Going Tribal 1

Shanti Keochanty.

Another peaceful, quiet Lao village.

Nothing much has happened since I rolled in a few hours ago, just a bit of farm activity, the occasional makeshift tractor puttering by on the main road, and lots of sitting around chatting and laughing.

There's kids everywhere, as there are in all these hill tribe villages.

It was a long steep ride today, a rise of over 1000m, and then an even longer descent. It was tiring, but so beautiful.

The views were stunning right from the word go.

Between a cliff and a dangerous place

Pineapple fields forever

Sad but true. Any chance I get. Sugar, gluten and pleasure.

Dusty break

Entering Xieng Khouang province, which has the dubious distinction of being the most heavily bombed region on Earth. More on that later.

It's hilltribe country through here, which is a name used in Thailand, Laos and Vietnam to describe people who have migrated here from another place, and who generally live in the higher elevation regions.

In Laos, hilltribes make up about 15% of the population, and they generally live in elevations of above 1,000m. I've been cruising through and staying in some of these villages since I hit the hills. No doubt I'll be in many more before I leave this beautiful country.

Some of the people are relatively recent migrants to Laos, arriving within the past 200 years, and they were often forced to leave their traditional lands because of war. But others have lived here for many more centuries, having migrated from southern or central China. The Hmong, Akha and Miên are the most common groupings in the country.

It's amazing to pass by or stop in the villages. Life here is really removed from the consumerist busy craze of much of the world. It's a hand-to-mouth existence, people are poor, but they have land, so they have fresh produce, if the weather provides.

And they still have what appears to be a very vibrant ancient culture.

I've heard traditional music and chanting going on from inside huts in lots of places, sometimes people are congregated around fires outside, cooking up feasts. There's celebrations and rituals going on, sometimes a whole pile of people in a village will be in traditional dress for some celebration or important ritual.

Often the old women remain dressed in traditional clothes, and sometimes the old men. But generally the rest just get around in old western clothes, and dress up traditionally just for special occasions.

Everyone's so friendly. The kids call out from the sides of the road and wave their hands off, or run next to me, or race me on their bikes. They always win. I always let them.

People call out "sabai dii," (hello in Lao), or "hello" in English, and lately the kids have been calling out "bye bye" as a greeting. It's so fun.

If I got a dollar for every smile I've received in this country, my bank balance would be so elongated it would leave Elon grated and he'd no doubt say very nasty things about me on X.

Are there any adults living here?

Yay! Downhill!

Gourds army

They have to cage them in because they always try to go on some crusade somewhere or other

The beautiful Nam Chat, the Chat River, along which I'm sure much is said

Delicious fresh food, with local organic produce - spinach, those white pumpkin things, fresh lettuce right out of the garden, and an egg fresh out out of a hen's butt.

Watching nothing happening

That sun's getting low

The funniest thing to have in this quiet place. Just so you know, this is about as far from being a resort as is possible. Thank Buddha.

To Phonsavan

The next day was the longest and hardest day I've done on this whole trip, in terms of a combination of distance and elevation. The road was actually pretty good, but it did have some very dodgy bits, and when they happen up a steep incline, I can't get any traction and have to push.

That's tiring.

It was a long distance too.

So guess what? I went to bed at 9.30pm! Unheard of.

Beautiful morning views

This friendly young fella quickly stood at attention when I asked to take a photo of him with his amazing papayas. When I asked him the price he kept saying "sip haa phan" which is 15,000 Kip, or about $1.20 Oz. It didn't matter which one I chose. Of course I didn't want to carry one of the big ones.

Even when I snapped another pic looking back, he stopped walking and stood up straight again.

Heading up

Eventually I hit the Xieng Khouang Plateau, a vast area of rolling hills, plains and rivers, averaging at about 1000m elevation.

It's a beautiful area, and much more developed agriculturally than higher up in the hills.

Typical roadside village

Snack attack. Delicious papaya and sticky rice. A cheeky young calf kept trying to eat it.

There's loads of animals wandering around on the road, always. Cows, goats, dogs, buffaloes, chickens, ducks, and the occasional turkey. And then there's forest critters sometimes, especially snakes, lizards and the occasional civet.

Stunning Wat entrance. It's so much hotter, now that I've dropped down to about 1000m. And super dry.

Amazing rice fields. I was gonna photoshop them and make them all green like in National Geographic

Gums! This really reminded me of Oz. Especially the smell. Aaaah, what incredible nature we have in that country.

Red Centre-ish, except there's a volleyball court instead of a cricket pitch or golf course in the sand

Very fine looking Brahmin bull

Yet another Oz-esque scene

Looking down at the old bridge from the new

I had a strong wind against me in the afternoon. The two flags are the Lao national flag and the flag of the ruling party, the Lao People's Revolutionary Party.

So eventually I rolled into the town of Phonsavan in the heat of the mid afternoon, and was surprised at how big it is.

Xiang Khouang Province

You really have no idea of what a place is gonna be like until you get there and see and feel it for yourself, not even if you've seen pictures of it beforehand. I had no idea this plateau would feel so different to the higher mountainous areas I've just come from, and to where, Insha'allah, I'll be going in a couple of days.

Because the land's a little flatter, there's space for more farming. The predominant ethnic grouping here is Tai Phuan, a people who migrated from southern China all the way back in the 13th Century. Everything's much more settled here, compared to the relatively more recent hill tribe villages.

I went to the local museum, which gave a fascinating account of the ethnic groups in this area, and the massive impacts of both of the Indochina Wars, as well as many other wars, on this region.

Because the plateau is right on the border between Laos and Vietnam, and really not that far from the Thai border either, it was of great strategic value to many armies over the centuries.

Unfortunately for the locals.

The indigenous people of the area are called the Khmu. After the Tai Phuan came from China they formed the independent principality of Muang Phan, and they established a thriving trading economy, trading metals and forest products with both China and India.

Their riches made them the constant target of the Lan Xang (Luang Prabang), Siamese (Thai) and Annam (Vietnamese) kingdoms.

By the mid 18th Century the Siamese desperately needed workers, as their population had been decimated by years of war with the Burmese, which they, in fact, eventually lost. So the Siamese forced many locals here to migrate to Thailand and resettle. They also destroyed village infrastructure and crops, so there was nothing left for other invaders. So nice of them.

The weakened region then became the target for Haw bandits from southern China, who would launch village raids and loot the countryside whenever they could.

The whole country was then colonised by the French from 1887. After that the Japanese invaded and ruled all of Laos between 1939-45, and then the locals battled both the French and the Americans/Vietnamese (and each other, on different sides), until the end of the civil war in 1975.

Sounds like a hilariously fun history doesn't it.

As I've talked about before, this part of Laos has the horrible legacy of being the most bombed region on our precious fragile ailing Mother Earth. As the area was used by the Viet Minh to transport weapons along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the US approach was to bomb the living shit out of the place, and to destroy villages and villagers who were supporting either the Vietnamese or the Lao communists (Viet Minh or Pathet Lao).

So the countryside is pockmarked with bomb craters, and there's millions of cluster bomb "bombies" and larger unexploded ordnance hidden all over the bloody place. This province has the highest proportion of it in the whole country. Wild camping is not a good idea around here.

Ethnic Groups

There are really six main ethnic groups living here, namely the Lao (the main ethnic group in the country), the Tai Phuan (original migrants from China in 13th Century), the Hmong and Tai Dam (both originally coming from southern China in the 1800s) the Khmu (indigenous) and the Phong (originally a Viet grouping).

I'm gonna test you on all those.

White Hmong woman from 1933. There are different Hmong tribes, White, Black and Striped, and, believe it or not, you can tell them apart by the dresses the women wear.

Reeded bamboo flute

Amazing Hmong reeded flute called the khen. As you can play more than one note on these instruments, and because they're reeded, they sound more like a type of mouth organ than any sort of flute.

Incredibly, Hmong musicians also blow across certain leaves, as a musical instrument. It sorta sounds a bit like a gazoo.

Tai Dam erect these tree-like sculptures every three years, and have a ritual to appease the spirits, and to connect the mundane and supernatural worlds. They all dance around the sculpture to music, beckoning the spirits to descend to earth for some food and drink. I saw these sculptures in the Tai Dam village I visited in northern Thailand a few months back.

Amazing weft ikat fabric. String is tied to yarns in the fabric so those parts are unaffected by the dyeing process. After dyeing, the uncoloured yarn is then interwoven with other yarn to create beautiful designs.