Day Fourteen - The Final Word

As I sit here at Bangkok Airport waiting for my flight home, I have some time (about 7 hours actually) to reflect on the last two weeks.  These last two weeks seem to have been an eternity, but at the same time gone by quite fast.  We packed in a lot of cycling, lots of visits to various villages and monuments, and interacted with the locals in ways that would not have been possible as a regular visitor to these two incredible countries.  Along the way, I met a wonderful bunch of people, my fellow fundraisers and cyclists, who each had their own fascinating story of how they became a part of the team and what they did to raise the necessary funds for the clean water and sanitation project in Laos.  Many of us did not know what to expect and in some cases we were very pleased with what we saw and in other cases things could have been better.  It was different for each of us and I can't comment for everyone else, but what I can say is that for me, I would have liked to spend more time within the communities were we fund raising to help.  Our time with the communities was richly rewarding for us and I hope too for our hosts, that could have been made richer by spending more time together.  As an example, our time at the school was only long enough to see some of the classrooms and play outside with the kids, after they eventually warmed up to us.  I couldn't tell you what any of their names were.  The same is true for the people at the villages and the boys and girls with whom we played the soccer game.  It would have been nice to be able to make a stronger connection with them.  That is not to say that these experiences were not good, on the contrary, they were amazing and almost impossible to describe in terms of the emotions we felt at the time.

There were also some things that opened my eyes a bit more to the work that NGOs like ChildFund are doing in these communities.  For example, despite the best intentions of visitors, we were asked not to hand any gifts of any kind to the children and families we visited in Laos and if we had something we wanted to give, then it should be given to the ChildFund co-ordinator for the area to distributed appropriately.  We were informed that giving handouts to them in that manner from visitors/donors, encourages a culture of begging that they are obviously trying to keep out.  In fact, I don't recall seeing a single beggar in Laos, even in the main tourist areas.  More to my surprise though, and it makes perfect sense when you think about it, the families who will be receiving the toilets that we were fund raising for do not simply have it handed to them.  Each family needs to put in a certain percentage of the cost of the toilets based on their relative wealth within the community and also do the labour to actually build them.  The percentage is quite low and will be between 5-15% of the cost.  ChildFund provides the toilets and materials build the toilet unit, as well as training on how to do it and the household needs to dig the hole for the cement pit for the waste, build the toilet and the structure it will be housed in.  This gives the individual household a sense of ownership and pride of their toilet and thus will look after it.  I can tell you first hand that these toilets were spotless as they are well cleaned after each use.  I've seen plenty of Western household toilets that were in a worse state than these.  The philosophy is working as the demand for more household toilets is rising from the individual families in the villages.  Great news.  Also, despite this fund raising being about sanitation and clean water, ChildFund is doing much more than that in the communities.  Education is very important to lift people out of poverty, as is health and nutrition, and ChildFund is also working in these areas to provide those services, but in a way that involves the community and gives them ownership over the outcomes.  Take education for example, ChildFund built the school that we went to visit, but it was not done without first consulting the locals about the location and how it will benefit the community the most.  It was also not done without first getting buy-in from the local government/council to provide the teachers and commit to the ongoing staffing.  There is no point having a school if there are no teachers, just as there is no point having education without first meeting the basic needs of that community like food, clean water, shelter, access to health care etc.  There is a whole ecosystem that needs to be in place and continually developing in order to effectively support a community like those we visited in Nonghet and in the long term (about 12 years we're told) be able to step back and know that the locals have everything they need to be able to help themselves.  This is the essence of what ChildFund is doing in Nonghet.  They are about 3 years in to the 12-year program and what they are doing seems to really be working well.

I know I rambled a bit in the last paragraph, but I think it was important to express as clearly as I could some of the learning I took away from this trip.  We in the West don't really understand the full picture of what the NGOs are doing and can often be critical of that work when immediate results are not seen.  Throughout the blog posts while I've been away, I've talked about different aspects of culture that I've noticed and other bits of information.  The Lao people are some of the most gentle people I have ever met and not once throughout the whole time we were there did I ever feel unsafe or threatened by any situation.  They seem to have a very trusting and hospitable culture that almost dictates that if you asked for it, a person that never met you would give you the shirt off his back.  To try and illustrate, while we were cycling, we would make several stops along a route that would often be in the middle of a village.  As you can imagine, these stops were also toilet breaks for some, but there are no public toilets anywhere, so on occasion, the villagers would allow us to enter their premises to use their toilets as we streamed in one by one.  How many people do you know who would let a bunch of smelly cyclists, whom you've never met and will never see again, come into their homes one by one to use their toilet?  And expect nothing in return?  Another example is one I've already mentioned in the blog posts.  When we visited the villages in Nonghet, these people gave up what would likely have been their quota of meat for the month in order to fed these strangers that they had never met before.  You could argue that this was a form of saying thank-you for the funds we raised to help their communities, but I believe that thinking would be a little narrow minded and devalue the incredible generosity of a people that have far less than we do.  Chris Mastaglio, Country Director ChildFund Laos, told us that he went to Laos for a holiday about 8 years ago and just never left.  I can see why.

What about the children?  The children are the means through which ChildFund is trying to accomplish their work in Laos and all over the world.  Children are strong advocates for their families and are often not as hindered culturally to speak up about the things that affect them as their parents might be.  ChildFund is working through children to understand what their challenges are and get their ideas on how to improve things.  The sport centre that ChildFund set up is a classic example of this.  The children themselves plan and run the activities of that centre with only guidance, funding and support from ChildFund staff.  I've never seen so many smiling happy children than I what I saw in Laos and Cambodia for that matter.  Interacting, playing, waving, and yelling hello to the children as we rode along have definitely been one of the memories that I am most fond of from our time here.  Working in a culture where children are to be seen and not heard, these children are making a difference in the development of their communities for the better.  It was just wonderful to see.

This begs the question, would I do something like this again?  Of course!!  But I would like to do it in a way that includes my whole family.  I think it would be greatly rewarding and eye opening for my children to see how children in other places are living and to appreciate the comforts that they have in life.  I think generally in the West, we are immune or turn a blind eye to the poverty and suffering being experienced by others every day and it is important to educate our children that life isn't just about making more money so you can get the things you want and live a happy life.  I believe that those of us in a position of privilege have a responsibility to help those that are less fortunate, to improve their lives and standard of living also.  This doesn't mean providing handouts, but rather getting involved and making a difference through organisations such as ChildFund who are trained and experienced in implementing the programs necessary to create a long term sustainable method of keeping them out of poverty.  This doesn't mean we have to go overseas either.  There are plenty of people in Australia that need help and support too; the homeless (Hanover, The Smith Family and others have programs that you can participate in), marginalised Aboriginal communities (TEAR Australia is doing work in this space among others), the depressed(BeyondBlue has been working with people sufferring from depression for as long as I can remember) and many more.  Get out there and make a difference.

A quick note to my fellow riders and fundraisers.  Thank-you for an extraordinary experience.  Sharing this time with such a diverse group of people pulled together by a common will to make a difference in the lives of others has really enhanced what was already an amazing time.  Please stay in touch and look me up when you are in Melbourne.  I will do the same when I'm in your respective cities.  You have all been inspirational to me in your own way, more than you probably know.

Finally, to all the people and organisations that sponsored and supported this great cause, from donating your time, your products, your money, and your energy, to encouraging me and supporting me along the way, I sincerely thank you.  I hope that you have been able to share a little bit of this experience with me through the blog posts and have felt a part of the great work that you have helped to accomplish.

This is me signing off for the moment on the Laos Water Cycle blog.  I'm not sure if/how I will continue to use this blog, but once I know, you will know also. :-)

Thank you!!

Day Thirteen

Today is the last day of riding.  We had about 50-55km riding today and most of it was off road.  We rode out to the Roulous temple, which is one of oldest temples in Siem Reap.  I got a few pictures, but then the battery in my camera ran out as I forgot to charge it the night before.  Thankfully, I stil had my iPhone which allowed me to take some photos.  We spent about 30 minutes here and to be honest, it wasn't a lot different from from the other temples we've seen so far, but it had some great statues of lions and elephants that were mostly in tact.  Through the dirt roads there were many houses and the local children would run out and screm "hello" to us.  Some would even stick their hands out for high fives and we rode past.  I have to say that one of the highlights of this trip has been the kids and how excited they get to see a group of foreign riders come past.

We left the temple and cycled to a massive lake area where there is a floating village, the Kampong Phluck.  The people at the village live off the eco system of the surrounding water and selling what they fish.  It is not particularly clean water in the lake and is largely fed from the Mekong river, but the villagers have learnt to within the environment very well.  There was even one building with a solar panel on it.  We stayed here for lunch were the local restaurant had prepared a pincic lunch for us.  It was a great area and we even got time for a small rest before having to head on back to the bikes by boat.  Once we got back to the bikes, it was more dirt riding until we go back to the hotel.  Time to freshen up for our last dinner together.

At dinner, which was great food again, we exchanged our secret santa gifts which was a whole lot of fun.  Everyone in the restaurant was watching us as we each took a seat on Santa's knee (Simon) and collected our presents.  I was given a Cambodian Soccer Team shirt.  I guess whoever my secret Santa was got to know me a little while we've been on this trip.  After lunch, we all went out for a few celebratory drinks and a bit of dancing.  It was a good night out and it will be sad to have to say goodbye to these great people tomorrow.
Apologies for the brevity of this post, but I am writing it on the morning that we have to leave and I still need to do some packing.  See you back in Melbourne.

The pictures are of a part of the temple and the floating village.

Day Twelve

Guess What? I wasn't involved in an accident today!!  Although, given the traffic here, I'm a little surprised.  We set off on our bikes this morning to visit a series of temples, including Angkor Wat, a world heritage listed and one of the man made 7 wonders of the world.  The cambodians nominally drive on the right hand side of the road, but at your leasure it seems ok to just drive on the left hand side of the road, particularly if you are going to turn left.  So it was not an uncommon sight today to see vehicles coming towards you on the wrong side of the road.  The give way rules seem to be related to how brave you are, how big you are or simply who got there first.  Having said that, I think I would still prefer riding a bicycle on the roads here than on the roads back home in Melbourne.  At least here, the bikes are not considered a nuisance but rather another road user that needs to be negotiated.  There is no agro on the roads, despite the constant beeping of horns, as people let you know that they are there and are going to overtake.  After taking off from the hotel, we make a quick stop at the ticket booths for the temples where we got our 3-day pass to visit any of the temples in this region over that time.  I think we will be all "templed out" by the time we leave here.

The first temple we visited was the Forest Temple.  This is also the temple with the Tomb Raider movie with Angelina Jolie was filmed.  I'm guessing it's called the Forest Temple because there are lots of enourmous trees growing through and around the temple.  It's very impressive.  The East and West gates are the most heavily used, but the South gate is the most impressive to my mind as it is all the original stones that were layed around 900 years ago (see picture below).  Inside, most of the temple is in ruins, but there is a project sponsored by the Indian government, to help restore the temple to it's former glory (well as much as possible anyway).  There are pictures throughout the site that show before and after the restoration works and the change is incredible.  There are faces carved into many of the towers, which is a recurring theme through all of the temples, especially the Bayon temple.  The Forest temple is surrounded by a moat with very high retaining walls as the moat waters rise significantly during the wet season.  Once we'd seen the main section of the temple, we got back on the bikes and rode around a section of the top of the retaining wall of the moat.  This way we were also able to see the North and South gates that were otherwise inaccessible, but it required a bit of off-road riding.  This wouldn't worry me normally, but I was paranoid that I would hurt myself on something if I rode on anthing other than flat ground given the luck I've had lately.  Anyway, we all survived it and it was worth it.

We then rode a little further to the Bayon temple. This was a much larger temple and even seemed to have a different look and feel about it.  Apart from the clear lack of trees and other growth surrounding it, it was much taller, wider, and intense.  There were many more towers in this temple and many more stone carved faces as each tower had four faces; one facing each direction of the compass.  This temple was a bit better preserved in many ways, but it was still having some restoration works being done (come to think of it all, the temples were having some restoration work done.)  The highlights at this temple for me were the carvings of the faces into the stone and the carvings of the gallery that told the story of the history of the people at the time.  We discovered that the temple was built entirely without the use of any mortar or any type of sealant between the stones.  They cut the stone in different shapes to create a type of interlocking mechanism between each stone, a bit like a jigsaw puzzle.  For the stones that will be joining together, they smooth out the rock as much as possible to create a seal between them as the surface area of each stone is completely touching one another.  This alone is a magnificent achievement in craftmanship and if that wasn't enough, they then carve intricate details in parts of the stone and also paint certain sections.  We left here and cycled some more to Angkor Wat were we would have lunch before seen the Angkor Wat temple itself.

Angkor Wat, what can you say? (apologies for the really bad pun here)  It is truely a wonder of the world.  According to our informative guide, Nak, the construction of the temple was overseen by two different kings who ruled over two different eras, during a period of about 60 years and it is still not finished.  The moat around this temple is massive, actually, everything about this temple is massive.  Angkor Wat was originally built as a Hindu temple and in its most recent history, two Buddhist pagodas were built on the site as well and are still used to this day, but by far the most impressive part of this temple is the original Hindu buildings.  This temple was also used by the Khmer Rouge when it took control of the county during the civil war in the 70s and 80s.  Many of the artefacts of the original temple were destroyed or stolen during this time and bullet holes can be seen on much of the facade of the main entrance of the temple.  In fact, we noticed that some of the bullets are still in the holes, lodged in the stone that they hit.  The main temple is massive and consists of many section and of course the stone carvings of the smiling faces.  There are a lot of intricate designs in the stone and it has a gallery of its own that tells a story of the people of its time.  There are sections for royalty, religious people and the general population to worship.  We also went to the section where everyone takes their photos of the temple with the reflection in the pool filled with lotus flowers.  I think I managed a pretty good shot, but with restoration works going on, there is an aweful looking scaffolding with a green tarp on the front of it.  I'm hoping to be able to photoshop that out.  We cycled back to the hotel to have a rest and freshen up before dinner.  We really enjoyed dinner, and lunch for that matter, and then it was off to the markets again.  I explored a few different areas of the market I hadn't seen yet and bought a few more things.

Tomorrow is our last full day here before most of us head back home.  We will be visiting more temples as well as a floating village.

Day Eleven

Having left Laos and part of my DNA behind (see day 10), we departed Kratie today for an 8 hour drive in the bus to Siem Reap, our final destination for this Tour de Laos.  The drive took us though many interesting landscapes, most of which was fairly flat, but the most memorable thing again was the ridiculously bumpy roads, however, they did improve as we got closer to Siem Reap.  We drove passed a lot of farm land and even a rubber tree plantation.  Each of the trees had a little bowl attached to it to collect the rubber dripping out.  It also looked like the trees had been carved to have a channel around the tree for the rubber to flow down.  We were told that getting the rubber out is a delicate art and if done wrong, the tree could die.  We also stopped along the way to visit a town that had some remaining French colonial buildings during their time of occupation here in Cambodia.  These buildings looked very run down and completely out of place with what was going on at the street level.  Knowing that many tourist come and stop at this town to look at the architecture, the locals had set up their market along the main street.  There were all kinds of fruit, vegetables, spices, meat, fish, etc. to buy and it was a little concerning to see so much meat and fish sitting there in the sun with flies buzzing all around.  We also stopped for lunch and to take some pictures at a 900 year old bridge that we had to cross on the way.  Since much of this area is close to rivers that can rise significantly during the wet season, most, if not all of the houses are built on stilts, not stumps, but stilts.  They are very high off the ground and they have walkways built from the front door to the road, which is also elevated from the rivers.

We arrived in Siem Reap and I gathered all of my dirty clothes to get them washed, we all do, as this is the first time that we've had an opportunity to do so since we started this trip.  Most of the others then had a dip in the pool, but I kept them company since I couldn't go in because of the wounds.  It was good to just not be on a bus to be honest.  We all caught up for dinner and headed out into town to check out the markets.  I did a little more shopping as there is so much beautiful hand crafted things here that catch you eye.  Also, some of the group had thought about doing a KK thing since it was close to Christmas and we would exchange gifts on the last night, so I bought that gift too.  Once we were done, we came back to the hotel where Susan, the fiancee of Bryce who fell off his bike about a week ago and sustained similar injuries, offered to re-dress the main wound on my forearm given she had experience doing Bryce's arm in those first few days following his fall.  It was very much appreciated as it would have been very difficult to do myself.
Tomorrow it's back on the bikes to go to Angkor Wat to explore the temples there.  I'm going to stay far away from Simon. ;-)

I didn't get any photos on my phone today, but I did take some of the damage to my helmet from the fall.  My second cracked helmet in four months.  Oh well, better than my skull.

Day Ten

Farewell Laos.  Hello Cambodia.  We are leaving Laos today with many wonderful memories of the amazing people we've met along the way, beautiful places we've seen and the hope that we have also enriched the lives of those we leave behind.  We left the hotel this morning and caught another boat along the Mekong that would drop us off at a small port village where we would begin cycling for the day.  It would be a 20km cycle to the border of Laos and Cambodia where we would change vehicles and meet our Cambodian guides that would be with us for the rest of the journey.  Well, about 10km into the ride, we had another accident.  And who was involved?  You guessed it. ME!!  At last count I think this makes it my third injury, but this one is vying for first place with my dislocated finger. We were riding along in a group of four out the front with Finn, Simon, Jasmine and I.  Finn was out in front where he usually likes to be and I was more or less side by side with Jasmine on her left hand side and Simon was behind.  Simon decided that he would overtake me on the left but turned in too early, leaving me nowhere to go.  His rear tyre hit my front tyre and over I went.  At this stage we were going at a pretty good pace, somewhere between 25-30km per hour at a guess.  I went down hard and felt my head hit the ground (my helmet is cracked) and forearm and shoulder dragging along the road.  This left some nasty gashes in my arm and heavy grazes on my sunburt shoulder and legs, not to mention a fair bit of bruising.  I had my wounds cleaned of the gravel, sterilised and dressed, but I couldn't continue, so I had to take the bus for the last 10km to the border.

Once we wew through the formalities of the border crossing, we met our new guides and had a bus ride to the place that had been booked for lunch.  The roads here in Cambodia are shocking.  I lost count of the number of times my head just about hit the top of the bus with all the pot holes that we were going over at a great pace.  We eventually got to lunch in one piece.  After lunch we had more driving to do, about 2.5 hours to be precise, and this section of road was even worse.  We were heading to a town called Kratie where we would be staying the night.  Kratie is a little town and on the way our guide tried to prepare us for the worst by telling us that the hotel we were staying in wasn't that good and that it was a little town, but I'm quite impressed by it and the town.  The scenary had been very similar to what we saw in Laos, but that is to be expected since we are not that far from the border.  I have noticed though that the people are different.  They look different and have a different way about them, but I can't pinpoint exactly what that is.  It's not a bad thing, just different.  They have many of the same customs as in Laos, but seem to be a little less formal, but that could be that Cambodia has had a bit more exposure to the west than Laos (at a guess).  One thing I did notice is that even though Cambodia is still a very poor country, they are noticably more affluent than Laos.  Even the beer costs more here.  Also, even though you can use US dollars to buy whatever you want in Laos, they still give you prices in the local Kip, whereas in Cambodia, they just quote things in US dollars, which works out fine for me as I haven't changed any Cambodian Riels yet and probably won't now.

When we arrived at the hotel, we dumped our bags in our rooms and Kristen (our leader from Inspired Adventures) came with me to the local clinic to have my wounds looked at.  The medical guy (I have no idea if he was a doctor or a nurse) came out from the back with a singlet and shorts on and helped remove the dressings that had been applied when I first had the accident.  I was pleased when I saw him reaching for the rubber gloves.  He used saline to help remove the dressings that had now stuck to my open sores and then preseeded to clean them out and apply betadine, which hurt like I don't recall ever having felt before.  I got a dressing for the main wound and everything else was better left undressed.  I went back to the hotel and had a shower which was very difficult with only one good hand and trying not to get the left hand side of my body wet.  I met with the rest of the team in the lobby a little while later and we went to dinner with the local ChildFund team working in Kratie.  It was great to hear about all the work they were doing in this town and what they had achieved in such a short time (they only set up here in June 2011).  Dinner was great as it has been for the entire trip.  I'm loving the food here.  Tonight we had a dish of beef and pinapple.  Who would have thought to put those two things together?  After dinner, several of the group had a few drinks in the restaurant at the hotel, but I wasn't feeling up to it.

I don't have any pictures today as I didn't think everyone would appreciate the pictures of my wounds that I took.  If you are, let me know when you see me next and I'll show you.  Until the next time.

Day Nine

Not such and early start this morning, but a very long and tiring day.  We were sheduled to ride 90km today; 65km in the morning before lunch and then another 25km after we got to our final destination for the night, Don Khon Island.  If there is one thing we have learnt from this trip is that Lao people are very lax when it comes to estimating distances as witnessed by the "3km hill" a few days ago.  Today was no exception.  At the 40km mark, we should have had 25km to get to the restaurant we were going to have lunch at before getting on the boat to the island.  35km later, we arrived at the restaurant.  When we left the 40km stop, Finn and Simon had taken off early so by the time I got going with Allan at my side, they were a resonable way down the road.  As is often the case, when you are following someone, you tend to end up trying to catch them and this was no exception.  Allan and I were riding at a fairly fast pace and we were slowly catching them, but after about 10km I have to admit that the pace was starting to get to me.  Did I mention that the weather today was about 42 degrees?  Anyway, I tucked in behind Allan and was able to hold on until we caught Finn and Simon.  We all rode together for a while until we met up with the bus.  They were motioning us to stop, but we didn't really want to.  Allan did however and Finn, Simon and I kept going.  It was a hard slog and as we knocked back the kilometers it seemed that we would never get there.  Every time we turned a corner we were greeted with another stretch of 2-3km with no restaurant in sight.  Once we passed the 25km mark we thought we had to ride for this final leg, it became clear that we duped by the Lao measuring system again.  The other problem was that we were on a time limit and if we didn't reach the restaurant in time, we would have to get on the bus and none of us wanted that.  Finn, Simon and I finally made it and there were high fives for everyone.  It was a big effort.

Being very hot and quite exhausted by now, we sat down to have some lunch and down a lot of water as well.  I was a bit dehydrated as I ran out of water about 15km from the end.  Did I mention the 42 degrees?  After lunch, we loaded the bikes and bags onto the boat and set off for the island.  Once we got there, it was a short cycle to the hotel and then off to the nearby waterfall on the bikes.  It was actually quite spectacular, but there were no pools to swim in and no rope swings.  It was then a cycle back to the hotel, shower and dinner.  Not much else going on tonight, everyone is far too tired.

Pictures below are of the Mekong river from the restaurant we ate at and the victory picture of Finn, Simon and I (right to left).

Tomorrow we leave Laos and cross the border to Cambodia.

Day Eight

What an early start today.  Up at 4am, out of the hotel by 5 and on a flight to Pakse by 6:30.  I slept on the plane as much as I could and of course, someone managed to get an embarrassing photo of it.  Once we landed, the bus and our bikes were waiting for us.  It was a short trip on the bus to downtown Pakse where we could get into our cycling gear and start our 40km ride for the day.  Actually, it turned out to be more like 60km, but more about that in a minute.  Unlike the weather in Nonghet, which was mostly cold and raining, the weather here is stinking hot.  We mounted our bikes and were off.

The terrain here is very different to Nonghet as well.  In Pakse it is very flat whereas Nonghet, being mountainous, is very hilly.  I welcomed the change as I prefer to be hot than wet and cold, not to mention that I'm also not a fan of hills, I'd much rather go fast.  As is turning out to be a bit of a theme of this trip, the day was not without its dramas.  As we set off, Tanya was having problems with the gear changes on her bike so she had to stop to have it looked at.  This of course meant she was significantly further behind the rest of the group.  She stayed there with Kristen as she always stays at the back of the last person in our group. Further along, Rachel had a problem with her chain I believe so she also stopped to have it fixed and this put her further behind as well.  For those of us that were further along, being led by Tong, our guide, we made a left hand turn at a fairly busy intersection on the way to Wat Phu, a pre-Angkorian temple that is one of the most important Khmer sites in Laos. Once the others that were further back caught up they missed the turn off and kept riding in the wrong direction.  After a short time, it seems that Tanya and Kristan stopped along with the support vehicle, but by this stage, Rachel was already much further along in the wrong direction.  There are several issues as to why they were able to miss the turn off, but the principle one in my mind is that the driver of the support vehicle that was with them didn't even know the way and hence he didn't know they had to turn at that intersection.  Anyway, a smaller group of us travelling in the right direction had kept cycling towards Wat Phu.  In the meantime, the remainder of the group had stayed behind to wait for Kristen, Tanya nad Rachel.  Eventually, they worked out that they made a wrong turn and they had Kristen and Tanya on the bus, but Rachel was still missing.  After a lengthy search in the support vehicles, Rachel was found close to the Thailand border; she'd just kept cycling.  Meanwhile, the group of us that kept going were told to stop with about 10km to go.  After a lengthy wait, we were told to cycle back.  We met up with the rest of our group that was going the right way and were told the story I've just outlined above.  Given everyone was OK and accounted for, and Kristen and Tanya were on the bus with Rachel on the way, we made the decision to go to Wat Phu and have Rachel meet us there.

Wat Phu is a very interesting place.  It is effectively ruins of a temple (or a few temples really) that were around a long time ago.  The temple used to be a Hindu temple, but is now a Buddhist one.  The ruins have incredible artwork carved into the stone all around the ruins.  The main temple is the one at the top of some very old, very uneven stairs which nearly killed me to get up after the 50km ride to get there.  It is worth the climb though as the scenery is spectacular and there are some stone carvings that are very well crafted.  We spent some time there before heading back down though tretcherous stairs and getting back on our bikes.  We cycled another 10km roughly to where the boats were waiting to take us across the Mekong river to where we would spend the night; La Folie Lodge.  This place is situated on an island in the middle of the Mekong.  It's quite a nice restaurant and we spend some time just winding down in the pool before dinner.  Prior to crossing over to the island, one of our people realised that her bag was not on the boat and that it was on the bus going back to Pakse I presume.  We had a quite call to the driver to come back with it before we crossed.  It was a touch and go moment there for a while because we weren't sure it would actually be on the bus, but thankfully it was.

All up, not a bad day considering how horribly it could have worked out.  We also managed to cycle about 60km on a day that should only have been 40km.  That's good because we had some riding to make up since we had a couple of very wet days.  Tomorrow will be our biggest ride day.  90km of riding and also our last full day in Laos.  We are going to the 4000 islands tomorrow making our way towards Cambodia.  Two pictures today.  The first is the main temple at Wat Phu after the crazy stair climb and the other is the boats that we crossed the river on to get to Don Daeng where the hotel is.

Day Seven

A leasurely day today.  Given that the Sport and Play team had done most of our video work last night, we had a bit of a sleep in this morning. We met for breakfast about 8:30 and then worked a little bit more on our video to finalise a few things.  We then packed our bags for the hour long drive back to Phonsavan to catch a plane to Vientiane.  Our ChildFund hosts who had been with us for the last couple of days and our Lao guides joined us.  We stopped for lunch along the way and the headed for the airport.  The flight was very short, only about 30 minutes.  Once we landed, it was straight to the hotel to dump our bags and meet again for a hop-on/hop-off tour of the city.

The tour was also very rushed as we had a very tight agenda to keep.  We visited the Laos version of the Arc de Triomphe.  They call it Patuxay; Patu meaning victory and xay meaning gate.  They aren't as proud of the their Arc it would seem, but maybe something has been lost in translation.  There is a sign on the Arc that reads as follows

"At the northeastern end of the LaneXang Ave. arises a huge structure resembling the Arc de Triomphe.  It is the Patuxay or Victory Gate of Vientiane, built in 1962 (B.E. 2505), but never completed due to the country's turbulent history.  From a closer distance, it appears even less impressive, like a monster of concrete.  Nowadays this place is used as a leisure ground for the people of Vientiane and the seventh floor on top of the building serves as an excellent view point over the city"

Having recently been at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, there are many similarities with this one.  It shouldn't come as a surprise since the French had a massive incluence on the country and I believe actually built this one.  There are nice gardens surrounding the Patuxay and inside has been set up as a market for all sorts of tourist trinkets to buy.  Whilst it is less impressive than the Arc in Paris, I think it is actually quite impressive.  We left there and went to see a building that some believe to contain the remains of Buddha.  It is in the shape of a an object that our guide keeps referring to as a stupor.  The custom here is that when people die, their cremated remains are contained in one of these "stupors" like an urn.  The size if the "stupor" is proportional to the wealth of the person.  The building itself was very large and covered in a golden finish.  We took some photos and the was pretty much the end of the tour.

After freshening up at the hotel, we were out to dinner where we were going to view the videos each of the teams had made and a winner would be chosen.  After each video was played, we had a discussion about the issues and our impressions of what we had seen the issues were in each of the areas.  The videos were quite impressive given the short amount of time we had to put them together.  I'm happy to say that the Sport and Play team, that I was credited as being the editor of, won the best video.  As a prize, we were given a small bottle of the local rice whiskey.  I'm sure it won't last long.  We all had dinner together in an amazing Lao restaurant.  It was Lao food from Vientiane and is a bit different from what we've had so far and it was sensational.  After dinner, we had to say goodbye to our hosts from ChildFund that had been so great to us during our time here over the last few days.  Thank you so much for your hospitality, time and generosity.  We had a quick trip to the night markets before calling it a night.  We have a very early start in the morning as we have a flight to catch to Pakse where we will get back on the bikes again.

The picture below was on the bus that picked us up from the airport and took us on the tour of the city.  We felt very special.

Day Six

Another incredible day has come and gone.  This morning started out with a visit to the Vice Govenor of the district of Nonghet.  We say down in the council rooms where all the big decisions for the district are made and he sat with Chris Mastaglio at the front on the stage.  I can't remeber his name, but he was a Doctor and was married with seven children if my memory serves me correct.  He was keen to ensure that he knew a little about each of us which meant that we had a lengthy introduction where we all told him our name, city we were from and our marital status.  He them proceeded to tell us about the region and the work that ChildFund has been doing to provide a better quality of living for the villagers in Nonghet.  One of the key bits of information that stuck in my mind was that he was particularly pleased with the pace that ChildFund gets things done. In his words, the other NGOs working in the district took too long.  We drank green tea, that was brought to us while the vice govenor spoke,  and listened intently to what he had to say.  Once we were done, we had a quick photo in front of a monument to the first leader of Laos after the war and then went back to the guest house we were staying in to pack and head off to another village.

Our first stop at the village was at the school that ChildFund helped build in this area.  The kids were still in class when we got there so we were able to observe what they were learning and how.  The classrooms were more or less what you would expect in a western school.  Kids had texts books, there were posters on the wall, they kids art and craft were on display and there was a blackboard for the days lesson.  In addition, there was a table filled with fruit and vegetables in the health corner that was being used to teach the kids about nutrition, which can be a problem in the villages.  In one of the classrooms, they were learning English and there was a poster on the blackboard with the Alphabet.  A particularly confident boy agreed to say the Alphabet for us and he did very well.  We reciprocated by singing the ABC song to them.  In yet another classroom, the kids sang a song in the Mong language for us, which was very beautiful.  Soon after we finished visiting the classrooms, it was play time for the kids, although I suspect they were let out a little earlier than usual because of our visit.  We had an absolute blast with the kids.  We played soccer with a whole group of kids and taught them the "keepings off" game that we played for almost the whole time we were there.  More and more kids would come and join us, including the girls, which was great to see, and they were really good.  Other group of us was in a different part of the playground doing some hopscotch with a different group of kids and that game turned in to a stick jumping game that Kristen had invented on the spot.  I'm not sure who had more fun; us or the kids.

When it was time to go, we all jumped back in the vans and went to the house of the chief villager for yet another welcoming feast.  This one was very similar to yesterday with some subtle differences.  What I neglected to mention about yesterdays meal is that at the beginning of each meal, the elder will bless the food and there will be a round of the local rice whiskey.  Additionally, the people of the village would follow what we were told was an old Hindu tradition of tying a strands of cotton around the wrist of each person and say a blessing for that people, whether is be good health or safe travels, money or otherwise.  As many of the villagers are participating in this exercise, you end up with multiple cotton bracelets.  I liked this tradition as it is something that in the west we have largely forgotten how to do, that is, bless our fellow man or woman and pray for their wellbeing.  The meal consisted of egg, chicken, chilli (different from yesterday, but still very hot), green vegetables, rice, banana and some packaged treat, which seems completely out of place with the rest of the meal so I don't know why it is there (I must remember to ask about that).  To put into perspective how special this meal was for us, I discovered that normally, they would only eat meat 2-3 times a month and here they were, probably giving up their meat for this month, to feed 20 or so complete strangers.  That's the type of hospitality that is common throughout Laos, not just in the villages we are visiting.  During the meal, there were several more rounds of the rice whiskey being offered as well as more singing and dancing traditional to the Mong people.  I felt very privileged to be there.

It was soon time to go again and we all hopped back in the vans to go see a local waterfall.  This did not actually eventuate as the road was too muddy and slippery to drive the vans through.  We even tried to walk it, but it got to a point where even that was not possible any more so we had a long uphill walk back to the vans in drove into the centre of Nonghet.  I've not mentioned it yet, but before we came to Nonghet yesterday, Chris talked to us about how they are trying to use media in many different ways to get various messages across to the villagers as there can be a language barrier sometimes and it is also a more entertaining medium.  So while we are in Nonghet and making these visits to the villages, Chris split us into three teams and gave each team a video camera. Each team was to focus on telling the story of how three programs they have been working on in the area has affected the lives of the children there. These programs are Water and Sanitation (of course), Education and Sport and Play (my team).  The videos will be used to make a short film that we will edit ourselves and present to the other teams and ChildFund staff tomorrow night.  So when we got back to the centre of Nonghet, we started planning the storyboard of the video we were going to make and download the footage we'd been getting over the last day and a half.

We had one final stop to make before heading to our hotel for the night.  It was to the youth sporting facility that ChildFund set up in Nonghet to encourage children to have time to play and learn about exercise, health and fitness.  The centre also works with the kids to make sure that they are managing their time so that they are not spending all their spare time at the centre, but also doing their homework, helping around the house, etc.  Apart from that, the centre is important as it keeps the kids aways from drugs and alcohol, that can be a problem in these communities.  The centre is largely run by the kids themselves who plan the activities they are going to do, they types of sports they will play, etc.  Football and volleyball are among the favourites.  The children who help run the centre are also learning about the rules of the sports and games they play and will go on to teach their teachers and the smaller children also.  When we arrived, I was pleased to see a clear area, although very uneven, with a goal at either end.  The kids had organised for us to have a football match and of course, I had to join in.  We had a wonderful match of 7 a side football, which ended in a 1-1 draw.  A pleasing result for team ChildFund (i.e. the Aussies) as we really should have had our butts kicked.  Our goal came through a shot that was deflected off their defender and the goalkeeper couldn't hold on to it, whereas on the other side of the pitch, the shots were coming regularly.  If it wasn't for our Lao guide and goalkeeper, Tong, and the fact that they kept putting their shots wide, we would have been anihalated.  It was very enjoyable and it had been a long time since I've played a competitive game of football, but I think I did a hammy.  I'm not having a good run with the injuries.

We said our goodbyes and thanks and we were back on the busses to go to our hotel for the night.  We were supposed to spend the night in the guest house again, but since we didn't get to spend much time at the hot springs yesterday, the group decided that we would take up the suggestion to stay in the rooms at the hot spring for an extra few dollars each.  So when we got there, it was straight in to the pools for some down time.  We had dinner, worked on our video for tomorrow and went to bed.  Tomorrow we fly out of Nonghet and begin our time in Vientiane, the capital of Laos.  The picture for today is of us playing keepings off with the kids at the school.  Oh, and my finger is now even more interesting colours.



Day Five

The weather was a marginally better today, but it was good enough for us to go riding which is the best bit.  After breakfast we saddled up and cycled towards the hot springs on the way to Nonghet.  Chris and Yeiha (not sure how to spell it) from ChildFund joined us on the ride.  It didn't take too long to get to the springs over the undulating hills, but some of us were slightly disappointed at what we saw.  When someone says hot springs, the first thing that comes to mind is a natural pool that is filled hot mineral spring waters.  What we got was a hand full of concrete pools that were filled from the hot springs nearby and they weren't even full.  In any case, the local people managing the pools began filling one up while we got changed.  Being on a strict time schedule, we didn't have very long there, but it was enough to relax for a little bit before having to get changed to go to one of the villages in Nonghet that Childfund is working in various capacities.  We all had to make sure we had pant that covered our knees and shirts that covered our shoulders, which was fine with me because it's cold here.  We jumped in the vans and off we were.

We drove the vans as far as we could before having to get out and walk the rest of the way.  It was a 25 minute, mostly uphill, trek to the village.  We waved to many locals along the way, particularly children, who were just as interested in us as we were in them.  This is not a place where tourist tend to come and visit.  It's not that they shouldn't, but most wouldn't even know they are there.  Anyway, back to the village.  As we arrived, the first site that catches your eye is the big beautiful school that ChildFund built in the village.  The children were on a lunch break so we weren't able to see them all in class, but it was impressive nonetheless.  We walked further in and were greeted by an ever growing number of people from the village wanting to see the visitors that had come here.  Whilst we were looking at the school, I noticed several people carrying what looked like bench seats from the school into the village.  When we came around the corner, we found out why.  They had set a very large table for us all to sit at to have lunch.  The stools were for us to sit on as they had already brought the tables for us to receive our meal on.  The women of the village had been busy preparing our meal while the kids played and the men greeted us.

Once we were seated, two elders were sat down at the head of the table and it was announced that they would be telling us about life before and after the war.  These gentlemen were 75 years old and could recall two wars in their lifetime; first when the Frech took control of the country and second the Vietnam war.  They spoke about the simple life they all lived and how they looked after themselves by farming the lands they occupied.  Then they spoke of the Vietnam war, but they didn't say very much.  The people that live here are from the ethnic group known as Mongs and they are very conservative and polite.  As such, they shy away from potentially offending their guests by putting forward a representation of the war that may be taken the wrong way, by say, an American visitor.  It turns out that they weren't saying much because they thought there might be Americans among us, so once we cleared up that we were all Australian and that nothing he said could offend us, he told us a little more.  Afraid was the dominant feeling among the villagers at the time.  They spoke about it being a very hard time to go about their lives as bombs were being dropped on a regular basis and people were dying.  They couldn't cook because the Americans would drop bombs on any location they saw evidence of life in and they couldn't wear their typical coloured clothing either as it stood out in the forest and made them targets, so they covered themeselves with leaves from the surrouding forrest.  They didn't say much more after that.

During their talk, each of us were handed a piece of sugarcane to eat.  It was a bit of a challenge getting through the outer layer to the good stuff, but when you did, it was worth it.  They then handed us all hard boiled eggs, which were no doubt from the countless chickens on this land.  One gentleman then came with a basket full of chicken legs and put one on each of our plates.  It was explained to us that because we were very important guests that we were being given the best part of the chicken for our lunch.  Their generosity is amazing.  They must have had to sacrifice a few chickens for our meal.  I thought this was the end of the meal and I would have been satisfied at that, but we were informed that the chicken leg was the entree and the main meal was to come.  Out came the bags of rice, more chicken (cooked in a different way) and a small bowl of the most amazing chilli I have ever had.  The chilli was hot, but it was enourmously tasty.  It had more than just chilli in it, but I could only make out the corriander. Whatever it was, it was awesome.  Once we had finished our meal, we were offered some of the Laos Rice Whiskey, which we were warned not to drink too much of if we want to be able to cycle the next day.  We all had some and I must say that it wasn't as potent as we were led to believe and was quite nice.

Once the meal was over, they put on a show for us.  Firstly a younger man with a vest made of metal tassles that jingled every time he moved, played an ancient instrument while performing a most active and energetic dance.  Then another man reluctantly (remember that these are shy, conservative people) sang a song of the Mong people for us.  He was followed by five adorable girls dressed in the traditional Mong outfit who performed a lovely dance for us while one of the men beat on a bucket to keep the beat, albeit quite badly as the girls struggled to keep in time.  It was still lovely.  Then the elders who were speaking to us before lunch were tussling over who would play the Mong flute for us.  For two 75 year old men, they were very nimble.  We eventually had a winner (or loser as the case may be) and we treated to a lovely tune.  With the festivities over, we took at tour of the village to look at the toilets that ChildFund has been helping to build and what we were largely raising funds for so that they can expand to include more families in the village.  We were told that approximatelt 93 families have had their own toilet installed with the help of ChildFund and were planning to grow this to over 400 families with the help of the funds that we all raised.  Truely wonderful work to improve hygene and give people some dignity back.

At the end of the tour, we jumped back on our bikes and rode towards Nonghet.  The guesthouse we are staying in is nice, but as you can imagine, has no internet connection, so my the time you are reading this, it will have been several days later.  Since we are getting more remote, Internet access is much harder to come by.  Tomorrow we are going to visit the Attorney General's Office and another village that ChildFund is working with.  We are going to see, among other things, the sports programs that ChildFund is running with the local communities, which I'm excited about.  Stay tuned for the next installment.  Oh and the finger is very black, blue with a hint of green.