Loving Laos Engaging with the locals in Hmong village; (right page) traveling through Akha tribal village; tilling the land at the Living Land Project; Muang La Lodge, Laos; (inset) the Spencers enjoying waterfalls in Laos
LAOS
Claire & Jonathan Spencer traveled to Laos with Audley
T
he dawn call to alms is hailed by a saffron-robed novice monk. Sounding his gong, he calls devotees to serve the procession of fellow monks their ‘daily bread’ – sticky rice. Sticky rice is every bit as fundamental to Laotian culture as its Buddhist monk recipients. In fact, the Laotians refer to themselves as luk khao niaow, the children of sticky rice. Laos is an agrarian economy and rice cultivation accounts for more than 80% of agricultural production. Steamed glutinous rice is the staple food, served at breakfast, lunch, and supper, in sweet, spicy, or fermented forms. From what we saw on display at markets, Laotians are meat-agnostic when it comes to the accompaniments
to their sticky rice: a frog or field rat, worms, grubs, snails, or grasshoppers all serve well. At the Living Land Project in Luang Prabang, we were able to learn about rice cultivation, from preparation, planting and plowing to the pot. We saw the whole process and even tried our hand at tilling the soil.
MEETING LOCAL PEOPLE
Laos has about 80 ethnic groups and the three largest minority communities are the Hmong, Khmu, and Lao Lum. We traveled on a long and winding road to the northern Laos highlands, where some of these groups live, in a 1940s Jeep. It delivered every bit of the ‘free massage’ that our guide,
Bounnhang (known as Boom), faithfully promised us! Here, we met one of the smaller tribes in the region, the Akha people, who uphold strong animist beliefs. Animism (a belief in spirits) is the religion practiced by 30% of Laotians. Shamans mediate between the visible world and the invisible spirit world. One Akha house we were welcomed into had six pig jaw bones hanging from the front door, attesting to the number of shaman call-outs to ward off bad spirits and sickness. Up the hill in a Hmong village, we met the parents of a 16-year-old girl who tragically poisoned herself with a herbal potion because she couldn’t marry the boy she desired. The house is a living shrine to her memory. Over a cup of Laos Lao – a whisky made from sticky rice – her father shared
46 | AUDLEY TRAVELER
046-047_TravelersTales_USA_SO.indd 46
10/07/2019 12:57
