Laos Day #2 - Long Journey Back to Luang Namtha

It had taken us 2 hours to go from Luang Namtha to the market at Muang Sing. We finished our market visit around 9:00 A.M.. Since we had hired the "Taxi" and driver for the day, we were free to explore the countryside during our return trip to Luang Namtha. As it turned out, our return trip took 5-1/2 hours!

The weather forecast for the day was a 80% probability of precipitation. Duang at sunrise was concerned that it would rain. I assured her that it would not rain until 3:00 P.M. I don't know why I gave that prediction, but I believed it without reservations.

After some early morning fog, mist and somewhat threatening sky, the day turned out rather good. There was some sun light, and cool temperatures - just right for travel.

Outside of Muang Sing, at the village of Baan So, we came upon farmers preparing the fields for a second planting of rice. Just as in Isaan, the primary rice crop is planted in July and harvested in late November. Some North West Laos farmers with reliable and abundant sources of water, like some in Isaan, plant a second rice crop in January. These farmers were using the same type of "iron buffalo", Kubota - after the Japanese company that builds and markets them, to smooth out the ground in the flooded paddy. Duang shouted out to the driver to pull over and stop so that I could take some photographs. She got out along with me to stretch her legs. Besides being able to photograph these types of activities, stopping and walking a ways gives you the opportunity to listen, smell, and closely observe aspects of daily life. Several workers passed by us either riding bicycles or walking along the road. They seemed as curious about us as we were about them - the main difference only being that I had cameras to take their pictures.

Our driver quickly understood that I enjoyed photographing people. He willing stopped whenever we came upon something or someone interesting - Monks on bicycles, men working in rice paddies, workers harvesting broom plant, Hmong villages, etc, etc. It ended up being a fantastic day with the rain holding off until 2:30 P.M. just as we entered the hotel reception area after our long day on the road but 30 minutes earlier than I predicted.




After photographing the men preparing the rice paddies for planting, we drove to Ban Singhyuan (sp?). In Ban Singhyuan we encountered a crew of workers working in a very large watermelon patch. The driver pulled over and stopped. I hopped out with Duang right behind me. We joined the workers out in the middle of the patch or more aptly "field". The workers, a mixture of men and women ranging in age from approximately 15 to 45 years old, were trimming the vines by pinching off "runners" with their fingers. This would increase the productivity of the vines. Some of the workers were delicately picking up the vines to dip the flower blossoms into a clear watery liquid contained in the inverted top half of a 1.25 liter recycled soda plastic bottle. The vines were cultivated much like cultivated strawberries - planted in plastic covered long furrows of soil. The vines grow up and out of small holes made in the top of the plastic. As a furrow was completed, the crew moved over to the next furrow to repeat their activities. Although it was still early in the morning, temperature around the plastic sheeting and dry compacted clay soil was rapidly rising. The workers were very friendly as well as sociable - the younger women joking about wanting to find a foreign husband. I have written about farm workers making between 100 baht ($3.00 USD a day) for garlic workers near Maehongson and 150 baht ($5.00 USD a day) for rice workers in Isaan (Tahsang Village)so I was interested in knowing how much Lao farm workers were paid. They told Duang that they make 120 baht a day.


Our next stop on our trip back to Luang Namtha was a Yao village called Ban Namai. The Yao people migrated from China and are typified by the large red fluffy trim on woman's jackets. The Yao, also known as Meo, people are well known for their cross stitching and embroidery. Duang and I had purchased some Yao textiles during our trip to Chiang Rai two years ago. Upon our arrival in the village we were besieged by women with textiles and handicrafts for sale. It is often difficult when there are so many people trying to earn some money. You want to help but there is only so much that you can do. We ended up buying a beautiful piece that had an embroidered butterfly and flower motif. The young man who had made the piece has gone to school in China, speaks Chinese, and speaks rather good English. The piece 31 inches by 50 inches cost us $42 USD. We bought some smaller items and having felt that we had done enough for that village's economy, we beat a hasty retreat.




We stopped in the Tai Dam (Black Tai) village of Ban Nong Bua. We found a woman who was weaving cotton underneath the shade of her home. I watched for awhile and took some photographs. Duang and she entered into negotiation over some of the woman's work so I left to tour the village on my own. In the end Duang had purchased two hand woven and sewn Tai Dam shirts for our one year old grandson for $1.00 each and a man sized traditional shirt for $6 USD. I went down one of the side streets of the village and encountered women wanting to sell me textiles. I turned and although I did not run, I walked fairly fast to another part of the village. In this part of the village an addition was being constructed to one of the homes. The men were using lumber levers to lift a part of the house onto stones for a better foundation. I lent my weight if not expertise to the operation and the house was easily lifted and placed. The construction effort was a family effort by husband, brothers, grandfather, and sons. Aunts, grandmother, daughters, and wife were occupied in cooking food on wood fires for the construction crew. I was there for quite awhile and Duang finally found me. She had been worried about my fearlessness to discover things in these villages.

In Ban Tin That, we found workers harvesting broom plant. Throughout the district broom plant has been cut and is laying out in the sun to dry in huge fields, alongside the roads, and inside the villages. Broom plant is a reed with a large soft head. The reed stems are bound together to form a handle and the fluffy heads are swept across surfaces to clean them. We use these types of brooms in our home as just about everyone else does. The harvested broom plant is exported to China, turned into consumer products for domestic consumption as well as export. I had walked out to the workers alone and after engaging them in conversation well beyond my verbal and pantomime skills I called out to Duang for assistance. Of all the workers we encountered on our return trip these workers were the most friendly as well as the youngest. They were gathering up the broom plants that had been cut three days ago. The cut plants had laid spread out in the sun to dry out. The Chinese companies pay 1,200 KIP ($0.14 USD) a kilogram for raw material but 2,000 Kip ($0.24 USD) a kilogram for dry product. These workers were gathering the dry plants and bundling them together with strips of bark to create sheaves that were then hauled over to a small spring scale to be weighed and loaded onto a large truck. I joked to the workers about all the plant going from Laos to China so that China could send it to America. I learned that these workers make less money, 80 Baht a day, than farm workers in Isaan. Duang is able to talk to most of the people so we learn a great deal about their life and work. She is not able to speak to some of the minorities such Akha who speak only their languages and not Lao.

We stopped at a Hmong Village several kilometers outside of Luang Namtha. It was rather new and did not have a name. Children were headed out into the forest with woven bamboo baskets on their back. The children gather firewood to bring back home and food for the family meal. It is a constant wonder to me to see small children making significant contribution to the family welfare. Children too young to go off in the forest, contribute by caring for their baby brothers and sisters. Spend some time in these back waters of SE Asia and you soon realize that childhood is a luxury that is affordable to very few people.

That night it rained most of the night. We slept very well to the gentle sound of rain on the wood shingles of our cottage and the lack of roosters proclaiming their presence. We slept 12 hours after our journey in the pickup bed taxi truck. A great way to end a great day.

New Gallery Available to View

A gallery of photographs related to my July 22 "Isaan Rice Planting" and July 17 "Planting Rice, Listening to Gossip" blogs is now available for viewing at my photography website.

The weather continues to be hot, humid, and wet - great weather for getting caught up on all kinds of tasks such as blog writing, editing photos, correspondence, and writing my next book.

Isaan Rice Planting

Last weekend's big plans were set aside by the weather. There was too much water for planting rice or fishing. All was not lost however, our five month old grandson paid a visit on Sunday.

Yesterday the weekend's planned rice planting took place. Rice was being planted in plots just outside of Tahsang Village by family members hired by Duang's daughter. Ten people walked from Tahsang Village out to the fields and awaited our arrival.

They were not being either polite or considerate. They were waiting for us because we were bringing their breakfast out to them in the pickup truck. Apparently when you hire field workers, you also have to feed them, provide them with drink, as well as pay them wages. We arrived around 08:00 A. M. much to Duang's daughter's relief.

Old sahts (woven reed mats) were placed on the relatively dry level ground on the other side of the dirt road that bisected the fields of sugar cane, rice paddies, and grazing grounds for cattle as well as water buffalo. The breakfast area for the workers was also shared with some tethered water buffalo and some free ranch cattle.

After a substantial breakfast of Kao Lao (Lao food) that could very well have been served for lunch or dinner, some of the workers washed down the last of their food with some Lao Kao (white whiskey - a sort of Lao moonshine). Other workers drank water from a common metal cup out of a insulated bucket of cool water. People in Isaan do not follow any type of set menu or types of foods reserved for specific times of the day. Rice is eaten at all meals and often in between. Fish and meat dishes are served at the first meal of the day just as they are at other meals of the day.

Everyone wandered across the road and finished putting on their work clothes for the day's activities. There is no set dress code for working in the fields. Although they will be working in water as well as mud for the day, workers are just as likely to wear pants or skirts as to wear shorts. There does seem to be one common article of clothing. Most Isaan farm workers wear brightly colored soccer style jerseys. Often the jerseys bear advertising for companies and corporations. This is much like my past when some of my wardrobe was provided as project safety awards or project team building windbreakers and jackets.

Heads are covered in a variety of gear ranging from pakamas, straw hats, and cotton sun bonnets. Often the workers will also wear some type of device to cover their necks and faces from the sun and to absorb perspiration. Colorful cotton tee shirts are sometimes employed to cover the face and neck. Sometimes the workers wear specialized articles of clothing designed and constructed specifically to cover the face and neck.

Once everyone was properly dressed they set about their work. Two paddies had been previously prepared. The paddies were about 75 feet by 100 feet long surrounded by dikes of compacted clay overgrown with vegetation. The plots were completed flooded with a mixture of mud and water about 18 inches deep. Sheaves of rice sprouts had been previously distributed throughout the prepared paddies. The workers set out in a line and grabbed bundles of sprouts from the sheaves. Groups of three sprouts were set deeply by hand into the soupy mud. In little time but with a great deal of back breaking work the paddies were spotted with neat and proper rows of transplanted sprouts.

As most of the workers focused on setting out the sprouts, some of the workers broke off to perform specific specialized tasks. Duang's son-in-law owns a small tractor and earns money using it to prepare local rice paddies. He had trucked the tractor to these paddies the night before. On the back of the tractor was a rototiller type attachment that ground up the unprepared paddies. Due to the monsoon rains that we have been experiencing for the past month, the ground is saturated with water and many of the paddies have standing water in them. The tractor or sometimes using a small iron buffalo grinds up the soil, water, and vegetation to create a flat soupy mud for planting the rice. If there is not enough standing water in the prepared paddy, a small portable diesel driven pump is used to transfer water to the paddy. In areas of the impoundment where the tractor could not get completely into, a man with a hoe finished the paddy preparation.

Duang went to the area where the rice sheaves had been placed the day before. The sprouts had been harvested at a different location the day before and brought by pick up truck to the paddies. It appeared to me that there were at least three pick up truck loads of sheaves - however this is Isaan and knowing how much they load up their trucks, I suspect that they had made only one trip or maybe two. Duang used a large heavy machete type knife to cut the tops off of the rice sheaves. This was to promote growth in the transplanted sprouts. As she picked up each sheave to trim its top, she inspected the root base of the sheave. For proper transplantation of the sprouts and to ensure a good harvest, the sprouts must have about 4 inches of good hairy root structure. Any sheaves that did not have sufficient root development were cast to the side to be fed to the livestock or placed on top of the paddy dikes. As she completed trimming each sheave, Duang placed the bundle off to the side in a special area.

Duang's cousin placed the shorn sheaves on the ends of a long bamboo pole and carried the wet mud dripping bundles out to the prepared fields. He carried the sheaves much like we had observed other workers transporting harvested garlic in the Maehongson area during April. He carried the pole full of sprouts out into the prepared field and left them in a pile in the muddy water. Other workers distributed them throughout the field for transplanting.

Everyone worked diligently at their tasks with the monotony of the work interrupted by shouting out to passing relatives or friends tending to their free range cattle. One grandfather came out on a motorbike with his young grandson so that the child could watch his mother for a while. My antics in photographing the goings on was often the subject of conversation as well as amusement. I was also teased about taking too many pictures of Duang rather than of them.

The work went very smoothly and the only excitement occurred when one of the women planting rice pulled a mouse out of muddy goop. She proudly held it by its tail and displayed it so that I could photograph the event.

The people worked until all the paddies had been planted. The work was completed by 2:00 P.M. Everyone piled into the back of our pick up and we went back to Tahsang Village. After washing, the workers reunited at Duang's parent's house to eat and drink. The men ate in one room and the women ate in another room. Sahts were placed on the tile floor and the food and drink were laid out picnic style. There was plenty of food and beer. Everyone enjoyed their meal and the air was filled with animated conversation and laughing.

We returned to our home tired but satisfied with our day out in the rice paddies.

Planting Rice, Listening to Gossip

Yesterday we drove out to Tahsang Village. WE drove out.

While I was away in the USA, Duang went to school and obtained her driver's licence ("ID Card Drive Car"). The previous day she drove the truck for the first time with me as a passenger.

Two days ago, we went out to Tahsang Village and Duang drove part of the way. She drove well - slow and carefully. However it seemed that she was not totally familiar or comfortable with down shifting. Since the country road from Kumphawapi is in such a poor state, down shifting is often required in navigating the bumps, ruts, holes and other road obstacles. The area headman had promised to have the road repaired in 5 months last December. It is now 8 months later and the only change that we have experienced is that the roads are worse. Sound familiar? I spoke with Duang about down shifting and when it was necessary to change gears. She said that she now understood.

On yesterday's trip, it was obvious that Duang now understood down shifting. She did very well. I got to enjoy looking over the countryside as we drove along the country road. We get rain just about everyday and due to micro-climate conditions, Tahsang Village area gets more frequent and greater rains than we do back at our home. The fields are flooded and the farmers have been busy planting this year's rice crop. The return of the monsoon rains have worked wonders with the sugar cane. The sugar cane has grown at least 3 to 4 feet in the past month with the return of nourishing rains.

Fortunately yesterday's rains did not come until late at night. We had a partly cloudy day - hot and humid. People were busy taking advantage of the dry spell. Along one stretch of the road farmers were busy harvesting peanuts. The men were occupied in pulling the plants out of the ground and bringing them to where the women had placed some sahts on the higher ground near the road. The women removed the peanuts from the bottom of the plants and placed them into plastic bags to sell to passing motorists. A bag of peanuts sells for $0.30 USD for 2.2 pounds. Duang is fond of them so we have had fresh boiled peanuts the past week. When she gets home, Duang empties the plastic bag into a sink of cold water and cleans them before boiling them in salted water. Being from New England I had not had the Southern delicacy of boiled peanuts prior to relocating to Isaan. Boiled peanuts are one of the few items of "Kao Lao" (Lao food) that I eat and enjoy. Perhaps it's a start.


Along the road past the peanut farmers we passed some people working in their rice field. Duang pulled over and I got out to take some photographs. The three people were not relatives of hers but it did not seem to matter. In no time at all they were filling her in on the local gossip.

The Tahi man that lived in the house next to the field had died. We saw the truck with the rental refrigerated casket headed back to Kumphawapi as we drove towards Tahsang. That was news but the gossip involved the "falang" who lived in the local "big fancy house".

The house and its associated compound is very nice and was an inspiration to Duang and I when we did not have a home. Recently the place was declining in appearance and Duang had told me awhile ago that a Thai man had bought it. Two days ago she told me that the foreign man had gone back to his homeland when he found out that his Thai wife had been sleeping with a Thai man. Worse than that, the little baby that she gave birth to was not his but was fathered by the Thai boyfriend. This seemed to make sense as to why and how the property was declining. The Thai boy friend had not "bought" the property. He was only using it - kind of like he was doing with the Thai woman. He didn't have the money to keep the place up. Duang said that the Thai woman was trying to sell the property so that she could send one-half of the money back to her foreign husband. I am not sure but this could be a "first".

It now turns out that the 68 year old foreigner has returned to Isaan and is once again living in the house with his 32 year old wife. The Thai boy friend has returned to "Wife #1" in Khumphawapi and the baby remains with its mother in the fancy house. Now the foreigner is sick and the neighbors don't expect him to live much longer. Being able to gather in and participate in the local gossip makes the wait while I take pictures easier on Duang. She later fills me in on the details so that I am informed.

I enjoyed myself for about an hour and a half photographing the people. As much as I found them interesting and fascinating subjects, I suspect that they were amused with me. Many passing motorists and motorcyclists drove by and shouted out hello to the "Falang" (foreigner) taking "Tai-loop" (photographs) - some were relatives or neighbors in Tahsang. It was all good natured. I have found the people of Isaan to be very fun loving and very good natured. There is never a problem in stopping along the road and photographing people as they work.

Work in the fields yesterday involved harvesting the rice sprouts from on field and transplanting them into another larger flooded field about 50 meters away. One woman pulled the sprouts, washed off the roots, and bundled the sprouts into sheaves which she bound together using some rice sprouts as a string. A man and another woman were in the other field planting the sprouts in clusters of three throughout the field. A community water cooler and battery operated transistor radio were located on one of the nearby raised dikes bording the fields. Mahlam Lao and Mahlam Sing music blared out from the radio as the workers went about their stoop labor in the fields. The workers were dressed in mostly red clothing which made for some interesting photographs. After awhile the man put a brightly colored pakama on his head for protection from the sun.

We continued on to Tahsang Village only to realize that we had developed a flat tire. I spent the next 30 minutes changing the tire. I had help. Kwan, Duang's 18 month old cousin, came over to watch me. She didn't say anything but constantly remained about 3 feet from where ever I was working. I appreciated her morale support. It was refreshing every once in awhile to see that cute face and large dark eyes watching over me. Duang helped out by crawling under the truck to help connect the rod to lower the spare tire from underneath the pick up bed. We had apparently picked up a metal screw in the tire when we pulled off the road to photograph the field workers.


Just as I was finishing, one of Duang's older uncles came by on his three wheeled bicycle and wanted to know how I was doing. I told him that I was going to pay him 1,000 baht (equivalent to one week's wages for farm worker) to change the tire for me but I got tired of waiting for him to show up so I changed it myself. He got my joke and we had a good laugh as I tightened the last of the nuts on the wheel. I asked Duang's mother why she didn't help me and she pointed out that it was she that sent me the ice cold Pepsi from the market - another good laugh.

On the way home, we stopped and had the tire repaired and remounted - $3.00 USD!

It was another great day full of surprises.

Word arrived today that Duang's cousin who lives two hours northeast of here will be going out catfishing this weekend, dependent upon water levels. We went to his wedding last year and he had said that he would let us know when they would be going out fishing. Last year I put my foot through his fishing boat - more like a big very old bamboo raft with an "A" frame on the back for set and raising big nets. Hopefully some of the bamboo has been replaced.

If the fields are not too flooded and it doesn't rain, Duang's daughter and other relatives will be working in the rice fields too.

It is a busy time in Isaan - I'll need to be sure that all my batteries - camera as well as my internal ones are fully charged for the upcoming busy weekend.

27 July 2008 - Rice Planting continued

27 July 2008 Sunday - Rice continued

Saturday's journey to Nongwha was so interesting and stimulating that we decided to return on Sunday to witness the next step in cultivating rice.
Sunday's activities were to take the sheaves of rice seedlings and transplant them in groups of 3 or 4 into holes made with the worker's hand into the freshly prepared flooded ground.

Today I took up Duang on her offer to photograph her working in the rice paddy. Earlier in her life she had worked in the rice paddies for 70 baht ($2 USD) A DAY. She did quite well perhaps attributable to her short wide feet that I often tease her about! She replied back that with my narrow feet, I wouldn't be able to move through the mud! That is as good an excuse for me to avoid embarrassing myself attempting to do that back breaking labor! Just walking around, stooping, and squatting to take different photographs drenched me in perspiration.

The workers that I have photographed the past two days are subsistance farmers. The rice that they are cultivating is for their personal use.

After 1-1/2 hours of shooting photos in the hot and humid Thai air, we walked back to Duang's house in the village. I had shot 275 pictures the previous day and followed up on Sunday with 383 photos. Once the shots have been shot, they are downloaded to my computer to be edited, organized and cataloged. The entire process keeps me very busy.

Walking along the road to Duang's took awhile. People, most of them her relatives, had to ask us what we were doing and express their pleasantries with us. There are not many secrets in the villages of Isaan.

Once we got to the village, we had lunch at her cousin's outdoor restaurant (a thatched roofed open-sided structure with three table and benches). Food is cooked over an open charcoal fire. Two bowls of kweteeow (noodle soup with pork, vegetables) and two slurpies - $2.00 USD TOTAL - no tax or tip required.

A strong thunderstorm dumped a great deal of rain over the area - good for the rice and only an inconvenience for people.

26 July 2008 - Rice Planting

26 July 2008 Saturday - Rice

It was another hot and humid day today in Isaan. We were off fairly early this morning to Duang's home village of Nongwha by way of public transportation - somlaw and songthaew.

The government today removed some of the tax on gas and diesel to help the people out. Amazingly all gas stations have reduced their prices by 4 Baht per liter.
After arrival in Nongawha and doing the family respects thing, we got the use of Duang's son's pickup truck for the day. I drove over to the rice paddies where her cousins were working. "Cousins" - it seems that in the area just about everyone is a cousin, aunt or uncle. Even on the songthaew out to the village from Kumphawapi, Duang was engaged in a animated conversation with an elderly woman who was carrying her grandchild. I facetiously asked if the elderly woman was a relative. Sure enough the "old momma" was a relative!

Duang's relatives were working some of their land. Rice cultivation is very labor intensive. Almost all the work in this region is still done manually. Water buffalo or small walk behind tractors are used to initially plow the ground but the remainder of the work is by hand.

Rice paddies here are flat diked areas of land about 100 feet by 100 feet. The plots are surrounded by eighteen to twenty four inch high earthen berms. The soil is a very heavy clay so the impounded areas collect and retain rain water. Since it is now the monsoon season, there is rain at some period of the day, usually late afternoon, everyday.

Rice seed is first sown in a small prepared flooded area by a hand broadcast method. The rice grows within the flooded paddy in a thick green carpet much like grass - which it is. When the young rice is about 18 inches to 24 inches high, it is harvested for transplanting. Yesterday and I imagine tomorrow as well as the day after; Duang's relatives were harvesting the young plants for transplanting them to other paddies.

Under the hot glaring sun, the farmers wade into the flooded nursery paddy and pull up the young rice plants by hand in oppressive humidity. The plants are pulled out of the mud with one hand and carried in the other hand. When a sufficient amount of plants have been gathered, the accumulated bunch of water and mud dripping stalks are dipped in the water and rapped against the farmer's upraised foot to remove excess mud from the roots. The bundle is then laid flat on the ground for the next step. The workers pulling up the stalks develop a rhythm to their activity and it becomes choreography of economic body motions.

While some of the farmers are extracting plants from the ground, others are collecting the flat bunches from the ground. The bunches are then individually tamped against the bottom of an overturned plastic tub to further remove excess mud and to square off the bottom of the bunch. The bunch is then tied into a sheaf and placed vertically in a cleared portion of the nursery pad awaiting transplanting into a newly prepared paddy.

In an adjacent paddy, a man uses a self propelled mechanical buffalo to plow a paddy. The mechanical buffalo is a diesel powered two wheeled tractor about 20 HP. The wheels are about three foot diameter metal paddlewheels that are able to traverse the muddy paddy.

In a previously plowed area, another man is using a hoe to further process the soil for planting.

To be continued ...