Mid Term Break

This is a rather long post but I broken it into 3 sections that can be perused independently.

Mid Term Break

I’m not sure whether the word break actually applies here. We kept busy over the last week and half. We started off on Tuesday, March 23rd heading off to Kota Kinabalu in the Borneo Malaysian state of Sabah for a teachers’ conference called EARCOS. After filling our heads, we set off to exercise our bodies by climbing Mt. Kinabalu, the highest peak in South-East Asia. We knew we would need a rest after that and so then we headed to an island off of East Borneo called Lankayan to relax on the beach, snorkel, and turtle watch.

EARCOS

This is an acronym for East Asia Regional Council of Overseas Schools. There were about 1200 educators from all over South-East Asia attending the conference. All in all it was an impressive affair in a gorgeous setting, Sutera Harbor Resort in Kota Kinabalu, Borneo. We arrived a day early to take part in a pre-conference training session hosted by WASC, an accreditation body sponsored by the University of California. Many of the international schools throughout the world gain their accreditation and thereby credibility through WASC. We trained on how to participate in an accreditation visit to other schools. Besides this, Maureen and I both attended some good practical sessions through-out the three days of the conference but the highlight by far were the keynote speakers. The conference had an environmental theme (the name of which escapes me right now), with a focus on sustainability, stewardship, and educating ‘global citizens’.
All three speakers over the course of the three days had a message of hope regarding the environment.
The first was Alan Atkinson, author of Global Citizen and Believing Cassandra. He spoke on how the defining characteristic of our time has been exponential growth. He described two possible outcomes of this, either overshoot and collapse or working towards sustainability. He then went on to outline examples of how we have worked towards developing sustainability.
On the second day William Lishman spoke. William is a the Ontario native who was portrayed in the movie Fly Away Home. He was a fascinating speaker who basically gave his biography He started telling about growing up in rural Ontario as a child, with what he later learned to be ADD and dyslexia and how this led to him eventually becoming a renowned sculptor, inventor, and environmentalist.
The speaker I enjoyed the most spoke on the third day. His name was John Lui. John has worked with many countries on major rehabilitation projects. He gave a great message of hope. He showed how the Chinese government has transformed large sections of the Loess Plateau from barren, deforested, dust bowls into rich, fertile, productive land. He demonstrated how by designating ecological land and agricultural land they have not only increased productivity but created a CO2 sink. His message was that ‘we left the garden when we reduced biodiversity’, and that the future for everyone will be determined by creating functional eco-systems based on appropriate land use.
Part of the MKIS crew at EARCOS.



One of the biggest benefits of attending the conference was meeting educators from all over Asia and being able to share experiences with colleagues from our own school. Besides the sessions there were two social gatherings with plenty of good food and an open bar (now that doesn’t happen in BC). At the closing social on Saturday night we were entertained by number of teacher bands(rock) from various schools. They were all quite good and got the crowd dancing until the wee hours of the morning.

Here is a clip of one of the bands that played the guy hopping around Steve is from KL and married to one of the teachers at our school.


Mt. Kinabalu

You can see Mt. Kinabalu from Kota Kinabalu, towering in the distance some 60 kilometers away, if you look to the east in the early morning. By noon the mountain is shrouded in clouds and invisible. Even from this distance it’s 13,500 ft., is an impressive and formidable sight. It is the tallest peak in South-East Asia and climbing it has become sort of a right of passage by locals and tourists alike. Since we were in the area Maureen and I had to find out what all the fuss was about.
The first recorded ascent of the mountain was in 1851 by British explorer Lowe. His biggest challenge lay in the journey through the jungle from Kota Kinabalu. Now there is a highway that runs by the park headquarters and is the starting point for the 150 or so climbers that make the ascent every day. Maureen and I got a ride to the park headquarters on Sunday from our friends from Mont’ Kiara School, Chris and Cindy Blessing. They had rented a car for their adventure in Borneo.
Everyone is required to hire a guide to assist them on their climb up the mountain. This does help support the local economy and makes sure some of the $ spent by climbers ends up in the hands of locals. Our guide’s name was Peter and he was a great source of encouragement and information on our hike. The hike for most mortals is a two day affair. The first day is spent hiking 6 kilometers up to a lodge area called Laban Rata at about 3000 meters up the mountain. The park headquarters is at about 1500 meters and so the trail is rather steep. They have put many steps into hillside to assist on the climb but these are at random heights and some were quite high. Maureen felt as though she had done the equivalent of a year’s worth of Pulpit Rock climbing by the end and had fulfilled her yearly quota of ascent.The top picture is of Peter, our guide, and a porter. We are near base camp and you can see the mist has rolled in. We managed to miss the rain but those behind us came up soaking wet. The bottom one is of the base camp lodge, Laban Rata, with Lowes' Peak in the background.


We were the first climbers to leave the HQ in the morning and so had a quiet and enjoyable start to our journey. The lodge at the top has no road access and is supplied only by local porters who get RM3 per kilogram ($1CAD) they carry. After our first 2 kilometers into the trip the first of them began to pass us heading up the hill with incredible loads of full propane tanks, cases of beverages, and supplies of all sorts to equip a lodge servicing about 170 people each night. Our guide would point out different details about each one. One was the Malaysian marathon champion, while one was the light heavyweight bodybuilding champion of Malaysia, both combining the portering job with training. Most however, were villagers trying to earn a living At about 3 kilometers we began to meet the first of the climbers descending the mountain. The fittest were first followed slowly by climbers of all shapes and sizes from all corners of the earth but predominantly Asians. We met three teachers from our school descending at different intervals. Meeting one of my Grade 5 teaching partners was enough to inspire both of us to continue. At 66 years old she was both an impetus and a motivation. At about kilometer 5 the effects of the altitude began to take hold and we found that we could only hike at a very slow pace with frequent rests. As fate would have it the trail took an abrupt sharp upwards pitch at the same time.
We arrived at the lodge a little after noon. The timing was perfect. There were only a few climbers ahead of us so we were able to have a hot shower and nap before most of the hustle and bustle began with other climbers arriving. It was rather quite amazing the spread that was put out before us for our evening meal considering the manner in which everything arrived at the hill. They provided a great buffet and we spent a short evening chatting with other climbers and playing Scrabble.
Our final ascent began the next morning at 2:30 am. We skipped the 2:00 am breakfast, the thought greasy eggs and chicken sausage before the climb made us nauseous. During this last section of the climb they have anchored rope down to use both as a guide to the top and for support on the higher pitches. It is, of course, dark at this time and it was a surreal sight to see the line of headlamps both in front and behind us as we began our ascent. I guess we had acclimatized to the altitude overnight as we discovered we were able to climb at a quicker pace than the day before and we found that we were passing most of our fellow hikers. Unfortunately our pace was too quick and we arrived at the top about 50 minutes before sunrise. For the first time since we have arrived in Malaysia we were absolutely freezing. The wind howled like crazy and we sheltered, shivering with cold, as well as we could in the hollow of some rocks. When the sun did peak above the horizon we were greeted with a spectacular sight of mountains and colour. We took pictures and enjoyed the view for about 30 minutes before we began our descent. It is best to get off the mountain before the rising tropical air condenses on the cold granite of the mountain and the clouds begin to form and the rain starts to fall. The trip down was perhaps more difficult than the trip up. It was very long and steep and we no longer had anything to look forward to but the end. We returned to KK that evening and headed straight away for a massage. This momentarily relieved the pain but three days later we were still walking down stairs sideways and moaning and groaning with each little movement. The calves and quads have never been as tight.

Lankayan Island

The description ‘tropical paradise‘ may be a little cliché but I‘m not sure how else to describe it. It is a jewel set in the ocean surrounded by coral reefs and is a Mecca for divers.
The morning after our hike we flew from Kota Kinabalu to Sandakan on the east side of Sabah, Borneo. Lankayan is an hour and half boat ride from Sandakan. The water was a little rough and I kept getting meaningful grimaces from Maureen as we bounced along endlessly over the waves in the Sulu Sea. Lankayan Island is combination turtle research station, military outpost, and resort. It is in the Sugud Island Marine Conservation Area and the resort supports the funding for the turtle research that goes on here. The military base is located in the centre of the island and basically is there to keep an eye on Malaysian territorial waters as the Philippines Islands are not far away. Unfortunately some of the Filipino fishermen have a bad habit of discharging dynamite to make gathering fish a little easier. Understandably the Malaysian don’t really think this is a good idea in their designated conservation area.
The resort consists of 15 waterfront chalets, a jetty with a dive headquarters, a combined research/interpretation center, and a restaurant-meeting area. They have worked hard to make the resort eco-friendly and sustainable. The resort is beautiful but it is the setting that is dazzling. The island has palms and coconut trees lining the beach. A walk around the island takes a little less than half and hour. The water that surrounds the island is an azure blue stretching to the coral reef which surrounds the island. Sitting on our deck we saw giant green turtles and black-finned sharks swim by. (Apparently the sharks are the friendly kind.) On our first evening here we saw a release of 85 baby turtles into the sea and later that night we got to watch a mother turtle lay her 70+ eggs. The snorkeling was amazing. There is a vast diversity of fish ranging in all shapes, neon colors, and sizes. While snorkeling we saw sharks, eels, and followed giant turtles.
The best part of being there was that we were totally isolated from everything else. We had little else to do besides snorkel, read, and, regrettably, eat. Thanks to our Swedish contacts at school we became immersed in reading the ‘Millennium’ series by Stieg Larsson. We can hardly wait until the third book is translated into English. Listening to the surf crash on the beach and watching sunsets were the highlights of each day.
The resort set up an inclusive package for us and on the way home we were able to visit the Orangutan Sanctuary in Sepilok. We managed to catch a couple of the orangutans at the feeding station. This just whet our appetite for jungle cruising on our next visit to Borneo to see them in the wild.
View from the deck of our chalet.Turtle release. It was incredible how fast they scrambled off to the ocean and swam away.

Mid Term Break

Spring sunrise from our balcony. It is a little different from the photo taken in the fall. The sun is about 10 degrees to north and comes up on the other side of the twin towers. It means about 1/2 hour difference in the amount of daylight we receive. It is still pretty nice. Last night we were able to play tennis in natural light until close to 7:30, then we had to turn on the lights.

The past few weeks have been incredibly busy for us and we are really ready for a break. Our mid term break starts for us Tuesday after school when we fly off to Kota Kinabalu in Borneo or Eastern Malaysia for a conference first of all and then holiday after.

I'll list what we have been doing here over the past couple of weeks:

1. 2 afternoons of parent teacher interviews
2. School 'Fun Fair'
3. Maureen had 2 basketball games and 3 practices
4. Al had 3 soccer games, 3 practices, and an all day tournament
5. School spring production 3 performances- we work as head ushers or bouncers(nice ones)
6. Social gatherings on the weekends- a baby shower BBQ on one and a Spring Equinox and 60th birthday party on the other
7. Maureen squeezed in line dance one night and book club on another
8. Tennis matches a couple of times a week
9. Work
   

It doesn't seem too bad listed but it seemed busy.

The conference we're going to in KK is the EARCOS (East Asia Regional Conference of Overseas Schools) conference. Teachers from schools from all over South-East Asia attend. We'll see if we can touch base with some of the Nelson contingent from other schools in the area.
After the conference we are booked to climb (well hike actually) Mount Kinabalu. It is the highest peak in south-east Asia at 13,500 feet. I'll let you know how that goes in the next blog. After this we thought we'd kind of treat ourselves so we booked into a exclusive island dive resort on the east coast of Borneo. It is small resort with 14 chalets on Lankayan Island. On our way home we will stop at the Orangutan Sanctuary outside of Sandakan.
Soccer munchkins. Team international, a Swede, 2 Kiwis, an Aussie, a Korean, an Indian, a Filipino, a Singaporean and a Swiss with a Dutch assistant coach and a Canuck coach.Yahoo!! The dunk tank. The kids in my class lined up early to have a go at me. The organization of this event was incredible. All done by the parents.



Baby shower for Carmen and Ryan. You can see the demographic of the international teacher in this picture. Maureen and I are the exception at our age.

Pulau Kapas

View of Pulau Gemia from Pulau Kapas. The coral between the two islands is teaming with fish.

Our 4th long weekend between our Christmas break and the start of the March break just ended. Maureen and I thought we should spend some time exploring Malaysia and so we loaded up the car and headed off after school on Friday to the east coast of Malaysia. After school, means after we finished coaching our basketball and soccer teams and so we left about 5:00. Travel is always an adventure and the 4 hour trip ended up taking us about 7 hours. Getting lost has become an expected part of the journey and adds to the experience(at least that's what I say to myself as I try to calm the rage). The roads really are quite good here and North America could really learn a thing or two from the rest stops they have. These tend to be spread out every 40 or so kilometers with every second one providing the full meal deal. They will have large clean washrooms, snack stands, small restaurants, gas stations, and pretty well everything else a weary traveler might need. The one thing that does not work so is well is that the restaurants all serve exactly the same local menu. The only exception to this is that the rest stops closer to KL tend to have a few of the palaces of grease, like McDonalds or Burger King. We got take away coffees at one point. I remembered to have a mug with me but Maureen didn't. Her take away cup was a plastic bag with a straw.
Pulau Kapas is about 3 km off the mainland about midway up the east side of peninsular Malaysia. We stayed the night at a small market town called Marang and took a speed boat over to the island in the morning. The island is only about 2 km across and only has a half dozen small 'resorts' on it. The word resort is loosely used here. They are mainly backpacker type places with pretty basic accommodation. We managed to find an exception to this, a nice little secluded place run a Dutch couple. They have room for about 20 guests in their various chalets. The place has its own little private bay and the chalets are situated on the cusp of the jungle and beach. The woman, Sylvie, is a fantastic cook and we managed to relax and eat very well for our two days here. It was a great place to unwind after report card writing. We read, snorkeled, ate, kayaked around a bit and read some more.


This shows the restaurant and dining area of Turtle Valley Kapas, the resort we stayed at.


We paddled one of the kayaks around the island and rested on this rather nice beach and did some snorkeling.





We wondered around a bit looking for secluded beaches. They weren't hard to find even on a long weekend.



Boats just biding their time in the bay.



Al at the climbing wall at Camp 5, Asia's largest climbing facility. Getting old sucks though because after going twice I've tendinitis in my elbow so bad I need to lay off for a bit.

Visitors from Nelson

Bikers in the Tour de Langkawi.


During this past week we had Ken and Marion Hunter as guests. They stopped on their way back to Dalian, China where Marion is vice-principal of a school. They arrived on the afternoon of Friday, February 13. We didn't give them a chance to unwind after their 17 hour journey to Kuala Lumpur. We headed off again to Malacca, our favourite get-a-way close to the city. We managed to arrive in time for the night market and had a great time wandering among the stalls, checking out their wares and sampling the street food. Everything is fried or deep fried and met Maureen's criteria for low fat food. Actually the palm oil business in Malaysia is big and that is the cheapest and most common oil used in food prep. Palm oil, of course, is rich in trans fats and everything else that is bad for you. Anyway we sampled deep fried veggies, fried oysters, other unrecognizable stuff, and even a kind of deep fried bread with ice-cream in the middle. A complete meal with the dessert but eaten in random order. Maureen even managed to hook up with a line dancing group she met the last time and couldn't leave until she taught them all a dance she knew. The next day we explored the city some more before heading back to KL.

Marion and Moe are shopping. Ken and Al, well, just hanging around directing traffic.


On Sunday we went to downtown KL to show Ken and Marion around and ended up watching the criterion event of the Tour de Langkawi, an annual international bike race. It really was amazing to see all the hoopla that goes along with a major bike race like this. There were about 100 or so riders taking part and each one seemed to have a couple of support vehicles and with a few extra bikes on top of the cars following them around on the course. We saw about 10 of the 12 laps of the race before we tired of the whole thing and headed home.
During the rest of the week Maureen and I headed off to work leaving our guests free to explore the city and relax on their own. Marion joined us one day at work and helped us both out in our assignments and got to see us and the school in action. We managed to find something to do each night and had a great visit. It was all capped off with a trip to the Skybar on Thursday which is located on the 35th floor of a hotel with a panoramic view of the Petronas Towers. We arrived before dusk and stayed until the towers were completely lit up. It was amazing sight.


Friday was the teachers' variety show at the school. This event has been a tradition in the school for some time and it was sold out far in advance of the performance. Performers for some of the acts seemed to be practicing for weeks. Maureen took part in two dance performances, Bollywood, which you can see below, and one called Margartia. There were many practices for both and elaborate costuming involved. Maureen managed to make as many as she could in between basketball practices and other commitments. I got roped in at the last minute to participate in a WrestleMania spoof. We spent about 5 minutes talking about what we might do, which is my kind of prep for something like this. It ended up being rather funny and will be one the elementary kids will be talking about for some time.


I've trjed to download the video with no luck a number times. The best I can do is offer this You Tube link. My video is better so I'll keep trying.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yudfOz7f5cc












Here is the Wild Scot. He had to battle the evil Rubber Man.

Thaipusam, Weekend in Bangkok

I guess we must be getting used to the joint. It doesn't really seem like there is much to report that might be of any interest to anyone. What was once novel has now become routine, I suppose. Let's see, I bought some veggies and fruit at the market, did a couple loads of wash, worked a whole 4 days each of the last couple of weeks, and, and... Well I guess there are a couple of things.
Thaipusam was last weekend. It is an Indian festival in honour of Lord Murugan. According to legend he saved the world from the evil Soorapadme long ago and has been worshiped ever since. The son of Lord Shiva, Murugan, is considered the very manifestation of valour, beauty, youthfulness, vitality, masculinity, and the abode of happiness. This year about 1.5 million people came to pay their respects. Imagine the stairs and area in front of the statue crammed with this many people.

Many of the devotees come to pay penance for sins, to give thanks, reaffirm their faith, or pay homage to fulfil some obligation. The ceremony itself starts downtown Kuala Lumpur, some 15 kilometers away. A chariot is laden with an idol of Lord Murugan, which apparently is adorned with many precious stones and metals. This sits on an ornate bed of flowers. Two oxen and many devotees spend 8 hours bringing the chariot to Batu Caves. Once at the caves a whole range of activities begin. Some will shave their heads and cover it with a kind of rice flour. Others will have prepared food or drink to give to other devotees. The more serious will carry a large heavy shrine called a Kavati up the 272 steps to get inside the cave. They make these shrines from metal and they are elaborately decorated. Others will pierce their cheeks and tongues with skewers as an act of penance. The real serious have their backs pierced with dozens of fish hook like objects. Sometimes they will ask a fellow devotee to pull on the hooks as they travel up the stairs. The greater the suffering, I guess, means greater devotion. Malaysia is one of the only places in world that allow the festival to take place. Supposedly it is a bit to much for even the Indians in India.
Maureen and I didn't make it to Thaipusam but were given details by Geoff Bullen and his friend Mazi who were visiting us this weekend on their travels through South-East Asia. I did drive by on the freeway just as things were starting up on Sunday morning and a little later in the afternoon going the other way. Even driving by was an experience. You can imagine the traffic that 1 and half million people bring. In the morning people were beginning to park, right on the freeway. At this time they were using up one lane and by the time I drove by in the afternoon they were parking in two of the three lanes. You can imagine the jam, miles and miles long. Fortunately the second time I was going against the flow. One of the teachers said the police were directing people into the parking spots on the freeway (this could only happen in South-East Asia, I think)
We had planned to catch Thaipusam but Maureen was busy in Bangkok. Used to traveling to exotic locales like Sparwood for basketball tournaments she couldn't quite turn down the opportunity to serve as sponsor teacher on a school trip to Bangkok. The shopping (it's hard to believe I know) apparently is much better in Bangkok. She fell in love with the city and I know she(I) will be back. Taking care of a pod of hormonal adolescent boys does have its challenges though. We didn't get to Thaispusam (we planned to go after her arrival late Sunday) because one of the boys left his passport in Bangkok and could not get past immigration in Malaysia. Between waiting for the delivery of the passport on the next plane and the boy's parents going to the wrong airport she didn't arrive back home until the wee hours of the morning.
I was able to spend my weekend in relative peace(No comment necessary here). Geoff and Mazi arrived Friday evening. I showed them around a bit and then left them to their own devices. Saturday morning I helped out at the big regional touch tournament being held at our school. Touch rugby is basically a game of 'silly buggers' (for those of you who have played rugby before) with more rules. The rules, I guess, make it a serious school sport. It is played by young girls in short shorts (but that is not why I volunteered to help). In the afternoon I took a climbing course at Camp 5, which is the largest climbing facility in Asia. It is enormous, equal to about 30 times the size of Gravity Climbing in Nelson. I loved it and plan to do a lot more. Sunday I went for another ride up Genting Highlands. This time I was joined by one of my fellow Grade 5 teachers Derald Cook.


A funny thing the winning team does for the losing team after a touch rugby game. The MKIS (Mont' Kiara International School) team came second.



I stole this picture from Chris Blessing of Maureen and I hiking in Taman Negara.

Taman Negara

We took advantage of our 4 day Chinese New Year weekend and headed to Taman Negara with Chris and Cindy. The Malaysians claim that Taman Negara is the oldest rain forest in the world. At 130 million years old, it has not been effected by either Ice Ages or geological upheavals. It was established as a park in 1937 and is Malaysia's oldest and most prestigious national park. The name Taman Negara, in fact, translates as 'national park'. We spent two days in the park.
On the first day we traveled up river in a boat to some water falls. The jungle is absolutely amazing. It is so lush and green. We kept our eyes peeled for tigers and elephants but only saw monkeys and a variety of birds. We did see elephant tracks indicating where they bathe on the river. The boat had to stop a little ways from the falls or cascade. We worked up enough of a sweat to jump in the river. The water was cool enough to be invigorating and we actually spent quite a long time enjoying the swim.
Sunday was Maureen's birthday. We hiked to the beginning of the canopy walk. We were a little surprised to find out that we had about an hour wait to up to the canopy. It was a long weekend and as a result very busy. The wait though was definitely worth it. The canopy walkway is the longest in the world at over 600 meters. At its highest point you are 45 meters off the floor of the jungle. The view of the vegetation is incredible. It really demonstrates what a carbon sink the rain forests are.
After our canopy walk we decided (mainly my idea I think) to get away from the crowds and head off down a less traveled trail to a hilltop a few kilometers away. Walking in a tropical rain forest is quite a bit different from hiking Pulpit Rock back home. The roots of the giant trees, like the pelong, kedondong, and mersawa, are so close to the surface that avoiding tripping over them is a real challenge. Once we left the main trail the secondary trail was much more difficult to follow. Vegetation grows so fast, it is hard for the park staff to keep the trails maintained although with the markers on the tree and the fact we were following the river made this task not too difficult. The biggest problem were the leeches. We had read all about the jungle leeches in our Lonely Planet book and in other places but really had no idea what the reality of them was like. It had been raining for a few days after a dry spell and they were as active as they can be. Most are little tiny beasts about the diameter of a toothpick and 1 and 1/2 inches long. As soon as we stopped they attacked. They would head for your shoes in inchworm fashion at blinding speeds (well kind of fast). They would then crawl up the shoes and bury themselves in your socks. Maureen and I had our BC wool hiking socks and they were able to dig through these really fast. It took us a while to realize what was happening and by the time we did we were thoroughly leeched. I'm not sure if this was the kind of birthday adventure Maureen wanted or imagined. We hiked for a couple a kilometers before it started to rain (it rains a lot in a rain forest we found out). The leeches and the rain turned us back but not before we had some great views of the rain forest and had come upon an abandoned Orang Asli settlement. Next time we head into the jungle we'll be a little better prepared for the beggars with leech proof socks. These socks have a very dense weave they apparently can't get through.
The village that borders the park is situated on the river. You do have to catch a boat and cross the river to access the park. The village has many floating restaurants and that evening we found one. I'm always amazed the chefs/cooks here tend to prepare one plate at a time and so the dinners come out in stages. We used to think we had to wait for one another before we ate but we have given up on that and so meals are a rather staggered affair. The first person served will often finish their meal before the last person is served.
We retreated to our hotel (Rainforest Lodge) after dinner. A number of families, whose children attend our school, were there. Once they found out it was Maureen's birthday all the little primary children gathered round and sang her 'Happy Birthday'. I don't imagine that ever happened in high school. One of the moms had even brought some cake which she shared with us. This got me off the hook somewhat.


The roots actually served as steps on inclines. The trails were criss-crossed them.



The river boats did not draw a lot of water. It was amazing to see how much the river fluctuated from the rainy season, which is just waning, to now. The high water mark was clearly visible about 3 meters above the level it was this weekend. We could even notice a rise of about 1 foot during the rains that occurred while we were there.

We did spend a fair bit of time waiting out the rain. When it came down, it came down in torrents. So we took to playing cards and drinking bad coffee.

On the way home we stopped at a local market and ended up buying quite a few things. Daily necessities mainly, as they are much cheaper than in the city. We haven't gotten to buying meat in these markets yet. There are always so many fish which don't look too bad. The smell however can be a little overwhelming.

Laos

Laos was so different from Bali. It also is a beautiful country with lovely people. Visiting both countries in succession really does demonstrate how geography, location, natural resources, history, etc. affects the development and culture of a country. Both countries really are special in their own way.
We followed the main tourist route in Laos. We flew into the capital,Vientiane where we spent a couple of days, bussed to Vang Vieng for a few more and then finished off our visit at Luang Prabang. The highlight of it all, I suppose, was a two day trek we took out of Luang Prabang into the mountains where we visited some hill tribe villages.
Again there is so much to describe and share that I'll stick with one thing, the trek. We booked our trip through Fair Trek. If anyone plans to visit Laos I would suggest you book adventures either through them or Green Discovery, both are local Laos companies and a significant portion of fees supports the villages the companies lead clients through. Our trip started with a long tail boat ride up the Nam(River) Khan. We started off with a guide and the three of us but were joined along the way by 7 others, couples from New Zealand, Holland, and England as well a lawyer from Paris. And again Maureen and I increased the mean age considerably.
Once we crossed the river, we hiked through rice paddies and teak plantations to the first village about 45 minutes into our hike. We began our climb after this. Our trip began winding up through a steep little valley that eventually widened out into magnificant vistas.. The climb was not too difficult although the descent later on in the day posed some difficulty for Maureen's knee. The views were simply incredible.

Our hike took us past a couple of villages. Each time we would be greeted by lots of little children smiling and giving us the 'high five'. The women would be busy working either, cooking, weaving, processing rice, or dealing with the children. Men were rarely seen. Occasionally we would see one with a rifle or crossbow heading into the bush. We once asked why we didn't see or hear any birds or animals on our trip. I think hunting explains why. This is their dry season so the rice fields were empty and it is their 'holiday' period.
We arrived at the village where we were to stay the night, 6 hours into our hike. There are about 35 families in the village. The homes are made from woven reeds, thatch roofs, and bamboo poles. Old age does have its advantages as Maureen and I were hosted by the chief of the village. A few of the villagers have set up 'guest houses' for the trekkers that pass through, the chief had the nicest ones. The guest houses are as primitive as the villagers own homes but comfortable enough. The toilets are outside and are the squat type with a bucket of water and scoop flush. Bathing is a public event, communal, at the shared water fountain. The beds are raised off the floor and protected with mosquito netting. Maureen found ours quite hard although I didn't really notice. We had comforters for bedding, next time we will bring along sleeping bag liners.
The village seemed to have a high proportion of children. Our guide told us that it was not uncommon for a family to have up to 10 children. I imagine the mortality rate is quite high. Those under 5 wondered around freely, either naked or only covered by a t-shirt. The women were all busy weaving thatch together for roofs or processing the rice. The older women all seemed to be chewing a red concoction of tobacco, roots, and other herbs. I'm sure from the look in their eyes there must be some kind of opiate in it. Every once in a while they would spit a red projectile off without warning and in any direction. The men seemed to mainly sit around keeping the fires going. There had been a wedding the night before and many were recovering from consuming Lao whiskey(home brew rice whiskey) or continuing the party. We were invited to join in on some of the circles. The whiskey is either shared with one glass or sucked up through a communal straw from a jug.
It was amazing how independent the children were, quite a contrast to over supervised and pampered children of the west. I woke up early in the morning and saw one little duffer (about 4 or 5) gather firewood and take a lighted stick from a neighbor's fire, walk the 100 meters to his fire and light it. His family stumbled out of their hut a half hour later or so to join him. Again he was dressed only in a t-shirt. I was bundled up in two layers of jackets. The village was quite high in the mountains and it really was cold at night and in the morning. On the other hand all the kids seemed to have runny noses and whoopy coughs.
Cole seemed to be a hit with the kids young and older in the village. He was usually surrounded the little ones and he spent his time giving them helicopter rides or playing a bean game with the wee ones. He, and by extension we, got invited to join an older group of youths socializing together. It was nightfall by this time and the only light was by candle and/or starlight. They were gathered in one of the villager's houses around a candle and a jug of Lao-Lao. One of the boys was playing a traditional flute type instrument. In order to court one another a girl would sing to a boy she was interested in speaking to and he would respond in song. There was an elder there supervising the whole event. The music, the singing, the candlelight, and even a bit of Lao-lao made it a magical event.
Our guest house on the right.


The setting for the village was stunning.


Maureen watching the women at work. We watched a girl about 10 years old smash the rice inside the hollow log shown here. They smash it with a stick (log) about 4 ft long and 6 inches in diameter to remove the husk from the rice. It looked she had been at it all day. We both tried a shift, it was hard work. Here the older women are inspecting to see if the rice is ready to sift.



Cole playing a bean game with some of the village kids.

This is a typical scene. The women were working on weaving thatch for roofs while the children roamed about. This particular women was weaving until dark and was back at it when I pulled myself out of bed at 6:30 in the morning.

On the second day we separated from the others and headed off for more hiking in the mountains. The others were heading down to the river where they were going elephant riding. Maureen was much more interested in joining them than staying with us but we managed to keep her from jumping ship. This first village was Khmer. On our second day we traveled a bit higher in the mountains and stopped by a Hmoung village. There isn't much difference in looks or activity but they do each have a unique language. The Khmers have been in Laos since the 14th century while the Hmoung are more recent immigrants from China. They fled persecution in China about 150 years ago. During the Vietnam War the Hmoung were recruited by the US to wage guerilla warfare on the North Vietnamese who were using Laos as a supply line for their soldiers in southern Vietnam, the Ho Chi Minh trail. During this time eastern Laos became the most heavily bombed place on the planet. For nine years there were $2 million worth of bombs dropped on Laos each day. There are still many UEO's in Laos. (Unexploded ordinances) It was no surprise that after the Vietnam war the Lao turned to China and North Vietnam for support and became a communist country. Because the Hmoung supported the US they have become outcasts.
This is the Hmoung village. The women are working on stitching for blankets or some other craft to be sold in the night market at Luang Prabang. One big difference we noticed here was the children were fully clothed.
After visiting this village we had a long descent back down to the river. Once there we had another boat ride to some waterfalls for a swim. Maureen even got an elephant ride at this point.

The trek included many special moments. For example we came upon this woman heading down the hill with a full basket of firewood. She claimed she was 95 years old, she certainly looked it. After her short break we saw her stand up with the full load and then balance on each foot as she took her flip-flops off the other one to cross the stream.

Following are miscellaneous photos and comments of various other points of our trip to Laos.


Luang Prabang has many monasteries. Every dawn the monks and novices follow a route through the village to collect offerings of food from the villagers. This will consist of their only meal for the day. Some of the monks are very young, as young as 8 years old. The rest of their day is spent in meditation, study of Buddhist law, and maintanence of monastery or temple.


Sitting and watching the sunset was a highlight each day. Whether is was on the Nam Song in Vang Vieng as in the top photo or at a cafe on the Mekong in Vientiane(below) it became a favourite way to wind down at the end of the day with a Beer Lao.




Vang Vieng is kind of a wild west show. It is a backpackers hang out. One of the main attractions for young backpackers is to tube down the river. There are a number of stops along the river where one can take a rope swing out like Cole is here. (We made the stop on our kayak trip.) There are 'big' water slides into the river too. This all happens with consumption of copious amounts of beer and Vang Vieng's own rendition of the 'happy' shake, usually a concoction of alcohol, opium, metaphetamines, and anything else the bartender wishes to throw in. The whole scene was all a bit too much for Maureen and me.