Gentle Giants

I am so happy to be out of Laos that it's hard to explain. I will try to, but let me start this entry on a positive note and talk about elephants. While the Mahout program we did was only okay, elephants now hold a very special place in my heart. They have more personality than most puppies, and at washing time they are just as playful. They splash, spray, trumpet and swim like water is the most exciting thing they have ever seen- and they do it twice a day every day, 7 days a week. All morning and deep into the afternoon they repeatedly trudge in circles around the same boring loop, repeatedly yelled at by their seemingly negligent handlers. You can't help but feel bad for them, but when they hit the river you can literally watch their spirits' lift. Bathing time with the elephants was the stand alone highlight of our time in Laos. The waterfall at Tad Se was beautiful, and Nong Kiahw was the secluded mountainous Laos that we went there to see, but hanging out with the elephants easily put the rest of our experiences in Laos to shame. I loved it!

In the morning I quickly found that elephants are happy to eat whatever plants you hand them, but their favorite jungle treats are baby pineapple trees. If you uproot a 2 foot tall tree and hand it to their outstretched trunk, they hold it in front of them and repeatedly kick the tree to knock all the dirt from the roots. When they decide that its clean enough, they then engulf the entire tree in a single gargantuan bite only to spend the next 5 plus minuets chewing and liking their chops like a golden retriever trying to swallow too much peanut-butter.

The Elephants at our program were stubborn. I blame boredom for that, but when they are interested in being cooperative its easy to see that they are trained about as well as any animal I have ever seen. They are better than most dogs with verbal command response (sit, lie down, shake, fetch, etc), and with three plus times the strength of a horse they can outperform the average Thoroughbred in reign response.

They are gentle giants. I had heard that before, but I underestimated it all the same. To a "Hup" command they will outstretch their front-right-leg for you to step up on, then will dip an ear for you to grab a hold of as you climb up onto their neck. I still can't believe that hanging on their ears doesn't hurt them, but they don't seem to mind. It is about as hard to do as it sounds, but I got in one solid dismount this way, and once was enough. I will never forget it. It was frickin sweet! The morning death march, when we were strapped into baskets on their backs, was a waste of time and was in general pretty depressing, but the afternoon was unforgettable. I did manage to loose the sun glasses Britt had specifically asked me to take care of, but save for that, it was an amazing afternoon. "My bad Britt. I am sorry and I swear will make it up to you!".

As for why I am happy to be out of Laos ... Laos is in the middle of a rough transition. If you were there a month ago then you saw what will never be seen again, and if you come next month you will see a country very different from the country I saw. It seems an exaggeration, but Laos is honestly changing by the minuet, and the parts of the culture that the people are protecting seem deeply misprioritized. In a country with next to no infrastructure cell phones are still on every hip. The cell phones alone don't bother me, but when Lao people answer them mid prayer in a Buddhist Wat I find myself annoyed. I am recalling a specific incident here, and when that cell phone died, the immediate response was to weave amongst the monks to find an outlet. It seemed like the culture was dieing before my eyes.

In the two country's seen thus far Southeast Asia has felt laid back. But while both Cambodia and Laos maintain a mellow mind set, there are distinct differences in the subtleties of each country's underlying tone. Cambodia's vibe said "That's no big deal, we'll work it out.". Laos vibe however, took a passively vicious tone saying, "whatever man... I don't give a fuck". That may seem a subtle difference to anyone un-rattled by my use of a 4 letter word, but when that is the response to every concern you raise for nearly three weeks, it grows tiresome. By the end of our time there, it had me ready to snap. If you are particularly turned off by the hard sell, then Laos is a better fit for you than Cambodia, and far better than the Thailand I am anticipating, but if mischievous smiles turn you off more than to the point salesmen then approach wearily.

The slow boat is notorious for a reason, and while I have my very own horror story of that transit experience, my story is one of literally thousands. The ability and the economic incentive to make that trip less difficult is readily at hand in Lao. In all likely-hood it would do wonders for the tourist inflow to Luang Prabang, but like I said before, the unstated national moddo of Laos is "whatever man, I don't give a fuck.". So while the culture withers and dies, inconvenience thrives, and as a foreigner I can rant all I want. I will still be charged double and offered half.

I don't want to get ahead of myself here. I left Laos with handcrafts that couldn't be replicated anywhere in the world. Trinkets that are the product of a culture that I deeply admire. I just am sad to see it fading so quickly. For as many handwoven silk garments and hand carved teak wood carvings as there are in Laos there are just as many china-town assembly line pieces of junk mascaraing as pieces of national heritage. If the price of silk garments tripped I could handle that, but seeing Lao village people sell packaged goods from a factory in neighboring China at the same price as the hand woven scarves they are known the world over for... It hurts my heart. I appreciated my time in Laos. Its just that I felt like I got there too late to see the Lao culture that i was so excited for.That is enough of that though...

Happy birthday Mom! I love you and miss you!