SLEEPER BUS EXPERIENCE IN LAOS – PART 2

Luang Prabang is the second city that we stayed in on our short visit to Laos.    Indeed, was a peaceful and laidback place.    Apart from being free of the hustle and bustle of big city life, this UNESCO World Heritage site offers a plethora of attractions that in many ways are unique and exclusive for this city. Unlike the night market in our place which sells a variety of wares including children's toys, clothes, electrical products, foods, to name but a few, here night market which is located on the main road mainly offers traditional wares, exclusively and traditionally made by Lao. They are so proud of their very tradition and culture and try hard to preserve and maintain their tradition. We strolled about a mile of rows of stalls lit by the glare of fluorescent lights. A skinny, pale middle-aged woman vendor, her hair done up in a bun, wearing a pink blouse and long skirt, sitting in front of an assortment of merchandise laid out on the ground covered by a spread of thin cloths. While waiting for customers, her hands were working to complete the patchwork.    Handicrafts made of bamboo trunks, colourful bamboo umbrellas as well as patchwork begs, all beautifully decorated with local motifs including elephants, traditional villages, temples, and Loa people. Apart from us, we observed tourists from various countries flocking to the night market, looking so relaxed, and carefree as nothing needed to rush as they enjoyed their holidays. Some enjoyed their drinks at the nearby shops behind the stalls. With traditional wares, the night market here is unique on its own and by so doing it serves as an important platform for locals to sell their wares and in turn can preserve and conserve their very tradition. Our short stroll at the night market here was an eye-opener, we wished to have one back home.

The box office Hindi movie in the 197I    entitled "Hathi mere Sathi".    The story of the long movie was about the relationship and friendship between a man and his four elephants whom he befriended when he was young.    The bond started when he was rescued by one of the elephants from an attack by a leopard when he was lost in the jungle. A very touching story when his best friend died at the end of the movie when she was shot when she tried to save him, whereas before that the beast saved his baby from a snake.    Until now after so many generations people still love the said movie. Elephants are magnificent, and they can be trained to do many things, long time ago were used as a mode of transportation as well as in wars. In secondary school, we learned elephants were used to drag logs in forests in Thailand and Myanmar. What was a happy day for us when halfway through our journey to visit Kuang Si Falls about 30 km from Luang Prabang we saw the elephant conservation centre. Not to miss the golden opportunity we went inside and watched the magnificent beasts behind fences. One of them came closer as she was very happy to greet us, extending her gentle trunk, others seemed busy with their friends. Men and elephants’ friendship is about respect for the latter. We need to preserve and conserve their natural habitats and let them roam freely and happily. It is very fascinating to observe behaviours of a herd of elephants from a distance, especially when babies are around.    Sadly, human encroachment for economic and settlement purposes of their habitats put them in danger. Human and elephant encounters are always at the latter perils. The lyrics of the last song of the sad end movie that moved many to tears by Mohammad Rafi- "nafrat ki duniya..." said it loud and clear - “when an animal kills a man, is termed barbarous in the world, today an animal life has been taken away by human beings, why the world is silent?”

After an unplanned short stop at the Elephant sanctuary, we headed back to our motorcycles that we rented in Luang Prabang town with a happy mood of meeting our new friends. We raised hands and bade them goodbye. While riding out, we couldn't help but cast yearning and longing eyes of the amazing sanctuary place for those elephants that gave positive indicators of their survival. At least they had little freedom. Such a sight called to our mind the previous encounters with elephants back home. In the 1970s and early 1980s we could see elephants and other wild animals when the circus came to Kota Bharu, we also watched from a distance of our classroom a herd of elephants walking side by side with their mahouts from Thailand to    Kota Bharu as they were part of the coronation ceremony of our new Sultan. We came across a huge sad-eyed bull elephant in Golok Town in the mid-80s. One of his front legs was chained to a big tree. We were very depressed to see her condition. Later in the early 2000s elephants came to our town in Dungun, we didn’t want to miss the golden opportunity, brought our daughter to watch trained elephants playing football. The crowd cheered every time a goal was scored by the beast. The road to our destination was flanked by rice fields, villages as well as greenery and some stretches of the road ran parallel with the mighty Mekong River. Prior to this place, we stopped at the roadside shed overlooking the mighty river. The surface of the river shimmering due to the reflection of the late afternoon setting sun. Down the river partly hidden by bamboo trees we saw a lone man wearing a round hat on his sampan, casting line perhaps at his favourite spot where he knew he got bounty returns. We chose the table at the edge of the riverbank and enjoyed both the beauty of the scenery and the drinks. Later a group of tourists with motorcycles stopped at the shed.    We wished to spend more time there, but time was not permitted. We left the roadside shed with the outstanding sunset view against the rolling grey hills in the distance, the image of the setting sun dancing on the surface of the molten silver colour river created by ripples.

The journey to Kuang Si Waterfall followed the north road of Luang Prabang. The views along the road were more or less the same as our place, where rice fields, houses, fruit orchards and a thicket of secondary forests dotted along the road. After some time, the road was small, quiet and empty of traffic. We carefully negotiated a few hairpin turns and passed small bridges where we needed to slow down and wait for the opposite cars to pass before continuing the journey. Houses and shops cluttered on the left and the right of the road at the foothill of Kuang Si, and after a steep ascend we arrived at the said waterfall. Before our noses was a beautiful blue turquoise waterfall with its thundering sound. The trees on both edges of the fall leaned towards the fall and the lower part of their trunks submerged under water.    Crossing the river was a wooden bridge where visitors usually snapped their photos or selfies, faces wet due to the sprinkle or spray of water. Since it was about an hour before the sunset, no visitors were around except us. The man who manned the ticket already left his counter but soon arrived with his motorbike when he realised our visit and handed us a small rectangular piece of paper with the exchange of entrance fees. There was no free lunch for us! We dipped our hands into the water and washed our faces, the water was cold and refreshing. It was a breath taking view seeing three layers of water falling and cascading over the rocky ledges into a wide pool creating white bubbles and streams then gushing downhill. After photos and rest at the nearby benches under the shade of tall trees and dense undergrowth of caladium plants we left the waterfall. The journey back to Luang Prabang was when the sun was just about to set on the western horizon. We plied the same road, and when on a peak of a hill, momentarily we saw Luang Prabang town down the valley, showered with lights. The journey home seemed shorter, but when we arrived at our hotel it was already night.

Back in Luang Prabang town, the UNESCO    World Heritage. The weather here was neither hot nor cold but just nice, the river wind blew gently on our faces as the welcoming sign. We had an afternoon drink at the neat small fruit juice kiosk overlooking the mighty Mekong River where its water flowed gently seemingly not in a hurry to reach the confluence many miles away. Across the road where we were sitting, chatting and sipping fresh tropical mango juices there was a long row of shop lots, hotels and beautiful colonial villas and government offices, all facing the river. Laos people are proud of the Mekong River, conserving it and taking opportunities to attract deep-pocket tourists and earn money from tourism. We found no building standing at the riverbank hence everybody can see and enjoy the beauty of the said river.    But sadly we take this thing for granted in our place and often do not realise how important the river view is for us. Hardly we can see rivers even though our roads run parallel with them because our views are blocked by sort of buildings. More often than not we could have a short glance of our rivers when we cross bridges. The afternoon panorama by the river here was so breath taking. In the distance, we could see stretching of grey gentle rolling hills against the endless blue sky. Down the river, a score of long boats docked in the shallow water, and the Laos flag which was attached at the tip of a pole on a boat was flapping incessantly in the air. River cruising is one of the popular activities amongst tourists here. We saw a few people on a small boat, crossing the river, perhaps they went home after a half-day shopping trip in this town. Here we saw how heritage preservation and conservation brought many international tourists to experience the longing past where we could live in harmony with nature. If we can create something like we experienced here somewhere along Kelantan River, it would be heaven.

While we only visited two cities; the capital city, Vientiane and the UNESCO heritage town, Luang Prabang, in this landlocked country, we gained invaluable insight into the past and presence of the country where harmoniously and beautifully blended and not at the expense of one another. Albeit its physical development and growth relatively at a slower pace compared with the rest of its neighbours, Laos people are so proud of their country and know what sorts of development and modernisation they aim to embrace.    Preserving and conserving their nature, tradition and culture which are in many ways unique could easily attract international tourists to come and experience things which already gone in other places. In short, they have plenty of things to offer. We saw an advertisement on the glass window of a travel agency just next door to the hotel where we stay, a family rode an elephant, they happily bathed in a river. We would do so if we stayed a little bit longer. Despite a few days’ stay our visit was rewarding. The Luang Prabang International Airport is situated just a few kilometres from the city, on our way to the airport we saw a group of Western tourists just arriving at the city; getting off the white van, the one who was wearing dark sunglasses and done up her hair in a neat bun smiling, exposing her white teeth; the young driver carefully unloaded their baggage. We bade adieu to the city, hopefully, to come again in another visit.