Service is resumed

Spell check is not working....so am only using simple words !!

I see that it is almost 3 months since my last Letter, for which, no doubt you are all profoundly grateful. The reason for the long gap is not that I didn't have enough to write; it was that I had too much and didn't know where to start. And of course, as each week went by more material was piling up. So I have decided to draw a line in the sand and start afresh. The world will have to manage without tales of cricket in Arundel, greasy spoon breakfast in Kennington, laptop thefts and recovery from drug dealers' cellars, excursions to northern Laos, illness, funerals in Thailand, and long meetings with the police, not to mention the filling in the potholes on the main road....though somehow I expect that topic will re-emerge, as have the potholes themselves.

So I shall begin with boat racing. We are well into the season now and last week was the Royal Ascot or, maybe, more appropriately, the Henley of the season, the Luang Prabang race day. If anyone is thinking of a a visit here, then I would certainly encourage you to look at the last weekend in August. It's still low season, so plenty of decent priced accommodation  and the boat racing is under way.  It is much more fun than New Year, you can eat dodgy food, drink too much beer and stay dry. As usual  I sat in the 'cheap enclosure' where I was the only falang. The tourists gather on the city side of the river, whereas we locals go to the far side where the beer is cheaper and easier to get. As luck would have it we sat in the zone occupied by the Hath Hien village supporters, whose team have won the last 2 years' events, but were expected to be beaten this year by the BCEL sponsored boat.  Happily the two boats got to fight it out in the final and even more happily, the HH boat  beat the BCEL team....whom of course, I unwittingly sponsor through the theft of funds from my account. It was a very happy outcome. even if the locals had no reason to know why I was so happy to see BCEL lose !

Next Monday will see me off to another event just out of town, where I hope to see the BCEL boat sink in the first round. I wonder how good security is....maybe I shall take a small drill with me just in case an opportunity presents itself.

Last night I was given a Bacci ceremony in a small village out by the city jail. There were about 25 people present, all done up in their best clothing. It is quite an operation; there were 2 fires going in the 'kitchen' and a huge rice steamer at work in the living area.  The latter serves as sitting room and bed room....the beds being rolled up each morning. There was only one chair, which as the 'honoured 'guest' I was allowed to use. I am always in 2 minds about things like that. I am very grateful not to have to sit cross-legged on the floor for 2 hours but I feel a little conspicuous, occupying the only piece of furniture in the house. Like our Christmas dinners maybe, each family has a slightly different way of doing a Bacci.. On this occasion, as once before, some years back, the small sums of money added to the tray were presented to me as I was leaving  I have no idea how much there was, maybe $10 or $12. I am not sure of the etiquette, so I made a show of great gratitude and quietly slipped the money into Mum's hand as I went.. Maybe Teng can advise me of the correct form. (Mum has, I think, cancer of the bowel, but she looked very cheerful and seemed to be having a good time. which is a considerable improvement when I saw her last, in hospital with a drip and oxygen attached.)

A week or so back I had occasion to sit in on a police interrogation of a suspect; very interesting it was too. I will briefly explain how it came to pass. I went to the Police Station to reclaim my stolen laptop. But they were a little reluctant to part with it....not having one of their own. They needed it to play Patience, so far as I could determine. I refused to leave without it and staged a one man sit in in the interrogation room,. which I believe is relatively unusual behaviour in Laos.With my refusing to leave they had to conduct their business with me sat at the desk sending out emails and checking the cricket scores on the said laptop. It  was not a brutal  interrogation, albeit it would not have been comfortable...given that 8 police officers were engaged with one suspect. I have no idea what he was suspected of, bur clearly, crime and those involved with it have a language that surpasses all usual linguistic barriers. It was quite evident that the conversation, was based on the lines of "Look son, I have heard some tales in my time, but that one beggars belief"; "No,no officer it's true, I have no idea how I came to have these goods in my possession".
I was intrigued to look at the resources available to these 8 detectives. There was a pencil, and a scrap of paper...well, it was the back of an envelope (literally).....and er.....well that was it. No phone, no typewriter no photo copier. But with enough staff I am sure you can work wonders with a pencil and a pink re-used envelope....well, after all they did get my laptop back.

The new house across from me is occupied, but still well short of being finished. The builders seem to have gone and the family are finishing the job. The dog is still alive and well. Maybe they are fattening him up for a special occasion. I went out at 3am 2 nights ago to hurl stones at him, to stop him barking, but seemed to inflict no serious damage to his person, or even vocal chords. But I felt better for it. The Director of Education's huge mansion at the foot of the lane is also well short of being finished. It is really a very major undertaking. My village school has some volunteer English teachers...well they are  maybe from Australia, and I am not sure what language they speak there. They are part of one of these scandalous 'volunteering' programmes. The school gets 2 untrained teachers who cannot speak a word of Lao, and who will leave before they have got to grips with local culture, and the organisers get paid $500 a week by the volunteers  for the privilege of working. Not a penny of that goes to the school, or to benefit Lao education; funny old world.

A lot of my plants got washed away in heavy rains. But the orchids look ravishing. I shall get around to sharing a photo with you maybe next time. I am onto the second crop of runner beans, which grow visibly as you stand and watch. I am drying off some basil but there is not much else right now. The coriander, however, went to seed while I was away, so hopefully I can re-sow  that. The rains will stop in maybe 2 or 3 weeks so I will plant fresh seeds shortly.  The countryside is exceptionally green right now, and the rice fields are amazing. I think the crop will start to be brought in next month .it looks back breaking work even in the low lying fields. To have to bring it down from the mountains must be horrendous and  might explain why so many Lao people have skeletal problems. while still relatively young. Their tendency to experience abdominal problems is usually ascribed to the outrageously spicy food that many Laos love to eat; but whether there is any truth in that I do not know.

The local water falls are very impressive right now after the rains. Those who know them might be surprised to hear that the viewing platform and the bridge at the foot of the falls have been washed away by the pressure of water. And there is certainly no swimming in the ponds; anyone trying that would be washed away within seconds and get back to Luang Prabang very swiftly indeed. My Hmong friend had his home and virtually all its contents washed out by recent floods; all the rice stock was ruined and most of the family possessions washed away into the river.And, no, there is no insurance cover here for such things, though he is trying to get some compensation from the municipal authorities.

One rather unattractive new development here is motorised bag snatching. In the area with the better, or at least more expensive restaurants, towards the end of the evening a motor cycle will sweep past a group of tourists and the pillion rider will grab a shoulder bag and the bike will zoom off, the riders made anonymous by crash helmets and the lack of a registration number on the bike. The police have, rather impressively, been able to recover quite a lot of stolen property, such as passports and cameras, but I have heard accounts of tourists losing up to $1,000 in cash. I seem to recall that that particular crime emerged in Italy in the 1960's; thank goodness it has taken half a century to get here.

The education system here is having to adapt a little because of Luang Prabang is hosting the National Games in December. Most of the schools are being taken over as dormitories for the competitors   (I assume the blazered officialdom will commandeer the best hotels), which means an adjustment to the school year, so schools went back in July, instead of September. One additional adjustment is the the provincial government  does not have enough money to pay for the games and to pay teachers' salaries. So the latter are not getting paid for 3 months. I wonder if London might follow suit next year?

In my last Letter I mentioned blood donations in Luang Prabang. I have to thank Paul for information on how the blood bank works here. The hospital holds no supplies of blood. Supplies have to be brought from the blood bank about 5km from the hospital. They not only have to be brought, but bought; paid for in cash there and then. This can involve relatives making  a daily trek out to the bank to bring in blood to the hospital. Oh and it takes 25  minutes of form filling before they can even look and see if they have the blood you need. So it's best not to need any urgently. In any event a bribe is required to ensure that they can .locate supplies of the blood group that you require. Were the blood bank an offshoot of  BCEL I would understand, but this is run by the Red Cross.

On which note......see you next week


Alan