On the trail of Chickens, Watermelons & a Tiger

Don Daeng, Southern Laos – Travelling can often be about “doing”, a hurried checklist tour of “Tourist Site A”, followed by B, C… and we’ve participated in that too. I could write about Wat Phu Champasak, a 5th Century temple built by the Khmers that many believe to be the pre-cursor to the more famous Angkor Wat; it was stunning and very beautiful, but many guidebooks do it much better justice. Somehow the waterfalls, the local villages, the coffee & tea plantations were more inspiring. For me, this trip has been more about the “being”, observing those little vignettes and pictures of local life.

So where in a guidebooks does it cover “Chicken Village”? It lies about half-way between Thakek & Pakse on the Dancing Road. 300 chickens are killed each day to create “Ping Gai” – butterflied BBQ chicken. Row upon row of village stalls… so who will buy. Suddenly, the stalls are abandoned as vendors rush & jostle. I look around, and spot a tall travel bus approaching. The focus, and audience, and the race to sell…

Travelling South we visited a “Live market”, maybe fortunately arriving too early to see it in full flow. The normal assortment of agricultural products & BBQ’d delights, but more; the Lao pride themselves on their reputation for eating anything, so was the “live” all to be eaten? The normal experience on arrival in any worldwide “tourist” venue is to be swamped by local vendors trying to encourage you to facilitate their economic advancement. The Lao tend to be more laid back, and wait for you to engage (How British!)… so the surprise on arrival was to experience the throng of vendors crowding against the van, holding their bagged palm fruit & beautiful woven bamboo cylinders filled with raw cane sugar nuggets… their focus, our guide! He was clearly well known to them & proceeded to engage… we wandered off to explore the market!

Arriving in Pakse, we encountered row upon row of watermelon vendors… thousands upon thousands of beautiful fresh picked fruit. Scanning the stalls stretching to the horizon, one thing jumped out – no-one was purchasing! A puzzle, still only slightly understood… this “Watermelon Road” is the wholesale market; people travel to purchase and transport back to local villages & other roadside stalls. But where was Mr Tesco or Mr Waitrose? I watched and waited, and the buyers remained invisible… as we left, an empty lorry approached. 

Southern Laos appears more affluent relatively, the trade routes available to Vietnam & Thailand, & a more organised agricultural production give an air of difference. The villages are still similar, the children’s smiles, the simple lifestyle without direct poverty. One clue to the difference. Suddenly in each tribal “Minority Village” there was one addition. Each hut had an extra architectural element, the pervasive satellite dish. Progress?

Since Pakse, our guide Seua (Lao: Tiger) has added a slightly new dimension; “Call me Tiger” is dare I say slightly non-Lao, more a Type-A achiever. He stands out against a Lao culture that is supremely gracious, relaxed, community & family oriented. So as Laos develops, is Tiger the start of a “New-Lao” persona?

So we’re on the “Tiger Trail”, a focused checklist. Gradually I’m reshaping that, helping the Tiger realise that an impromptu stop at a local coffee drying field can be considered a “visit” and success for him, while creating a wonderful process of being for us.

We’ve spent two weeks exploring and discovering Laos, a supremely beautiful & enchanting country… it’s captivated us in a way I hadn’t anticipated. To paraphrase a past Facebook post:

Today I am leaving Laos, but I suspect Laos in not leaving me…