OK … I am having a slightly confused hour in which it is becoming more and more apparent to me of my growing country girl tendencies! So I am in Vientiane for some meetings etc and of course for the first coupla days worked in a continual rotation of dinners, gatherings, parties, coffee’s, wines, cocktail bars etc etc but yesterday I turned down lunch with a bunch of new Aussie people through town at a swish little French cafe and biked over to the local market to eat my favourite street food from the North while sitting on a dusty little broken stool with a couple of cute little old women. And I totally enjoyed myself and was pepped back up and re energised for the day! My personality is in a state of flux!!!
with some pals and some randoms in VT! Soaking up as many people as I can find the night before my return to Namtha!
In Vientiane at the moment enjoying being with some good buddies … Maura (pal from the US living in VT) and Kel (lives down the south in Thakek) … Both top quality and maybe I’ll bring them in my backpack to Australia one day.
Mon and Mina … these two lovely girls crowned me with my new Laos name which is “Phetmalaphone” … means Diamonds, Flowers and Good Wishes. Nice huh??!!!
A bit of artistically done Laos Style Karoake … thanks Yay!! Some very passionate singing involving tracks such as Eternal Flame, Lemon Tree, Unbreak my Heart, Oops I did it again etc etc … it actually concerned me how my brain seemed to be able to recall all the lyrics to these songs … hmmm
Some more shots from around Vientiane to keep you amused …
TL – Some neighbourhood boys making the best of the driving rain!
TC – Darren (my Vientiane flatmate) and I at a recent “bling” party.
TR - Some wayward cows on an excursion to the city streets – quite unperturbed!
BL – Up and close and personal with what they tell me is Laos’ hottest musical act
BR – Anna, Bok and me … Anna is another Aussie volunteer who arrived with me and Pok is my official markets shopping assistant!
One of my first social gatherings in Laos … Ling’s (my language teacher) daughter’s – Nia’s first birthday party. Clearly not camera shy …
Anii maen Yay le Ling (This is Yay and Ling). Ling is my lovely language teacher and Yay works at Vientiane College and also runs his own Karoake bar where we are going to sing in Laos (should be interesting!!!) this weekend! They promise me this will help my wow par sa Laos (speaking of Laos)!! Yay also taught me how to ride a motorbike!
Some very creative and artistic street signage … I would say 99% of people choose to ignore however!!
This is where I am staying for a few weeks while in Vientiane … the second floor up where the Vientiane Buffalos (local rugby team) sign is ours. Pretty fancy huh!! I particularly like the wires that buzz right outside my window that you can see … however these ones actually look quite tidy, safe and organised in comparison to many others!
Aaargh … the computer just lost everything I wrote!! So this will be brief …
Well you’ll be pleased to know that I survived my first weekend of torrential wet season rain in Laos! It only takes about 30 minutes of crazy rain before the whole city looks completely flooded. Very hard to negotiate dark, unsigned streets on a bike or motorbike I might say! Everything is completely beautiful and green though with all the rain around.
A couple of days back I visited a town called Ban Kheun (sp??) where there is another Aussie voluneer (Bianca) doing a similar sort of thing to what I’ll be doing. It is perhaps more regional than where I’ll be … even though it is only one hour from Vientiane, it has no internet, no other foreigners and no restaurants at all (aside from noodle shops). Bianca had just finished up a week of teacher workshops so we shared with lunch with all the teachers at a local noodle shop. She is doing a pretty amazing job out there and it got me quite excited and impatient for heading north! Still waiting on visas to be sorted … but it is good to be able to do a whole lot of language training to ensure I don’t continue to make too many of those dinner time faupes (sp?) like I seem to do on a daily basis … although I imagine this will continue for some time!
I had a look through the small selection of resources and 3 readers caught my attention in particular … Babe, Frankenstein and BAYWATCH! It’s comforting to know this is the impression these lovely Ban Kheun people are creating in their heads of Western culture …. hmmm … So … if anyone is wanting to donate any books … you know where to send them!
On Friday night I had dinner etc with a big group of other volunteer type people in town. We ended up heading to the only late night destination open (aside from the bowling alley!) where there was a fairly inexcusable blend of bad music playing!! Let’s just say that when I realised I was dancing to Mariah Carey mixed with some Thai techno beats … I decided it was time to take my leave!
So I’ve been here for a few days now and love it even more every day. There is a pretty big expat scene in this town (being a capital city) and every night there is a social event on! Everyone is extremely friendly and I think I have more mobile phone numbers and social invites than I did in Australia!!
Being here is definitely challenging my thinking on a number of issues … I think it will be different up north, but being in the capital city brings with it a number of interesting subcultures … Guess I won’t write too much online but I will probably email my thoughts to some of you sometime.
The guy I am staying with is right into Rugby so he dragged me along to Rugby training on Tuesday night and I had a run with the boys! They were very decent for allowing a girl to enter their zone!! Good fun!! Apparently I am being trained up for the position of touch judge! I have found a couple of other fellow muso’s in town as well and am going to an open mic night tonight to have a bit of a jam!!! Had a game of pool last night at a local place and discovered I am seriously out of practice so definitely need to whip that into gear before I head up to Luang Nam Tha where this will be one of my main social occupations I think!
This arvo I go for motobike lessons!!! It is fairly much the major mode of transport up here and dirt bike riding I think will be another one of my social occupations up in Luang Nam Tha according to sources!! I don’t necessarily back myself too highly on sporting activities that involve electronic/mechanical equipment … so we will see. Hopefully we will head to the back roads!
Loving life anyway and it is great being able to devote a whole lot of time to language study. Feels like I am back at Uni for a bit which is nice. My language teacher is lovely … Ling … and we are very flexible with language lessons ie Learn about a topic in the classroom and then head to the relevant area … eg go for lunch and practice ordering, go to the markets and purchase items … go for a field trip and direct the tuk tuk drivers etc etc I am going to her daughter’s first birthday party on Saturday!
So I’ve finally made it to Laos! It’s still as crazy, hot, fascinating, beautiful and stimulating as I remember … so it feels really good to be back. I am in Vientiane for the next 4 weeks doing language training … then I spend a couple of weeks up in Luang Prabang with some other people who are doing similar work … then head up to Luang Nam Tha (where it is cooler!) I am staying for the next 4 weeks with another Aussie guy … volunteer whose official title is Rugby Development Officer … so it’s good I found room for my touch shoes! He’s a good bloke and we spent the day cruising around on the back of his bike … bit of a walk down memory lane! Fitted in a two hour massage which I think I slept through most of!!! and just had dinner with a couple of Laos girls that he works with. I tried out a bit of my Laos … it became very apparent to me that I really do need to get on top of the tonal pronunciations because a couple of phrases I used … well … let’s just say that the alternate meanings (when using different tones) is perhaps not appropriate for dinner conversation!! Anyway they were all very forgiving which was nice! If you’re interested … ask me in an email !!! Not appropriate for general blogging!
