Travelers' Tales: Laos

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

The 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

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TRAVELERS’ TALES

Muang La Lodge

his Vietnam War stories with us: CIA hiding in the hills and the roar of Huey helicopters on reconnaissance missions over the Ho�Chí Minh trail. He showed us his war prize, a collection of shells left behind by the Americans.

Everywhere we went we were struck by the predominance of women working the land, often with children in tow. We were there for the rice harvest and saw how much heavy-lifting work was required. This never got in the way, however, of the warm welcome we

often received, and their curiosity about us and our lives.

LIFE AT MUANG LA LODGE

Back in the valley, we were able to catch some R&R at the tranquil Muang La Lodge in Muang La, meticulously run by Job, the manager. We were able to relax by the riverside pool and caught a glimpse of villagers catching fish with their hands.

While there, we became caught up in the mystery of the missing Buddha. The

‘One Akha house we were welcomed into had six pig jaw bones hanging from the door, attesting to the number of shaman call-outs to ward off bad spirits and sickness’

wooden Buddha is a shrine, centerpiece and ‘protector’ for the lodge and for anyone that visits it. During last year’s devastating floods, it was swept away.

It was found down the river at the village of Muang Khua and carried to the local temple as a good omen. I heard, as this article went to press, that following multiple delegations of village elders, monks, and government officials from Muang La, the temple has been persuaded to return the Buddha to the lodge.

The lodge prides itself on its Laotian- French fusion food, offering a ‘culinary discovery in five chapters’. One of my favorite dishes was crispy tilapia fish with green pepper and galangal sauce, followed by – you might have guessed – sticky rice cooked with coconut milk.

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