Laos, tourists and poverty

A little girl aged ten approached me, she came across the river and is soaked. She is truly beautiful and kneels next to me. After her hello (Sabaidi) she asks for money, looks at my stuff and my writings. With her eyes on me she stays with me for a while. With mixed feelings I give her my bottle of water. I don't know if it was a 'right' action. In the meanwhile two other children joined her. They left slowly back through the river.
Laos is showing me new things. Another side of poverty, signs of a typical 'developing country' or should I say underdeveloped or just poor. Leaving the question 'What is development?' aside. Houses are not more then bamboo and some wood. The water wells have signs of World Vision Australia or World Vision Singapore. The only colourful signs in the villages are the boards advertising the support of Germany, Japan or New Zealand for the building of the local schools without windows. Laos has only a few cars, a few roads and no supermarkets or convenient stores. I hitched a white jeep with the European Union sign on it. Some other cool cars have logo's like German Agro Action."Isn't it amazing how simple those people live and they don't seem to be more unhappy then we are." A lonely tourist in his thirties approached me with this sentence while I was strolling the small village and temples across the bamboo bridge in Luang Prabang. I had to pay to cross the bridge. "People are saving to build a beach" an older man managed to explain in English. In the poor old village we find a former 'bomb-dropper'. Many bombs are still around in the jungles of Laos waiting to explode. He is fixing his motorcycle of which parts are sown together many times already. He tells us about the hunger and that also they have to pay to cross the bridge. The beach is another 'tourist-development-thing' just like the side of the river I was standing on before. Luang Prabang is one of those 'tourist traps', marked in Lonely Planet and on Unesco's list of world heritages. To me it is another place in the world that has become a museum instead of a reality and a paradise for travellers who like to find what they left at home. Steak frites, hamburgers, pancakes, bars with western music and internetcafe's. Of course there are some old houses, some nicely renovated, some temples and beautiful sunsets. Those guided by Lonely Planet are surprised to find an ATM which according to the book should not be there. Prices are higher and on the markets you find mostly souvenirs. Oooh I forgot to mention the massage services which are affordable for any traveller. Ed and I did not really like the town. A girl named Pepsi just came to me when I was putting my thoughts in my diary at the riverside in Vang Vieng. She was equally wet as the previous children. She observed my writing upon which I asked her to write down her name. She writes mine as well in those beautiful curly Lao letters. From the paper I gave her she folds an airplane. I realise I wait for the moment she asks for money. Assuming that I recognize her demanding eyes on my bag. But she leaves without asking. Before we arrived to Luang Prabang there was not a single child asking for money. We received plenty of smiles and hundreds of 'Sabaidiii's'. Nevertheless from the first small city we passed in Laos we saw foreigners, mostly travelling with guides in brand new minibuses and eating in the small places that have even menu's in English. Something we never encountered in China's countryside. Also hitching went fine until we arrived in Luang Prabang. An English speaking tuk tuk (small pick up motorcycle) driver negotiated when we jumped out of the back of the truck that had just given us a special ride. When we got this ride the smile on my face was big. After waiting quite long in the darkness which we entered after a 'Today we hitch until we are in Luang Prabang' and after going 30km on the wrong road and back. The roof of the truck was nothing but a bamboo-frame. The stars and the moon lighted up the mountains and villages and Ed playing the guitar accompanied me during this nice ride lying in between the bags of goods. Lacking our hitching cards explaining in the local language that we ask a ride for free and facing those friendly people who definitely don't have much money we paid for the ride. We continued paying truck drivers to get from there to Vang Vieng, another strange tourist hub. The tour packages offered consist of tubing down the river along the many bars, kayaking, cycling, visiting caves and waterfalls. Quite similar to those extensively advertised in Luang Prabang where also the Elephant rides were pretty popular. We were informed about their presence with the signs warning for wild elephants crossing along the road.
While I sit at the riverside I feel something is wrong. Six young boys dressed with their beautiful orange kashaya's are bathing and playing in the river. One of them just came to talk to me, using his few English sentences. I tried to find out what he felt about all those noisy tourists floating by but he did not understand. With my shoulders uncovered I officially offended the novice monks. I realise that if I would be alone among a culture with those rituals or customs of respect I would align but among those hundreds of tourists dressed in their own way I choose the 'wrong' camp.
The tourists on one side of me and the the monks with the farmers on the background on the other side I feel things don't fit! The town has too many restaurants with all the same menu. Some where you can lay down, eat and watch almost 24 hours Friends others would change everyday because they are not more then some tables along the road and a small open kitchen. In the evening the children of the young Lao couples sleep next to the low quality amplifiers playing 'western music'. At night they are like refugee tent camps.
Discussions about tourism, lonely planets and economic development are held from time to time. I am afraid Lonely Planet has maybe destroyed what it originally valued and communicated. Places mentioned in 'the book' have undoubtedly changed because of the typical 'lonely planners'. Vang Vieng used to have just a wooden plank to cross to the island three years ago, now at least 5 bamboo bridges bring you to the bars that are multiplying. To questions about responsible travelling typical 'responsible answers' have been created which I like to question as well. Visiting 'authentic' villages, participating in handicrafts workshops etc. Some might be successful now resulting in the development of many identical projects. Just like there is not one bar showing Friends but at least eight. Young families take risks when designing their lives based on travellers needs. The speed at witch the interest of travellers and 'lonely planners' whose books are constantly re-edited, change might become like the average switch to a new mobile phone which is about eighteen months. What will happen to those families? Or should I not think about the future and be happy that they make a little income where competition is very strong? And of course I am one of them. I am a traveller as well! Ed and I don't need much. Currently we need three trees to sleep in our hammocks. We do not ask for special air conditioned minibuses or VIP buses as they are called here. We prefer the back of a pick up who is driving anyway. Any local restaurant or street vendor is fine to fill our stomachs. But we do eat the pizza baguettes and french fries as well when it offered. Though need remains a too big word!
The Thai people I met adore Laos. It reminds them of their own land. Also travellers and their books talk about finding in Laos what you used to find in Thailand. Birma and Malaysia are now on the 'not spoiled yet -list'. I wonder if I ever will understand the word development. The same for experiencing cultures. I feel a little hunger for another more deep experience like wwoofing and regularly think about language barriers. But if you ask me about plans. I am heading to Thailand to meet friends from Estonia.

Crossing a new border ...

Travelling through the South West of China I can only find support for my earlier statement about borders that are vague. After we passed Jinghong Ed and I entered a new space. New dresses, new faces and new houses. I felt kind of surprised that again I was slowly leaving China. With 30 rides from Guangzhou we got to a very simple small border crossing near Mengla. The no-mans land between China and Laos is still under construction and hmmm not so much used (meaning not so many cars passing). The border crossing continued to be a source of joy. Just to be sure I asked the officer when I had to leave this country. I expected an answer 17th or 18th of January, he told me 16th of February. Visa's will remain an uncertainty! Thank you I said. We enjoyed our first cold Lao Beer and found a place to sleep in the jungle!
Laos, a land where we could easily enter, a land where smiles feel more genuine then in China, a land that at some moments seems to be a land of children only, a place where you choose which spices you add to your nice fried rice dish, a land that has beer carrying it's name that is really tasty and strong, a land where the communist red hammer and sickle waves next to the national one. Laos ... a new language, a new alphabet ...Laos the land that gave me more time than I asked for ...but again I have no idea where I really will be next month.

I am very lucky that my new travel companion is a computer-genius! You can take a look at his picture gallery to see mine as well (until I have solved my logistical data problems which happen if you travel five months without doing any proper work with your pictures)! You find access to his gallery on his blog: www.edwas.de

Messages

Today I received this message

sue:

i hope you will have good luck on you trip,and don't forget to keep in touch with me,i think i will do the same thing like you ,and at that time i need to ask you something about the travelling,such as how to save money and how to face to the problem when you are travelling,best wishes to you!

yours:bank

Bank is a young Chinese man I met on the streets in Guangzhou. I had just arrived in the East train station while Ed, my new travel companion was waiting in the Central station. When I arrive somewhere I am mostly unprepared or I miss some details on the small pieces of paper I had put some notes down. This time I had an address of a hostel where I was supposed to meet Ed six hours later. It was hardly readable because of my bad handwriting. I do not like to take buses or metro's. I like to walk and to look around and so I met Bank on a big street. He looked at me with my big backpack and I asked what was the direction for the river. I knew the hostel was near the river. Bank is working in an international hotel and speaks very well English. He took me to the very expensive hotel and helped me with a map, gave me water and many smiles. He said: 'I wanna be like you'. He started to work and I continued my road to meet Ed in the streets around the hostel, four hours before our agreed meeting time. The sun was shining.

I smile when I receive messages like this one from Bank. My address book gets filled with new people. It is great to meet so many good people. With Michiko we talked a lot about what Buddhism calls one of the eight sufferings: saying goodbye. And it is indeed not so easy. My separation from Carina hurts in a way. It is truly sad but we both know that this is what has to happen. From now on we have different visa's in our passports. I wished I could spend another evening at Michiko's place and just talk. But also many people from Belgium, Estonia or elsewhere only pass on my path of thoughts. This is the way it is. Everyday I am just on one small dot on the earth. I can not be everywhere.
And actually many friends are not so far. Some want to join me for a while others are travelling nearby. I feel surrounded with friends.
And I am so lucky! I am so lucky that we have a thing called Internet and sometimes even access to Skype.
Yesterday and today I take time to use it. So many beautiful letters unanswered in my post box, bit by bit I write also and can somehow empty my mind of all the words I would like to share.
Thank you all for the letters! They make me smile, sometimes I drop a tear, and they fill me with gratitude. My father is a great writer. In a way I feel being far away actually brings us closer. Distance is relative I think.
I do feel however that I want to apologise for not writing more. Many of my very good friends deserve a letter. I think of them and sometimes even just talk into the wind to them. I would shout to Carina who is across the sea. I smile to my grandmother or dance together with my sister in the absence of a song.
At times like today I feel like writing. A small break from the road. No backpack to pack, no road to travel. The city of Kunming has the right atmosphere. I am at peace.

Possible is anything

Thanks for your dreams I just said to Phil after we shared coffee and bread for breakfast. It is again one of those nice mornings, the sun shines and I feel very free. China indeed has its own brands which do look a lot like the ones we know and call the 'real ones'. One of the slogans exposed in flashy colours on brand new shops is 'Possible is Anything', we know this one as 'Impossible is Nothing'. But does it really matter? I just told to Phil that it takes me someone or something to show me that it is possible to believe and to dream. Phil just shared his dreams with me though to him they were already plans or I prefer to say he is just going to do it. He is not talking or dreaming. Phil is from Norway and has lived for a few months in Estonia. We shared some memories of Olde Hansa and the cold and hot weather out there in that beautiful kind country which remains very dear to me. Phil travels a step more extreme then me. He climbs high mountains and takes more challenges by going of the roads that are passed by cars. Phil hikes from village to village and sleeps on rocks. He is soon going to Birma. Yesterday I told Ed how this kind of mountain-hiking-travelling is another future dream of me ... something I always wanted to do but I am not ready yet. People like Phil just bring me closer to feel 'I can do it'. Thank you for your dreams I said this morning. I wonder if I am stealing dreams. Is my dream of life a puzzle of little pieces I receive from others? Does it matter? I feel so free . Visa's are the only border to my freedom I often said but also this limit actually diminishes day by day. Possible is anything. I get advice how to extend or renew visa's and yesterday I just walked into the office of the consulate of Laos and tomorrow I probably have a visa in my passport. But it feels sometimes like 'others' are unfolding my road. A feeling I now realise Carina tried to tell me about ... how the road just comes to her. A feeling I only got since I was in Japan on my own. In Ukraine in the beginning of our trip I wrote in my diary that I felt like travelling Carina's road as a shadow. Our very different level of Russian language was not the only reason. Sharing experiences is a great joy but deep inside I feel my life is about going my way, Sue's way, a path where many others are my travel companions, teachers or guides but I walk it alone.
More and more I realise that actually even sharing experiences remains at a very low level or something hard to do. Even when travelling together 24 hours and sitting in the same car does not make a difference. Ed and I travelled truly beautiful roads across the Chinese countryside and mountains but he saw other things. One motivation for my trip was to find out how to share experiences about other places and lifestyles. Especially with people who haven't been in those other places like Asia for example. It was something we in non governmental organisations related to development cooperation and raising awareness on global problems or 'issues' talked a lot about. We would try all kind of things to increase tolerance and stimulate behaviour that would make our planet a better place. So far however I feel less and less able to transfer my experiences into words. My pictures are almost worth nothing because the 'great' moments, stories or views I can not catch on a snapshot. But I don't give up on this topic. The answer is blowing in the wind. It is about being. I am more and more tolerant. I inspire some people I meet just by showing that it is possible for example to travel without spending a lot of money just like Phil inspired me this morning. I feel a true value in contact between people, meeting face to face even if you only share a few words in common languages. And it is about time with people. With Carina, Brent or Ed now there was/is time to talk and to be silent. Or I spend one month on the farm in Japan. Wongsan, a great wwoofer from Hong Kong, and I reflected a lot about the process of entering a home, a daily life of a young family that starts with amazement, excitement about superficial visible, eye opening things and moves towards a deeper understanding and a feeling of being part of 'something'. Everyday we would do our work 'better', and caring more about this family. When you experience how your 'boss' lives, how he uses the money of his cash crops and you put on top the value of what you receive in terms of warmth, teachings, great food (I have to say it) and a roof then it just feels like 'making sense' to work on his fields.
My travel feels sometimes like I am observing daily lives without having one myself. I mean in the sense that it is very hard to call my days a routine or serving an aim like feeding others, raising money or building a house. But in every observation there are examples or lessons for my own life today, tomorrow or in the future. The last days I was looking at the lives of many Chinese.
China looks like a game to me. I remember one of my first impression in August when I saw all those people living on the streets and playing games on small low tables. I saw so many games being played. Sometimes for money, sometimes the table was only occupied by either men or women. Chinese also have something childish (which I do not mean in a bad sense). Their reactions are in a way childish -compared to 'Western behaviour'- their surprise is clearly visible and when they look at you like you are from Mars for 10 minutes it is a genuine behaviour unlimited by possible scruples or any code of conduct. Just like they just spit when they feel like. I am amazed by the 'time' people have here. In the big cities there is a fast wave, a rhythm. You can recognize things like a rush hour. The continuous sound of the horns might also give you the impression that people are in a hurry but I guess the reason for doing so it to prevent accidents from happening. It is their order in the chaos on the streets. Street life in China is also very slow. So may people are just sitting. Young mothers, grandmothers, fathers sit on small low chairs with children on their laps. They observe the little 'activity' happening in front of them. Cars, bikes and motorcycles, of which China is full of, are being repaired. People are doing laundry or cooking. But many people just sit or stand along the road, one group of them are the motorcycle guys ... I guess they are waiting to give somebody a lift to earn just enough to buy one small bottle of water. I can not understand how this country lives. You might expect people would be busy with work on the fields, cleaning or repairing their houses (a few brick walls and a metal gate) but people just sit. Except from the hyper-modern city centers I hardly have seen any 'finished' or clean living places. Beds are placed next to the oil, the woodcutting place or the dusty bags filled with rice or sand. Houses are small, often build without any 'architectural' logic and often even put together with some wood and fabric only. I don't know how 'statistically correct' this observation is but I must say that those I see working are mostly women. Their backs aren't straight from the heavy bamboo baskets, children and their labour on the fields. In the countryside I saw many children walking and smiling on their long ways home from school for example. Some still wearing the red scarfs. Did they forget that this kind of communism is over? Or is it not over? We at least experienced one crazy lunch with some eight members of the communist party in a place called the autonomous region of Bama. Also the women dressed in either colourful or Mao-like grey, dark blue outfits smile beautifully.
I am happy for our road. We saw many great scenery. Nature changes very often. I saw many 'traditional' houses which other 'tourists' go and see on 'expensive-artificially-traditional-tourist attractions' and also the many minorities in their 'traditional' clothes. I thought a lot about tradition on the road. Though China has in my opinion not many real sightseeing spots, like for example European cities have, I mean if you look at the spots they try to 'sell' to tourists. China has many genuine things I see along the roads less travelled. For example the beautiful old roofs. I feel that what is often stamped as being traditional has stopped being a normal everyday part of life. For those 'minorities' on the mountains their clothing style is not traditional I think. I believe they don't consciously think about it that they are preserving their unique culture.
I am a traveller who likes everyday lives, I like landscapes and basic things. I do not visit all the temples I pass and when i do I often leave with a feeling of confusion because I can not catch the stories it tells. I enjoy the company of the many different Chinese drivers that pick me up. The communication in words is limited but I prefer to meet those Chinese who do not see a foreigner as a person carrying a big wallet. Hitchhiking in China is not so easy as in Japan where people at least know the concept from the movies. Chinese don't know what it is but nevertheless we moved quite smoothly to Kunming from where I am writing now. Ed and I made a bet one morning how many cars it would take us to Kunming. He won! He is also quite good in estimating the waiting time for a car to take us. Though in general I am the most optimistic he is always right with the little time he guesses. Other times he said 'what do you feel?' I would answer for example that I really like yellow. The yellow car that approached us indeed stopped. We also met a few 'toll-gate' or road police people. They helped us a lot and we even got a 30 km ride from two young police men who drove us to the right highway entrance after we missed one turn. The blue light was blinking in the darkness and they even stopped some cars on the highway to ask if they were going our direction. I wonder what impression the Chinese have about their police? That night we slept under the surveillance of the nice toll gate people. It was cold and humid but a good sleeping bag and the morning sun solved everything.

The road leads through China again

I am filled with many impressions, great experiences and lovely moments. My time in Japan has come to an end. It was a sad departure from some dear friends and a special country but I entered the chaos of China with a new big smile on my face. The story of Japan is mostly written in my diary after I wrote you about my great homestay in Kobe. The story starts from the great Shikoku trip where I was one of the 'wave-catchers' (cool surfers) for the first time, to meetings with strangers that were helping me to find a job on a farm, being warmly welcomed by 'old friends', attending a charity concert with a special 'mindful woman' who works with orphanages in India, meeting Carina and talk about our different worlds in Japan to another camping trip around Biwa-ko and along the coast to Yokohama and into the mountains of Nagano where I ended up on my wwoof-farm. I stayed at the farm for one month. It was a truly precious month. A lively life with a warm young Japanese family and other volunteers in a cosy small house ...the apple farm ... A month I will try to write about later. The end of my visa in Japan made me move back to where I arrived in Shimonoseki. I visited one great Japanese friend in Nagoya, said goodbye to another great friend from Hong Kong and moved on to Kyoto where I met up with Carina and Sam, my neighbour from the old days in Hove. My last days I spent in my Japanese home! In the company of Michiko and 'Otosan' (Tohru). The talks at breakfast, during the days or late at night will stay with me as a very warm memory. The last weekend also Carina came to Kobe and we gave a presentation about our trip and had an amazing farewell party. With the most beautiful hitchhiking sign I set off on Sunday morning to get with three rides to Shimonoseki. Utopia 2 left this time for Taicang (Shanghai) and I said goodbye to Japan. This time I was alone on the boat among the Chinese and Japanese passengers, I was on the way to a new challenge in China. In Shanghai I met with the father of a friend from Belgium. He briefly introduced me the world of advertising, a creative field, a new inspiration and an eye opener. I walked the streets of this big city for two days and left for the south of China to meet Ed, a German hitchhiker whom I met through the digihitch website. We missed our first appointment at the train station but he found me in the streets of Guangzhou, another very big city! We set off together on the Chinese roads, some of great quality some are comparable to Russian ones, aiming to reach Laos or Vietnam. Hitchhiking in China remains not the most easy thing. It is hard to make yourself understood, people watch you as you are an alien, surround you or take you to bus stations, they do not know the concept of hitchhiking. However we made it from Guangzhou to Shaoguan, Lianzhou, Hezhou and are currently in Guilin. We spent our nights under the stars with campfires and the guitar. I am by now at ride number 108, have some holes in socks, pants, underwear, sleeping blanket,... but I am still very happy ...the road is mine, the feeling of freedom is great. The China I see has many sides. The extreme poverty on the country side to the big cities where mega screens light up the nights. It is hard to grasp and even harder to describe.

I managed to put up some pictures of the middle part of my trip on flickr, please find them here http://www.flickr.com/photos/18567670@N06/