of them... small decaying Buddhas everywhere. Pretty neat.

The Buddhas at Pak Ou

The long skinny boat to Pak Ou. Megan insists I include this to prove to her family and the Nyenhuis' that she was indeed on a boat on Memorial Day.

The other attraction was a nearby waterfall. The waterfall is a series of several tiers where one waterfall creates a small pool leading to another smaller waterfall, leading to another pool, etc... This leaves basically a series of blueish-green pools of cold water for swimming. Also one of the deeper pools had a rope swing, which both the tourists and local kids had fun on. We spent the middle of the afternoon swimming and then sitting around eating fresh pineapple... let me tell you life can be tough in Laos.

One of the many tiers of the waterfalls

Kids and the always entertaining rope swing

Cutting our lunch at the waterfall... mmm fresh pineapple cut with a new sharp object for Josh.

The last little bit of our time in Laos was a two day boat ride up the Mekong River from Luang Prabang to the Thai border. The ride itself was great, although the seats could become a problem as most of them were simply wooden benches and the trip is 8-9 hours a day but still it was worlds better than two solid days on the bus! It was so nice to be able to walk around and have a breeze in contrast to most of our bus rides where I feel rather confined for the whole trip. They don't design these buses for 5'11" tall westerners. Also noteworthy: we spent less than $2 on our guest house room the night between boat rides. Can't beat that.

View from the boat on the ride to the Thai border

After that we hit the border and took a bus to Chaing Mai, which we are leaving soon for points south. Sorry if this post is a bit more traveloguey than most but we just wanted to give an update about this great little place that was perfect to recover from the busy travels we've had so far.

P.S.

An obligatory picture of one of the wats at Luang Prabang.

Note to self:

Don't come to Laos for the internet connection speed. The waterfalls are pretty though.

Normally there would be a picture of the pretty waterfall, but after all this is Laos...