…has been delayed. I would have enjoyed travelling for 2.5 hours in comfort to Vientiane and then on to Bangkok, but why am I not surprised to find that the project is ‘on hold’? Not cancelled, you understand, just ‘on hold’. There is a small matter of a financial shortfall of 70% of the cost, and the loss of all the engineering and management expertise, but it will sort itself out I am sure. The difficulty arose when the Chinese Minister in charge of the project was arrested for ‘severe violations of discipline’, for which read ‘corruption’. It was a vast project being part of a much larger Trans Asia Railway scheme, so no doubt the opportunities for corruption were equally big.
The Chinese have clearly pulled the plug, and even the camp they had built up in the hills, where I assume they planned to make a tunnel, has been dismantled and abandoned. I visited the site on Saturday as I was out that way, and was half expecting to get arrested as a counter revolutionary agent, spying for international capitalism. There is some evidence of occupation but none that would connect it to a railway building project. In the UK in the Peak District, you can still see today evidence of the camps that the men building the railways in early 19th Century lived in. At this camp all that there is today are some bamboo frames that presumably had covers over and served as temporary living quarters, some lengths of rope the thickness of a man’s wrist and the remains of some odd looking protective clothing, including those rubber gloves that go above the elbow and are sealed by rubber or elastic. In a few years nobody will know of this place and if it is eventually rediscovered, the cutting of several ledges or shelves into the hillside may suggest to the inquisitive that it was an artillery emplacement, commanding, as it does a view over miles and miles of hills and valleys.
By the way, the rice that we saw being sown just one week ago is now looking healthy and some shoots are already up to maybe up to 10cm tall. I had no idea that rice grew so fast, but I suppose right now the climatic conditions are perfect for growth. The trip to the villages this week was made a little harder by some more landslips and further deterioration of the track. An additional obstacle was a flat rear tyre, which meant that we had to wheel the bike along the road for a mile or so. But one of the great things here is the existence of huge numbers of little motor bike repair shops, where running repairs are conducted on the spot with no hanging around. Having a new rear inner fitted cost £2, including the inner itself.
I suppose there is no chance that a little of the money that the Lao government was going to put into the railway scheme might now be used to employ two men with a bucket of tarmac to go round patching the potholes. Somehow I feel another statue coming on instead. Maybe I am alone in thinking that the men who led the revolutionary forces and created a new Laos in the wake of the war were men of immense courage, ability and unselfishness who would be loathe to see vast sums of the peoples’ money being spent on grandiose statues in their memory? One is tempted to think that it is lesser men who promote such schemes in the hope that their own timeserving contribution to the nation will be similarly marked.
For the railway story, and others I am indebted to the rather sinister sounding ‘Radio Free Asia’ website, which is presumably funded by the CIA, but still contains credible stories that the Lao authorities have never got round to sharing with their people. Why does the nice word ‘Free’ have the same but different unpleasant connotations that the equally attractive word ‘Democratic’ has? Is it because if you have to say it, it cannot be true?
I have decided that I do not need to launch my own website, Do Not Bank with BCEL as others have got there first. On ‘Trip Advisor’ there is a series of stories starting with’ BCEL ATM STOLE MY MONEY’. That is supported by many other tales, including now, my own. I thought it would be an act of kindness to the person who is supposed to be investigating the theft from my account if I sent him (well, I assume it’s a ‘him’) a link to these complaints in case he was unaware. I have to say that he was jolly ungrateful when a few weeks ago I passed on to him the well established rumour that staff have to pay bribes to get a job with BCEL and then pay further ones to obtain advancement. He talked about setting a lawyer onto me, but somehow I feel that BCEL does not want the law poking its inquisitive nose in their shady and incompetent dealings.
Last week I mentioned a possible trip to the Hmong Burial Grounds in the north of the country. The trip was delayed, apparently, because of, amazingly, a foul-up with the bank; (I neither know, nor want to know the details) opening the possibility that I could go but then other ( ..yes believe it or not..banking) matters to do with our new school were also delayed so I still had to turn it down. I was not wholly distraught since it would have been a 3 day trip by motorbike, travelling 8 hours in a day each way, and in between times roughing it in Hmong villages, which would involve sleeping on earth floors in villages with no water, electrics or toilets. I fear I may be getting soft.
I do not have any photos this week as Khamphone borrowed my camera to take pictures on the trip, but maybe next week I can share some of those on here. The fact that many roads are flooded and that Khamphone fell off his bike earlier this week, injuring his hand and arm, helped me overcome any sense of disappointment that I might have felt at not being able to go.
But he is very impressed with me right now, as with the contents of my fridge (aka Dr Alan’s magic medicine cabinet) I apparently cured his son of various ailments which had resisted the best efforts of the hospital, the pharmacy and the shaman. I suspect that as ever, time was the great healer and the two sets of pills (from the 99 pence shop….where else?) I gave him, accompanied by many health warnings may not have contributed much to the healing process. However, if I am to become Hon. Medical Adviser to the Hmong Community then I guess it is something else for the C.V. (though Heaven forbid that I need ever to write one those again). The idea of me as a medical adviser somehow turns the wheel of life full circle to almost 50 years ago when I was employed as a swimming pool lifeguard; I cannot swim.
About those 50 years, well, yes, this week I become an OAP. You know those road signs with hunchbacked decrepit figures shuffling along and warning motorists to avoid them (or maybe target them)? Yes that is me as from this week. Were I in UK now I believe that the Mayor would be about to call round with my white stick, incontinence pads, discounted hearing aids and a direct debit form for ‘meal s on wheels’, but I shall have to forgo those for the moment.
As indicated above I have been back again to the Khamoune ( yes, spell it how you like) village but also to a Khamoune enclave within a Lao village, just 30 minutes drive out of LPB. Apart from the fact that a chicken had managed to drown itself in the fish pool, which contained no fish….maybe the chicken passed away from eating too many; it was a more comfortable, though still incredibly poor situation. A concrete, rather than earth floor to sleep on, and mains electricity put it into a much higher league. But no running water, bare breeze block walls and the surviving chicken wandering round at will together with the absence of any furniture still made it less than most of us might find easy living.
OK; so who correctly dealt with last week’s food question? Nobody.Pathetic. Was it not obvious that it was duck’s blood soup? Really, you must try harder. Please keep up at the back.
The pineapple road stalls are being dusted down and refurbished. The fruit is most assuredly with us now, and I was able to get 4 very large pineapples for 15,000kip; (about £1.20 I suppose). Melons have gone, though watermelon are still available as are mangosteens and the red spiky fruit called rambutan. Both of the latter taste a little like a lychee.
No change in the weather, except that last night we had some of the heaviest rain I have ever seen. But if this blog is notable for anything it must be the unreliability of the forecasts and assertions I am inclined to proffer. Last week’s most impressive gaffe related to the bamboo bridge over the Nam Khan, when I boldly stated that it had 2 more weeks before it disappeared. Wrong! It lasted just one more week; still I suppose I can claim 50% accuracy?
Alan
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