February 13, 2004

Ban Kong Lo

Ban Kong Lo, Laos

After a relaxing morning reading and cleaning my camera I head off on foot for the village of Kong Lo. This time I'm going to follow the small track beside the river for the eight or so kilometres.

Turns out to be a very good choice. Whilst I saw very little on the road yesterday, today I pass village after village. Mostly the pattern is the same: a few moments after entering the village one or two children see me, they quickly duck back in to their houses to tell their brothers, sisters, and friends. Before long one has the courage to come a little closer then suddenly I'm leading a whole crowd of them through the village. Even the adults are in the act, picking up their small children to show them the strange visitor. As I leave the village the children stop at the fence but continue to call out "saba di" which I return until I'm finally out of earshot.

After a few hours I reach Kong Lo and head for Mr Khoummy's place. He takes me on a tour of the village, culminating in a proud showing of the school and hospital. "Where is the doctor?", I ask. "No doctor", he says. But at least they have the building.

We return to his house and I head back out by myself. Again I attract the attention of the children and we're soon playing various games much to the amusement of the adults, who I think have never seen such a thing.

Dinner was simple but tasty and was capped off with some Lao Lao whisky (home-brewed of course) shared with some of Mr Khoummy's friends. By 9 o'clock the village was asleep and we were too.

Posted by David at February 13, 2004 10:25 PM