After trying to clear away some of that big muddy mess, with the help of some villagers using their hand spades, in order to make a narrow path through for the wehicles, the first bus in line made an attempt to pass. It ended up with its 2 back wheels in the air hanging off the steep mountain and blocking the way completly for anything else to get by.
We had 2 options, spend the night there with no water or food, or take our luggage and walk. We were 10 kms away from Udomxai so we decided to continue on foot. It was around 5pm so we had about one and a half hours of daylight left. Two french guys we had met on the bus joined us so we felt more secure. They had just arrived from Northern Thailand where they had spent 2 months teaching children from the hilltribes. After about 1 mile, we realized that there was no way we could go any further. We had mud up to our knees and we could not lift our luggage. It was getting very heavy with all the mud stuck to it + they were already weighed down alot with many opium weights and silk weavings.
Lucky for us just at that moment we came across a pick-up truck that was turning back towards Udomxai as they could not go forward through the mud. They offered to let us jump in the back, and in we lept! As we entered the town at nightfall, we saw the whole side of a building collapse into the river before our eyes. Of course there was no electricity so after alighting from the pick-up, we had to wander around by torchlight to find somewhere that would have us to stay.
The next day we asked our new friends if they wouldn't mind coming with us as we wanted to hire push-bikes to tour the flooded villages. We had in mind to give little donations to some of the people whose houses had been washed away. It was heart wrenching to see what a precarious situation the people had all been put in. Most of the surrounding villages had been completly washed away and all their crops had been destroyed; by the worst floods in 50 years. The people were already working away, with the help of the army, to salvage their belongings from the muck and rebuild their woven bamboo and thatch homes.We stopped in about 10 villages looking around, trying to approach the people who were trying to salvage their belongings in the muck. In one village, a headman took us around. He showed us where the river had risen, broken its banks and made new paths throughout the whole village. By the end of the day we noticed that the Japanese embassy had sent people to distribute rice and drinking water to all the villages. We were surprised that not one of the very many NGO's that are established in Laos was present with any aid to the area. A few days later, watching CNN in a comfortable room in Luang Prabang, we saw some coverage of the typhoon that had hit Vietnam, Thailand and China, but no mention was made of Laos.
Our new friends had interesting stories to tell s about their travels. They shared with us their experiences of teaching in the hill-tribes in remote parts of northern Thailand, including their culinary experiences of eating rats with Thai guards on the Burmese border. So we told them they definately had to go to Sam Neua for its lack of travellers and the good selection of rats to eat. That's where they went while we continued onward to Luang Prabang; back to civilization.
This is Laos' most famous and visited town. We hadn't been there for many years. it took us some time to re-adjust because it was such a contrast with what we had just been experiencing for the past 4 weeks. L.P. has still lots of charm...listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Centre, it is an outstanding example of the fusion of traditional architecture & Lao urban structures built by the French during the Indo-China period. Plus we found some very nice silver work for our gallery. 12 years ago we discovered 2 dishes here that are part of the regional cuisine of L.P. We have still never seen then anywhere else. One was stuffed lemongrass and the other a jungle curry made with spicy wood and roots. We had the same meal again and it was still as good and memorable as 12 years ago.
The next day we returned to Vientiane where we spent a few days before returning to our favourite capital in the world, Bangkok.
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