Children Being ...

A Laughing Lao

One of the simple pleasures that Duang and I enjoy here in Isaan is observing the many small children that we encounter in the villages.

As soon as they are born, babies spend a great deal of time outside.  If they are not being held by their mother, grandmother or even great grandmother, babies are being rocked in hammocks suspended from the log columns of the thatched roofed elevated platforms that just about every home has in their front yard close to the narrow street.

Just about every passerby stops by to spend some time gossiping, eating, drinking and of course paying attention to the babies.  School children hustling along the village streets on their way home from school, stop by to play with the babies.  Babies develop surrounded by people of all ages.  Babies develop surrounded by the sights and sounds of an extended  family as well as community.

Once the babies are able to walk, their social circle widens greatly.  The toddlers are left to their own devices and although watched over by elders and perhaps older siblings, they are free to roam about the yard.  It is at this time that they start spending their time outdoors making friends and learning to play with cousins and neighbors.  If other children of their age are not available, there are always village dogs and chickens to occupy their attention.

By the time a child is two to three years old they are fairly well independent.  The entire village is their play yard.  They spend the daylight hours outside playing in the dirt, playing with bicycles, playing with rocks and sticks.  Puddles and mud are especially attractive to these toddlers.  You will come upon small groups of these children throughout the village - groups of focused, determined, confident, and vocal little people.

Khmu Children Interrupt Their Play to Watch the Visiting Foreigners

Our visits to Lao Peoples Democratic Republic are no exception - throughout Laos we find many groups of children playing and starting out on their life journeys.  On our last trip to the villages outside of Luang Prabang, Duang remarked at least twice that there were "many students (children) in the village, not have good, TV too much boom boom"  I suspect that the lack of quality television as well as the long and cold nights in the dry season does contribute to the large number of children.  Another factor is the demographics of the populations.  Thailand and Laos, as well as all of the other ASEAN countries are much younger populations than the USA.

Lao Children Huddle Over A Charcoal Fire at the Village Store

In the Lao Loum village of Xiang Muak or Ban Xiang Muark or Ban Xiang -Nouak (just as in Thailand the spelling of the native language villages and streets can vary and is subject to a great deal of interpretations), we encountered a small mixed group of heavily dressed children huddled around a small charcoal fire on the porch of the local market.  The children were bundled up and huddled around to escape the cold of the highland morning.  The children were as interested in us as we were in them.  We engaged in small talk with them for quite a while. The nine year old girl, the most outwardly member of the group, pulled a tuber out of the ashes of their fire, peeled it and gave it to me to eat.  It was a taro root and tasted similar to a sweet potato.  It is always rewarding for us to be able to bring some of the outside world to people especially children.  It does not escape us that as much as we are learning about the lives of the local people we are also teaching them about our life - a situation that we take very seriously.

Big Brother Watches Over His Little Brother

In another village we encountered two young brothers waiting as their young mother prepared food on the thatched roofed porch of their woven bamboo home.

AYoung Mother Prepares Food For Her Family

The home was a very humble abode - woven bamboo walls which allowed plenty of drafts in the home, a corrugated metal roof with an attached covered platform for preparing food and taking care of babies. As their mother cooked food over a charcoal stove, a gallon sized cement lined vessel, the baby played in his hand made crib suspended from the beams of the patio while his older brother divided his attention between his younger brother and his nearby mother.  I approached the home to speak with the children and to take some photographs.  Rather than being suspicious and perhaps apprehensive over a stranger approaching her home, the young mother was very welcoming.  This is a typical reaction here in southeast Asia, the people are extremely friendly and hospitable.  There are some hill tribes that are shy about being photographed so it is best, and always polite to ask permission first.

The children and their mother were dressed in heavy clothing to ward off the chill of the highland morning.  I suspect that the temperature was around 18C (65F) and the morning fog had just burned off.  Sixty-five degrees may seem a heat wave for early December in may Northern climes but hypothermia can be caused in elderly and babies overnight in a 60F house.  Drafts and moisture increase the risk of hypothermia.  In Thailand the government donates thousands of blankets every year that are distributed by the Royal Thai Army in the highlands to assist the people to survive the cold season.

Visiting and talking with the young mother brought back memories for Duang when she was a young child living in a woven bamboo house without much food.  Upon leaving the family, Duang gave some money to the mother.  I have always been impressed with Duang's compassion and her generosity continues.

Young Boy "Helps" His Father Make A Knife

In another part of the village we spent quite a bit of time with some knife makers.  The situation developed that one of the knife makers ended up making a knife specifically for Duang.  It was a great opportunity for me to photograph the entire process of producing a knife from recycled leaf springs of motor vehicles.  I had photographed knife making in the Luang Prabang area three years earlier and in the Luang Namtha area.  However just as in visiting the same location more than once, photographing the process a third time allowed me to recognize the nuances and different details missed previously.  At this stop, I was entertained by the knife maker's son who hovered over his father and even interfered a couple times with his father's work.

The boy seemed to be torn between the curiosity about a strange man visiting his family's business and a naturally reservation about something completely foreign to him.  Standing by and over his father seemed to meet his needs - to learn and observe the foreigner up close but still be within the safety zone afforded by his father.

Khmu Boys

In a Khmu village we found a man busy making bird snares.  We saw children at play throughout the village.  Our presence in the village interrupted the play of some of the children.  Shortly after we arrived and set up taking photographs several little boys joined us.

Although they interrupted their play, one boy continued to chew on a piece of freshly cut sugar cane.  One of his friends was completely oblivious to the fact that he was completely naked from the waist down.  When I asked him where his pants were, he just smiled and laughed with no sign of embarrassment or care - just happy and content with his situation.

Two of the boys had been playing by rolling a motorcycle tire around the village much like I had read about children playing with hoops in the earlier days of America,  The tire that the boys were playing with did not have a rim or wheel.  No problem.  The villagers had bamboo.  You can do just about anything with bamboo - eat it, build scaffolding with it, make a raft with it, build furniture out of it, cook in it, build shelter with it, create lacquer ware with it, support bean plants with it, make ladders out of it, make bird snares out of it, make rat snares out of it and now I saw how it can be used to make a wheel.  The wheel could never be used on a bicycle, motorcycle, car , tuk-tuk or truck but the wheel was fit for the purpose of allowing a tire to be rolled around using a short piece of bamboo.

Pieces of bamboo had been cut to fit inside of the rubber tire and woven together to keep the tire round or at least round enough to roll along the dirt paths and dirt roads of the village.  Once again fit for purpose and the ingenuity of local peoples made the most of what was available to them.  I suspect that these children have never been and will never will be bored.  Imagination and practicality go far in meeting any one's needs.

Khmu Village Boys Playing Petanque

Village children in Southeast Asia are free.  They are, by and large, free to play amongst themselves without adult interference.  There are no organized and adult supervised youth soccer teams, no Little League Baseball Teams, no cheer leading teams, no CYO basketball leagues, no swim clubs, or even youth bowling leagues.  The children are free to pick their sports, their teams, officiate their own competitions.  There are no adults imposing their will and choices upon the children.  Most importantly there no adults interfering with the disputes that arise from competition as well as all the childhood issues that cause disputes.  The children have the freedom to resolve their own disputes.  They have the opportunities to learn the arts of negotiation and skills of compromise on their own and at their own pace.  They are empowered rather than coddled. At an early age they learn to solve their own problems.

What Some Children Have to Do To Go Outside to Play

I was first introduced to the French game of petanque when I lived in Algeria.  Just as Algeria, Lao Peoples Democratic Republic (LPDR) was a French colony.  The French, besides bringing French cooking and French pastry to their colonies, they also introduced petanque.  Thailand, previously known as Siam, was never colonized by European powers.  However here in Isaan, people do play petanque undoubtedly another cultural connection to their Lao Loum cousins across the Mekong River in the LPDR.

Petanque is a team competition were a small ball is tossed down a a rectangular court usually compacted earth or sand but sometimes, especially in the case with children, a strip of ground as it exists.  Teams then take turns tossing heavy metal balls towards the small ball at the other end of the court.  The object is to get closest to the small ball.  You have a choice to make when you toss your ball down the court. You can flat out try to get your ball closest to the small ball or you can attempt to knock your opponent's ball away from the small ball so that one of your team's balls becomes closest. One point is earned for each completed round.  The match ends after 10 minutes with the winning team being the one with the most points.  In the case of children without watches they just play until they get bored.

In the adjacent village, a Hmong village, we discovered some children, boys and girls, playing what appeared to be a game of war.  A game with picking up logs, throwing them, running to them to throw them again all the while yelling.

Hmong Boys Playing Spinning Tops

Further into the village we found our third group of the day playing with spinning tops. Tujlub is a game where a heavy wood top is set to spinning people then take turns tossing their spinning tops trying to knock out the original top and cease its spinning.  Often children play a variation where they just toss their spinning top at the center of a circle and watch the collisions.

The top are home made carved solid pieces of heavy wood.  The free end of plastic strapping is wrapped around the top.  The other end of the plastic strapping is tied to the end of a stick.  The top is tossed out and as it flies through the air the stick is jerked in the opposite direction to impart a spin to the top.  I tried it once an failed miserably much to the amusement of the onlooking children.

Letting the top fly and spin

As we sat in the back of our hired tuk-tuk bouncing along the dirt road on our way back to Lunag Prabang, we were both very pleased to have witnessed so many children ... so many children being children.  These were confident and independent children preparing for their adult lives.

The greatest gift that parents can give their children can not be purchased.  The gift is not shielding them from the challenges of life or the realities of life. The gift is to empower their children to be confident, to allow them to make mistakes, to allow them to solve their own problems ... to let them be children.

The Games That Some People Play ...

A Hmong Young Man Plays Pov Pob

The games that some people play ... is not about deception, cheating, or the manipulation of human emotions or social intercourse.

The games that some people play ... is not about politics or even politicians.

The games that some people play ... is not about international affairs involving Iran, North Korea, the USA, or any other country.

This blog is literally about some of the games that we saw the Hmong people playing during our trip to Laos in early December 2010.

A Hmong Beauty Prepares to Catch A Ball

We had gone up to Luang Prabang to once again witness the Hmong New Years Celebration.  The Hmong people in Laos celebrate New Year after the harvest and in accordance to the stage of the moon in accordance with their lunar calendarr.  It is a time for the people from various clans to get together and socialize when there is a lull in the field work.  During the Hmong New Years celebration there are spiritual rituals and observances that are rather private and mostly limited to family members. During the public aspects of the celebration there is traditional music, traditional dancing, traditional clothing, eating drinking, gambling, and socializing.  The public activities are very interesting events for at least four of the five senses - propriety limits the opportunities for the sense of touch.  Socializing besides involving sharing gossip includes playing games.

Hmong Girls Playing Pov Pob

The most widely known Hmong game is most likely "Pov Pob".  Pov Pob is a ball tossing game.  It is played throughout the year in Laos but it is special during the New Years festival.  Especially in the older times it was difficult for young Hmong men and young Hmong women to find potential mates.  Hmong people are forbidden to marry within their clan.  Since the villages are often made up exclusively of a single clan and the burdens of farming leave little time to go off in search of a potential mate.  It was at the meeting of various clans at the New Year Festival that the young people had an opportunity to meet potential husbands and wives.  This tradition continues today for the Hmong people in the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR).

Pov Pob In Progress at the New Years Festival

Pov Pob is described as an activity for adolescents and akin to a courtship ritual.  That is true just as it is true to describe dancing as a fertility ritual in the United States.  Although it is true in both situations, the description is incomplete and also not completely accurate.  Just as you will see very elderly people in the USA dancing to the tunes of their youth and thoroughly enjoying themselves, you will observe older Hmong people playing Pov Pob.  The older Hmong people participating in Pov Pob like the adolescents are looking for a mate.  They are either divorced or widowed however there are some who are looking for an additional mate.  Polygamy is illegal in Laos but some old cultural practices still remain albeit not commonly.  During our visit last month we found a middle aged man who with the assistance of his middle aged wife was courting an 18 year old girl to be his wife.

Young Boy Holding a Traditional Hmong Ball for Pov Pob

Willing, if not yet capable of playing "Pov Pob"

Along with the adolescents and older  people playing the match game, there are plenty of young children who also participate in their own way in pov pob - sort of like young children dancing back in America - they imitate their older siblings and just because it is FUN.

Hmong Teenaged Men Participating in Pov Pob

Because of the match making possibilities of Pov Pob during the New Year Festival, girls wear the best traditional Hmong clothing.  Their garments are colorful, emblazoned with intricate embroidered designs.  The girls and women also wear their traditional Hmong silver jewelry.  Their ensemble is often topped off with a traditional and colorful hat.  To a lesser extent boys and young men will wear elaborate if not traditional clothing. 

Sometimes a person has to generalize in order to describe or to approach any semblance of effective communication.  The mere fact that it is a generalization means that the description is not 100% accurate for all cases and circumstances.  As is the case for most things in life there are exceptions.  In order to describe Pov Pob I will be generalizing.

A Girl Sings As She Prepares to Catch A Ball

In general girls and boys form two lines facing each other.  A small soft cloth ball, or a tennis ball, or sometimes an orange is lobbed back and forth between the lines.  Girls can throw to girls but boys are not allowed to toss to another boy.  In addition you are not allowed to lob the ball to a member of your own clan.  The person on the receiving end of the toss catches the ball with one hand.  If you are "interested" in someone you toss the ball to them.  If a boy makes a good throw to a girl and she doesn't try to catch it, she is letting him know not too subtly that she is not interested him.

If you make a good lob to someone and they drop the ball or miss catching the ball, the person is supposed to take a piece of their costume, a piece of silver, or  a bell from their costume to the person across from them.  To get the ornament or trinket back, the person has to sing to the person opposite them.  The singing and ball tossing are ice breakers for the people.   For those who are playing the game to find a match, 15 years and older, if they make a love connection they and the person who is also interested in them will leave the game.  The pair go off to get to know each other better.  If they determine that they are right for each other they will publicly announce their intentions three days later and will be married about three weeks later when the moon is right - a new moon.

A Private and Personal Pov Pob - Perhaps a Prelude to Much More



A Spinning Top Is Hurled Down Field

During this trip to the Hmong people in Laos, Duang and I watched another Hmong game called "Tujlub" (Spinning Tops) which is played by men and boys.  We watched a spinning top match on our first day in the field that served as a parking lot at one of the two festival sites that we visited throughout our stay in Luang Prabang.

The tops are carved out of very dense hardwood.  They reminded me a great deal of  turnips that were cooked for Thanksgiving dinners back in Connecticut.  A heavy cotton string about 3 or 4 meters (9 to 12 feet) long is wrapped very tightly around the wood top.  The other end of the heavy string is attached to a stick about 4 to 5 cm in diameter (1-1/2 in. to 2 in.) and 60 to 90 cm (2 - 3 feet) long.  The top is held in one hand the stick in the other hand.  The top is thrown down field while at the same time the stick is jerked downwards in a whip like or slashing motion.

The rules for playing Tujlub differ from location to location.  For the match that we watch, this appeared to be how the game was played.  There were two teams of three players each.  The first team went down the hardened dirt pitch about 10 meters (30 feet) and set their tops spinning in a somewhat tight grouping in a slightly recessed area which reminded me of a greatly worn horseshoe pit.  Once the tops were set about spinning the other team members one by one heaved their tops at the spinning stationary tops to strike them; driving them out of the area and stopping their spinning.  Apparently points were awarded for every top that was stopped by the second team.

One of the Target Tops Is Set to Spinning While One Is Already Spinning

The process was repeated again about 20 meters from the starting line and once again about 30 meters from the starting line.  After completing the three distances, the teams swapped positions with the second team setting up their tops spinning at the predetermined distances and the first team attempting to hit the spinning tops by hurling their tops down field.


A Spinning Top About To Escape From Its Line

It was amazing how often a spinning top was hit by a hurled top.  The sound of the colliding wood tops was like the sharp crack of a well hit baseball with a hickory bat.  From my position down field I had a clear and impressive view of how fast and powerful the tops were hurled towards their targets.  I was also impressed and extremely grateful as to how accurate the players were.


A Player Puts All That He Has Into His Hurl

At the other end of the festival site, men - older and appearing to be of a higher social status, were playing petanque.  Petanque is similar to bocce.  It is a French game whose current form was developed in 1907.  It is played with metal balls on a hard compacted dirt or gravel rectangular area.

A Petanque Player In Vientiane, LPDR

A small wood ball is thrown and points are earned by throwing or rolling the larger metal balls closer to it than the other team's attempts similar to bocce and not that much different than horse shoes.  Perhaps the saying of "Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades" should be modified to "Close only counts in horseshoes, bocce, petanque and hand grenades as well as nuclear weapons".

Part of the game strategy in addition to getting your balls closet to the wood ball called "cochonnet" is also to knock your opponent's ball away from the wood ball so that yours are closer or his are eliminated from the pitch.


Petanque Players Figuring Out Who Is Closest

The penchant for playing petanque is a legacy of French colonialism here in Southeast Asia.  There is a factory that produces petanque balls (boule) in Vientiane, Laos.  Although the French never colonized Thailand, petanque is played here in Isaan.  I suspect the interaction of Thailand's Lao Loum population with their cousins across the Mekong River in Lao People's democratic Republic goes a long ways towards explaining its popularity here.  I have played some with my brother-in-law and the Tahsang Village officials.  It is a nice game to play when the weather is hot and the beer is ice cold.

Playing Petanque Along the Bank of the Mekong River In Laos

It was interesting to see how people in a different culture entertain and amuse themselves.  A common denominator for all three of the games was the fact that people were making do with what was readily and perhaps more importantly what was cheaply available to them.  Their games did not involve a great deal of investment of time, equipment, space, or energy.  The Hmong games were also very social events with participants socializing as much as they were competing.

New Photographs Added to Gallery On My Website

Young Hmong Girls In Traditional Costumes

Twenty nine new photographs from our recent trip to Luang Prabang, Lao People's Democratic Republic have been added to my gallery, "Runny Noses and Dirty Faces - Children" at the link below

http://www.hale-worldphotography.com/Children/Runny-Noses-and-Dirty-Faces/7422101_oLip3

Young Hmong Girl In Traditional Clothing Takes A Drink

Young Hmong Boy In Traditional Clothing

Been There and Done That; Only This Time It Was Different



A Young Hmong Girl Eats Her Snack At the Festival In Laos

We arrived back home in Isaan, Northeast Thailand, last night from our four day trip to Laos.

Here in Isaan there is a phrase that is utilized often, perhaps too often for some foreigners who are of a more structured and precise ilk.  The phrase is "Same, Same, but Different".

At the risk of offending those foreigners I will describe our just concluded journey/adventure as "Same, Same but Different".  We specifically went up to Luang Prabang to witness "Pee Mai Hmong" (Hmong New Years).  It had ended up being a pretty much spur of the moment decision.  I had wanted to attend the festivities last year, but I had a great deal of difficulty determining exactly when the celebration would start.  Actually to paraphrase a recent former US President; "It all depends on what the meaning of the word, start, is"

Hmong Girls In Traditional Festival Clothing

The Hmong New Years celebration occurs in December but it is a 10 day festival with the first two days being allocated for rituals conducted in the homes.  The public celebration, which we had previously witnessed and wanted to see again, starts on the third day and runs for 8 days.  So for Duang and me, the "start" day was for the start of the public celebration.  I called the driver that we had used on our previous trip, Johnee's father, to no avail.  His cellphone was no longer in service.  I suspect that since he was married to a Danish woman, he and Johnee had immigrated to Denmark.  I had the phone number of the headman from the Khmu village outside of Luang Prabang but he was not all that helpful last year - the exact "start" date is determined by the moon and decision of the local people as to exact "start" date.  I researched the Internet and came up with a date of 16 December.  Having made what I considered to be a good go at it by myself, I reached out to a friend of mine with extensive knowledge as well as contacts in Laos.

My friend reaffirmed the difficulty in determining the "start" date.  He had a contact in Luang Prabang did not know the exact date.  I resigned myself to missing out on the celebration for yet another year.  Fortunately, my friend's friend  came through about a week ago with the "start" date of December 6 and a completion date of 9 December or 10 December.  I still did not know the meaning of the indicated start date of 6 December so I figured instead on working backwards from the end date of 10 December and worked to our arrival date of 7 December and departure of 10 December.

Previously we had stayed overnight in Vientiane and caught the 7:30 AM VIP bus to Luang Prabang up Highway 13 to Luang Prabang some 12 or perhaps 13 hours away.  This was a been there and done that experience - an experience that I nor Duang wanted to do again.  I researched flying to Luang Prabang on Lao Airlines.  There is or was or perhaps there is a direct flight from Udonthani to Luang Prabang.  However I was unable to book a flight on the Internet.  I kept getting a message to effect that a flight was not available for one of the dates that I had selected.  Great help; I have encountered the same problem at other airline websites - you are left to try to figure whether or not the problem lies with your departure day or return date or is only a particular flight time that is the issue?

After further research at other sights, I came to the conclusion that the direct flight from Udonthani to Luang Prabang had been suspended.  Later I was lead to believe that the flight has been reinstated now that it is the "high season".  No matter the case I dropped back to Plan "B" which was to go to Vientiane and fly out of there to Luang Prabang.  There are a couple of daily flights from VTE to LPQ.

We were not able to book on the morning flight on Tuesday 7 December so we settled for a 1:20 P.M. departure from VTE with a 2:00 P.M. arrival in LPQ.  This still saved us the overnight expense and time in Vientiane and got us into Luang Prabang 6 to 7 hours earlier than the bus.  With a 2:00 P.M. arrival there was still some time on Tuesday for some touring.  For the return flight, I selected a 5:50 P.M. departure which gave us most of the daylight of Friday for sightseeing.  With no difficulty our flights were reserved and paid for - $320.80 USD.



Hmong Girls Strolling - Seeing and Being Seen

 We had flown earlier this year from Vientiane and Luang Namtha on Lao Airlines.  This month's as well as our flights at the start of the year were great.  The flights were what you used to enjoy and hope for today - no nonsense.  Our ticket included baggage.  There was no additional fee for checked baggage.  We split up the camera gear into two carry on backpacks; I carried one and Duang carried the other.  There was no problem with our carry on size or weight.  Our clothing and other gear was in a single checked baggage weighing 12 KG.  The checked bag was an approved size for carry on by international carriers.  I indicated that there was one bag for two people and it was accepted without question and more importantly no additional fee.  On our return to Vientiane, the bag weighed 14.4 KG and again there was no problem.

Lao Airlines flies ATR72 and MA60 turboprop planes.  We once again flew on the Chinese made MA60.  A Chinese designed and manufactured 60 passenger plane powered by Pratt and Whitney of Canada engines - a common situation in the global economy of today;  an American company supplying aircraft engines through it's Canadian subsidiary for a Chinese company.  This is like a Toyota, a Japanese company, assembling cars in the United states out of parts made in Mexico, Canada, and Japan.  Is it a Japanese car or an American car?  Perhaps the answer is not on the manufacturing details but rather on the financial side.  The answer may be defined as to where the profits are sent.

I had used the Internet, http://www.agoda.com/, to research and book a room in Luang Prabang.  For our travels here in Southeast Asia, I always rely on Agoda and have never had a problem with them.  I am pleased with the discounts that Agoda can offer for all types of accommodations.  We did not like the hotel that we stayed at two years ago so I selected a different hotel, the Chang Hotel, to stay at this year.  The price was roughly double the rate where we stayed before but was well worth the money - but that will be the subject of another blog.

We had our airline and hotel reservations, our plan was once again to trust our intuition and select a driver for local transportation upon arrival at our destination.  Yes, there are people who will rip you off.  Yes, we have been ripped off a few, very few, times.  However most of the people that you encounter in these rural out of the way destinations are typically just an ordinary guy trying to make a living.  Duang and I do not go on organized tours.  Our traveling style is not compatible with an organized group in that we do not like being told how long we have to visit what particular location that they have selected.  We prefer to select our own locations and sights to visit supplemented with knowledge from local people who drive us about.  We are able to get a more personal experience from our travels by closely interacting with local people.  Very quickly the local drivers realize what we are interested in and take us to more unique places that meet and often exceed our expectations.  We run the risk perhaps of being ripped off but if we don't like a particular driver we do not hire for the next day.  I believe that the costs that we have paid for being ripped off are far less than the profit and overhead charged by an organized tour.  The benefit to us is to travel on our own schedule and a flexibility to enjoy serendipitous events or locations.




A Little Hmong Girl At the New Years Festival





This Little Guy Actually Managed to get Some Food Into His Mouth

 So yes this was basically a trip to a place we had been before for things that we had done before.  Same Same but different.

We stayed at a better hotel in a better location.

We ate at the restaurants that we ate at before but I could not drink the free draft Beer Lao that came with our second pizza at the Hive Restaurant; a large bottle and the first free draft Beer Lao was more than enough for me this year.

We went to the same locations for the public Hmong celebrations but this year I had a new and better camera.

We went to the Presidential Palace just as we did on the previous visit but whereas on our first visit the Sala Pha Bang was filled with scaffolding and workers, it is no longer under renovation.  It was a thrill to see the completed renovation but that will also be the subject of a different blog.

On this visit we visited two different outlying villages and saw Lao Kao (whiskey) production, embroidery, silk weaving, knife making, and brick production.  This was different.

Since our visit this year coincided with the Lunag Prabang International Film Festival, one night we attended the screening of a foreign film from Malaysia.  This was different.

We went the Night Market every night.  That was the same.  We spent far less at the market than during our previous visit and that was a big "different".

We ate French pastry at some new cafes.  That was different.

I went to an elementary school for the start of the morning.  I wandered about the school grounds photographing the young students and then photographing the classrooms.  I was ignored by the adults and never saw a security guard or policeman.  I was however like the Pied Piper with the children.  I enjoyed speaking or trying to speak with the children.  They were pleased to see digital photographs of themselves and their friends.  I did introduce myself to a couple of teachers and got to speak with them - a little bit.  This was different - wonderfully different.  But once again that will be subject of a future blog entry.

So this year's trip just as in life was a continuation as well as refinement of the past.  We built upon what was good from the last trip and took steps to eliminate or improve what was not 100% from our last trip.  To keep it all interesting and improve the overall experience we tried some different activities and locations on this trip.

Same, Same but different.

Perhaps even better!

Hmong Music

Almost two years ago Duang and I ventured to Chiang Mai to visit the Hill Tribe people as well as to celebrate my birthday. I had contacted a tour company that I had previously used on three trips to Maehongson and one trip to Chiang Rai.

One of the many highlights of our trip to Chiang Mai was a visit to a Hmong village on a mountain top outside of the city. Our guide attended university with one of the village leaders who was working on opening up his village to tourism. The Hmong were once very much involved in the cultivation of opium poppies and production of heroin. The illicit trade has been largely eradicated and programs instituted under Royal sponsorship to provide other income streams for the Hmong people.

As we drove up the mountain towards the village, we saw evidence of some of these programs. Large fields of flowers and associated small support buildings for a commercial nursery clung to the steep hillsides. In other areas large plots of cabbages were growing on the steep hill sides.

We arrived at the village and were met by two of the village elders dressed in traditional Hmong clothing. They lead us on a walking tour of the village and tours of some of the homes. We watched a woman working on producing batik cloth with traditional Hmong designs. She was using a stylo and melted bees wax to make intricate geometric patterns on white cotton cloth. Later the cloth would be dyed to produce a distinctive blue on indigo fabric.

After awhile, we were informed that there would be a special party in honor of our visit and my birthday. The festivities commenced with a welcoming ceremony and show put on by the villagers.

The village Headman played traditional music a large as well as long reed instrument called the "qeej". The qeej is played by a combination of blowing and sucking air in and out of the qeej. The qeej is often used to perform traditional music at Hmong funerals and at New Years celebrations. Traditional music is played mostly for ceremonial purposes and our visit was apparently considered cause enough.

Hmong music is an extension of the Hmong language. Each note represents a word. To the Hmong people the qeej sounds are a speech. To me the qeej was unlike any music that I had ever heard before. To me it lacked the harmonics and melody that we associate with music. It was interesting for sure. Qeej players are story tellers who perform centuries old songs. They often dance as they play the 5 to 6 foot long reed instrument. The village Headman was no exception. He danced as he played. He danced in a very fluid and graceful manner as he managed to keep the qeej mainly parallel to the ground. He turned quickly to the left, to the right, and in complete circles as he played.

The Hmong people are mostly Animists and believe that when the qeej is played, ghosts will go after the musician. To prevent the spirits from following him, the musician dances in a circle to lose the spirits.

After the qeej music, a village woman in traditional Hmong clothing played a "ncas dai npib" (mouth organ). The ncas dai npib is the Hmong equivalent of the Jew's harp. The ncas is a very thin metal blade that has several slots cut into it. It is placed in front of the musicians open mouth with one hand and struck with the other to produce a very soft almost like a whisper sound. The ncas is used for private communication. It is specifically used in courting rituals. A young Hmong girl will go to sleep or pretend to go to sleep inside her parent's home and her suitor will appear outside the window to tell her of his love, admiration and what ever else will likely work for him using the ncas. Again the music notes are words so a great deal can be conveyed by the song.

Another part of the villager's show was a man leaf blowing - "daj plooj". He used a banana leaf held between his thumbs to create music by blowing air across the leaf's edge. We were told that people can communicate from mountain to mountain using leaf blowing. He was able to effortlessly make some very large sounds of different pitches and tones. Despite never being very successful back in New England with "grass blowing", I accepted the offer to demonstrate my leaf blowing. Through much patient assistance and advice, I was able to get a sound, more of a squawk out of the banana leaf much to the delight and amusement of the Hmong villagers. I don't know if it was my labored efforts or the actual sound that was so funny. Knowing now that tones are also words, my "music" may actually have been saying something funny or embarrassing.

There was also a demonstration of swordsmanship. Again there were fluid and graceful movements utilized to show the villager's prowess with the Hmong sword. Fortunately, I was not asked to demonstrate my swordsmanship.

At the conclusion of the show, we went inside for a sit down dinner. From community bowls, we shared a very tasteful meal of chicken, forest soup, rice, green beans, and other vegetables. The food was washed down with bottomless small cups of rice wine. The liquid was called "wine" but it was more like vodka in taste as well as strength. The rice wine was produced in the village and was quite potent - I suspect around 60 to 80 proof. The food and drink was very conducive to lively and animated conversation.

We learned about the King's program to provide alternatives to growing poppies for the Hmong people. One of the village men had been selected to receive silversmith training. He had gone to Bangkok to be taught silversmith techniques. He became quite adept at it and was part of the Royal artisans producing intricate as well as delicate pieces of silver jewelry. He showed us some of his work and it was very impressive. His hope is to set up a shop and school in the village to train other people of his village. The villagers asked us about our lives and families. It was a very nice evening - good food, good drink, and great people.

Hmong Textile Art - Sapa Vietnam

Yesterday I wrote a little about Hmong textiles. I attempted to do some research over the Internet to provide some specific details on it but I had no success.

There are many sites that are selling Hmong textiles but little information is available regarding the symbolism, techniques, or history of the handicraft.

Without any background or facts to cite or to justify my appreciation of Hmong and other Hill Tribe Textile art, I find my situation to be be like that of Justice Potter Stewart in 1964 when he was dealing with a obscenity (pornography) United States Supreme Court case. He stated that he could not define it "But I know it when I see it".

So it is for me with Hill Tribe Textile art. I can not define it but what I see I like and know it to be art.

We have seen and purchased Hill Tribe textile art in Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. In our home we have 7 pieces decorating the wall and furniture. We have two large Yao pieces stored away that we have to figure out how to most effectively display. My favorite Yao piece is 4 feet wide by 6 feet long and is completely covered in very fine and detailed colorful needlepoint. We purchased the piece one and one-half years ago from the Yao Grandmother who had worked on it for a year and three months. We paid 3,000 baht ($100 USD) for it. A piece of art for $100 - another reason why I enjoy being in Thailand so much.

As you travel the Hill Tribe regions of Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam, you will encounter many women and girls sewing, weaving, embroidering, and needlepointing. The results of their efforts are often for sale at very reasonable prices. If you prefer not to buy anything, you can photograph the walking art galleries that pass you by on the village roads or the works of art on display in the booths along the road.

Hill Tribe clothing in itself are works of art. They contain many artistic elements - embroidery, needlepoint, profusion of colors, batik, applique, metalwork, cross stitching, and beadwork. The only other clothing that I have found that approaches the uniqueness of Hill Tribe traditional clothing is on display at the Museum of the Plains Indians in Browning , Montana on the Blackfoot Indian reservation.

However examples of the Indian handicrafts and artistic skills are not available for sale.