Phongsaly
The Namesake of the URL...

December 11, 2003 to December 28, 2003

We arrived here on December 11th by direct flight from Luang Prabang. Getting ready to take the flight, we were watching the small plane out on the tarmac. As there were only two planes in the entire airport, and we knew the other was too large to land anywhere near Phongsaly, it was pretty obvious which plane was ours. So we're sitting inside watching our plane load, and I was still wondering when it would be announced. Considering that we had to show our boarding pass and tickets to at least 15 people, all of which knew where we were going, I had expected to be made aware of my imminent flight. However, as the bags got on the plane and the people lined up outside, I went to ask about getting on the plane. I was told to go ahead and go out. So I went to try the door, which was locked. So I went back to let them know it was locked, and I was told to wait. I managed to wait about 2 minutes before asking again, and I was then directed to the correct door from which we were allowed to exit.

The flight was uneventful. The plane was a small, Chinese made twin engine 18 seater. (We don't find out until later that various international organizations recommend NOT flying this route as the plane's maintenance schedule is questionable at best. Duh. Where are we?) It was a fairly comfortable ride, but as it is a small plane in a mountainous area it wasn't entirely smooth. We landed at Boun Neua airport approximately 50 minutes after takeoff. I had been told, inaccurately, that the airport was in Phongsaly. This is a true statement in as much as the airport is in Phongsaly Province. It's actually 41km from Phongsaly city.

So we arrived at the airport at 1:00 pm. We have no clue which direction to go, and there is a distinct lack of public transportation available. In fact, there is none. We meet a man who speaks great English, and he gives us the details on where we're out, how far away, that 41km actually equals an hour of travel, etc. He also offers us a ride, which is quite convenient, except he's already filled the inside with people and the back with bags of coal. Kath actually gets a spot up front and I hop in the back with our luggage and the coals. Crouching on our bags for an hour around corners and through road craters, we arrive in Phongsaly an hour later and are taken up the hill the the man's Hotel, the Phou Fa Hotel. My knees slowly straighten out, and pop back into place as we walk around hoping to stay at his hotel. Unfortunately, there were no rooms available with a double bed, and I remember the disco in the front yard from previous trips. We ended up back at the Phongsaly Hotel where we always stay. Of course, none of the workers remember us, but at least the boss lady does.

Shortly after, we head over to Visanh's house and trail a gaggle of children with us along the way. They're still shy of the camera as they haven't figured out it's digital and they can see the pictures right away. Usually when you point a camera at kids in Lao they run the other way like so. This group followed us through town on our way over to Visanh's house our first day. I did learn another beautiful thing about digital: if you show the picture to your shy subjects, they generally get very excited about having their pictures taken. For the next two weeks kids would ask to play "Kai Hoop" (take picture), then run over immediately to look at the picture, sometimes getting swamped by 15 pairs of hands.

And it's bloody cold here. I don't mean like it's 16 degrees like I'm spoiled from having spent the last several months in tropical climes sweating with nearly nothing on (which of course I am). I mean it's about 8 degrees Centigrade at best, during the day, in the sun. And at night, when the sun goes down and the stars (MAN! The STARS in this town are fantastic! nothing like clean air at 1600 meters with minimal electric lighting) come out and the wind picks up it drops down to about -4,000C I think. Or something like that, anyway. OK, it's probably only about 2 or 3 degrees C. Plenty cold when you don't have any heating in your room to return to. And since we have been traveling in the tropics, my supply of t-shirts and lightweight, short-sleeved button up shirts has been about worthless: I've worn my one pair of heavy long pants and my red sweatshirt every day since we got here. I also bought a wind breaker in Luang Prabang for the occasion, and that is also getting quite filthy. Because we're not just sitting around in hotels. We're sitting around open fires, taking our shoes off on packed dirt doorsteps, peeing out behind chicken coops in the dark, playing with children outside, and just generally getting grubby like you'd want to change your clothes twice a day. But if I have to wait for my one pair of wearable clothes to dry in the cold, cloudy daytime, I'll be stuck in bed for two days to avoid freezing to death. Yeah, and (big surprise here) I've caught cold.  Did I mention Phongsaly was REALLY cold? This is me trying to stay warm in the hotel room....

So what have we done here? We've spent a bunch of time with Visanh, had a birthday party for his son, played with a bunch of kids, made some new friends, caught up with old friends, and done a ton of research for the website. I'm trying to get some real information together to make Phongsaly.com be a resource for information about, uh, y'know: Phongsaly. Funny idea.... The research part has been fun and rewarding, and has also provided hours of entertainment in the foibles of the folly. Trying to get photocopies made has been near impossible. The one public use copy machine I've found is broken. All the statistics pretty much need to be translated, so we're working with Visanh to take it from Lao to Chinese, and we take it from Chinese to English. Of course, we're not agricultural or forestry experts, so I'm sure some of our translations are going to be amusing to those that are, but hopefully the meaning will at least be clear.

Most people are quite interested in helping out, and are excited about having someone help them put information out there on the web to help promote the region. The local ministries have been extremely helpful in providing access to information and seem quite happy to have me working on the project. Since the internet is generally not available here, most people don't really understand what the potential is, or how to go about putting together the information, or even what type of information would be interesting to put up. The local Tourism Department has asked for my assistance with creating a brochure for them as well, which I will of course happily do.

Probably the funniest story so far relates to Visanh's son's pet bird. Goi (the son) apparently saw this pathetic little green bird sitting in the market and fussed and cried until he got the bird. Goi is particularly effective at getting what he wants this way, as he's an only child with many relatives in the immediate area. So anyway, of course he quickly lost interest in the bird, which lived in a cage in the back yard. I have no idea how long the bird lived this way, but I imagine it wasn't longer than a month or two. Anyway, we saw the bird, commented on it, asked what they fed it, the usual questions... and promptly forgot about it. About two days later,  we're over for dinner and Van hands Goi a small chunk of meat with a head and a beak sticking out of it, and, when we ask, we're told it's the pet bird. Goi happily munches away on the meat as we check the cage out back for evidence of the bird's existence, but of course we find none. For any child crying and whining for a pet: please consider what can happen to the poor animal when you lose interest in it.

10mb .mov file. This is a funny little movie of the three boys hanging out front.

A regular image and the same three boys with with their mothers.

Visanh, Van and Goi. Goi's real name is Keo Sou Vanh, but mosts Lao people seem to have nicknames. Goi got his because of the sound he made crying when he was an infant sounded like "Goi, goi, goi...."

Dana and Kath hanging out with Goi.

The neighbor kids hanging out with us. Jian Tip is on the end here, now three years older than our last visit and very much 15.

Other Movies of kids hanging out on the patio being funny.

Goi being encouraged to kiss Kath on the cheek.

Some random shots... Let (sounds like "lay" with a glottal stop at the end) standing in the bedroom doorway, a group of kids at the playground playing Kai Hoop. Sombat takes me to school at checkers, and a couple of monks try to stay warm with their saffron pom-pom hats.

Goi's Birthday

They had a "Baci" (bah-SEE) for Goi's birthday. The Baci is quite a nice ceremony. They bring in someone to chant good wishes and blessings while everyone sits around in a circle. A center table holds flowers, candles, money, and food for good fortune. People hold a string or the edge of the table if they're near enough the table, if not they touch elbows of the people that are. That way everyone in the room is connected to the proceedings. After the chanting and blessings then individuals come around to the Baci-ee and tie strings around their wrists while bestowing personal blessings. The Baci was for Goi, but they included us as well.

The whole party was a lot of fun: tonnes of kids and family hanging out.

Kathy and I with Visanh.

Van's Mother Ven, Van's Father Bounkhao (on the left), Ven's Mother (with Goi and without), Bounkhao's Mother, and Van's cousin Let with her friend.

Another Movie

Christmas

Hanging out with family on Christmas day.

Christmas dinner and a haircut.

Yet Another Movie. This one's extra worth the time to download....

Visanh's House

Visanh has a wonderful new pad that he hasn't quite finished building. The walls are in place, and the roof is on, and one bedroom is finished, so it's a comfortable enough place to be, except that the wind blows directly through it. Before we left, he finished putting the windows in and hung the front door. It helped cut the wind down quite a bit....

Hanging Out

Pim, Goi, Vhong, Kim, Lankham, Bank, and all the neighborhood kids. They really made the trip special for us.

Final Movie.... Posing for a picture.

Nam Ou Boat trip

We left Phongsaly via the Nam Ou river. The bus to the Ferry at Hatsa took one hour, cost 5,000 kip and was 20km long. The slow boat to Muong Khua was 50,000 kip and took 5 hours.

The trip was gorgeous, though the boat was not entirely comfortable.

The dock at Hatsa, and various images from the trip down. The ride did shoot some rapids at times, but I was busy keeping the camera dry and consequently don't have any images of the fun parts. The scenery was great all the way along....

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Copyright 2003, Dana M. Brash. All Rights Reserved.