Luang Prabang Day 7, 2 February 2006

I did not have any problem sleeping last night. By 10:30 pm, I was asleep. Problem was by 3am I was awake. I kept on trying to get back to sleep and was having a hard time getting back to sleep. So I continued reading Coelho's The Alchemist and did some updates to my diary. At past 4am I dozed off again. I was awakened by my phone two hours later. It was Kaew sending me a message. It was time to get up.

After putting on street clothes, I went by Kaew's guest house to tell him that I was having breakfast at the patongko shop if he wants to catch up and join me later. The shop was not as full as yesterday and this time the shop owner was very attentive to me. After finishing my breakfast, I went to the market and on the way back to the direction of the river I saw Kaew. He told me that he was going to buy chicken for the basi ceremony that his mother will hold for me. He was able to get most of the things he needed from the market except for the chicken which was coming out to be too expensive. He said he will have to go to another market for this. I told him, why don't I go back to the guest house and take a shower and get my things ready.

With my rucksack of camera gear I was on my way to the boat landing when I saw Kaew on his bike telling me he still did not get the chicken. I told him that I can spend the time while he was going to another market to take pictures of the main market in Luang Prabang. He can send me a text when he was ready. It took a while and I was able to take a lot of pictures in the market. But then I got a call from Kaew telling me to make my way to the boat.

A couple of people were also making a trip back to Thong Tai village. One of his sisters was there on the trip with us. The boat more or less had enough passengers to make a profitable trip. We arrived an hour and a half later, which I felt flew very quickly because I was taking pictures of the passengers as well. None seem to mind. Behind me was a baby named Namfai.

Kaew's house was a bit of a walk from the boat landing. When we got there, there seemed to be a lot of people milling around. A lot of people were standing by the windows looking in. Kaew' father then turned their tv on and started playing a vcd of one of the Thai comedy shows and the kids were sitting down on the floor watching and laughing at the show even though they have seen the same show several times already. I decided to take a nap while lunch was cooking on account of my erratic sleep last night. When lunch was ready, this was served on the mats on the floor and we had to be seated on the floor and eat the food miang style. They had grilled the huge fish that Kaew had brought back with him.

After lunch we headed out into the sandbar near the river where the women were panning gold. All the panners seemed to be familiar with Kaew and were very cooperative when I was trying to take my pictures. I noticed that there were a lot of plants that looked like mangrove that grew in the sand. It was near these plants where the women would dig up their sand and place them in their baskets. Then they would put a basked in their pan and take out the stones. After this, they will then remove as much clay as possible by swirling the sand in the pan. Once all of the clay has been removed, they put the remaining sand into the a bucket. At the end of the day, they will continue panning the sand this time mixed with some detergent and what to me looked like mercury. If they are lucky, they will find a gold bit for their day's work.

When I was walking with Kaew to their home just right after we arrived, I noticed that there were a lot of water buffaloes in the area. I commented that perhaps most are used for working the fields and when the animal is old it is then sent for slaughter. He gave me a rather interesting response. He said that buffaloes are like people, some can be trained to do tasks in the field and others cannot be trained because they do not learn. These are the ones that are sent to slaughter.

The boys the were watching TV in Kaew's house was in the field as well. They then started running after the buffaloes and started riding them. Sometimes to the disgust of the buffalo. Then they would all laugh when they fall off as the buffalo trots away to safety. I did not get pictures of the buffalo because I could not get near enough to them, they would head off as a heard when they see me nearbly even though I do not have any intention of riding them. After having their fun, I took pictures of the boys who were wet because they just swam in the creek where the buffaloes also bathe.

At dusk, we headed home. Kaew's mother was already starting preparations on the basi ceremony. They were preparing the banana leaf offering cones, a candle, strings of cotton twine and leaves of the San Francisco plant. In another tray are insense wrapped in cones of kip notes. I took some time to clean my camera and then went ahead to take a shower. The bathroom was rather primitive with a huge pool holding the water supply. There was also a squat toilet nearby. When I got dressed up, the elders were already arriving one by one. Kaew's handed out the sashes we are to wear on our shoulders during the ceremony. After a couple of pleasantries, the ceremony started with everyone saying their prayers and then one by one the village elders would make a wish and tie a cotton twine on my wrist. Later on I found out that this was a tradition being done by the village elders when one of the villagers are going away for a long time, either because of work or because of studies. The ceremeony ended with the elders giving us a slice of the chicken and other things from the tray and we were asked to eat something from what was given to us. After this, dinner was served. Lao beer was served to everyone. As the night wears on, everyone started having more fun. By 9PM everyone had already left. So I started to prepare to go to sleep. Exept that I had bad case of food poisoning and I was visiting the toilet several times that night. It was a very long night.