Andrej and Karen Brummer

The adventures of the Brummers

Monthly Archives: May 2011

Shopping trip to Thailand

We to Thailand to get supplies for Project Laos that we couldn’t buy in Laos. This consisted of food (including things like cheese, olives, tomato paste, olive oil, butter, sliced bread) and appliances such as toasted sandwich maker, juicer, electric elements, microwave, grill, coffee machine and grinder, toaster, speakers, and other things like that needed to set up the shop.

Our time in Thailand was filled with many ‘firsts’.  For Thong, it was his first time outside Laos.  For both Paet and Thong, it was their first time inside a mall, sitting in massage chairs, drinking real coffee, having a swim in a swimming pool (we had to instruct Thong that he had to wear bathers rather than swim naked!), having a warm shower (we had to teach them how to turn it on and adjust the temperature), eating toast (Thong proceeded to put jam on both sides), even using a knife to spread jam and butter was a first.  It made for a really interesting and entertaining experience for all 4 of us.  Next time we’ll definitely go for longer, we didn’t even have time to show them the White Temple or any of Chiang Rai’s attractions other than the walking street and night market.  Before we went to Thailand Thong told us that because they don’t have passports, they could only stay for a couple of days.  We later found out that he actually had no idea, (they can actually leave for 10 days) but was scared to death of leaving Laos (especially to go to Thailand, as the two countries have bad history from centuries ago) so wanted to spend as little time as possible away.  Once there he agreed that there was nothing scary about Thailand and that it was in fact really fun.  So bring on next time, where we will have time to show Paet and Thong some of the more interesting sights.

The whole adventure was very successful, right down to us getting an awesome minivan driver who helped us load everything into the van, unload into the boat to cross the Mekong, and then some young Lao guys helped us load everything into another minivan on the Laos side.  More details on Project Laos will follow soon!

Boppin’ around Luang Namtha

We have spent a week or so riding around again, we decided we should try to see the old stupa, the Lao Lao distillery, and the local handicraft village.  So far, we only managed the first one, because we rode around for an entire day trying to find the other 2 places (with a map!) and couldn’t find them ;) partly because many roads were impassable due to mud (it’s now rainy season), and partly because reading Lao maps takes a special skill that we haven’t yet aquired.  Lao maps are hand-drawn and depict an alternate reality to the one the appears before us.  Oh well.  Next time we will take Thong with us to show us where they are.  We also rode on the road to Boten, the other Chinese border, which was also really beautiful in a different way to the Muang Sing road.  Every time we ride somewhere around here it reminds us why we’re here – apart from the amazing people – this place is just stunning.  The scenery is like nothing else and we feel on top of the world when we’re here.

In addition to that, we’ve had many more delectable meals with Thong and Paet (including with many of their friends who met us at the funeral and have now invited us for dinner).  Paet still amazes us with her cooking prowess – she cooks at least 5 or 6 dishes for each meal (including lunch, where she comes home from work, gets changed into her cooking clothes, proceeds to cook all of the dishes as well as rice, presents it all beautifully, sits down to eat with us and then rushes back to work in her army nurse uniform!) and all of them are always delicious.  We love it how all of the food changes seasonally depending on what you can get from the jungle that day/week/month.  Lao imports (and exports) almost nothing and eats solely what is available from the land in the local area.  It’s a pretty cool way to live!  Especially when there are about a million different kinds of herbs and vegetables and fruits so there is always plentiful choice of ingredients.  It’s awesome being able to eat tropical fruits as well as temperate species in the same area such as mangoes and lychees as well as nectarines and brocolli.  Frogs are also currently in season, the entire body is eaten, not just the legs.  Ant eggs are very popular now too.

Paet also decided it was time Karen become an honorary Lao woman and made her an awesome Lao skirt with handwoven fabric.  Since then all of the women come up to talk about the skirt and they all think it’s very exciting that a falang has a Lao skirt.

Next we are off to Thailand again, to buy some supplies for ‘Project Laos’ (more information to follow) and to expand Thong’s  horizons – he has never left Lao before and we are taking him and Paet with us (Paet has been to Chiang Rai before for one night).  It should be an interesting adventure!  Our photos are here.

Adventures with Ben and Lauren

Our good friends Ben and Lauren from Sydney were our first official visitors to see us in Luang Namtha.  For the days they were here we all had a ball, one of the best things for us was the simple pleasure of being able to talk to people in proper English and have them understand us, especially people that we have years of history with so can laugh about the past and present in a way that we can’t do in Lao-English and with people we have only known days or months.

We spent the first day up at the temple, plus another old temple near the old town and also visiting the Nam De waterfall – which we had deliberately waited until wet season to see because many people told us it didn’t have any water in dry season.  The next day we took motorbikes and went up to our favourite getaway spot, Muang Sing.  The ride was, as always, stunningly beautiful and on arrival we once again found Elu!  Or rather, she found us.  After a happy reunion we once again went to the Chinese border on the road which still impresses us with it’s beauty!

That night we managed to attend yet another Lao wedding, which we managed to escape early but only after Ben had the privilege of playing keyboard in the wedding band.  The following day we returned from Muang Sing and met the usual quota of groups of kids on the roads back, which made the journey really cool.  On top of that, it was a gorgeous sunny day and there was even less traffic than usual so it was just perfect.

We haven’t laughed so much for ages and having Ben and Lauren here reminds us how much we miss our friends and family and even just having people to hold proper conversations with.  It really was a fantastic week and we look forward to seeing Ben and Lauren again next time they visit!  Our photos of the antics of the week are here.

A Lao funeral :-(

We were really sad when Thong phoned us only a few days after we arrived to inform us his mother had just passed away.  That day she had been taken from the hospital back to her home to die surrounded by the love of her family and she got her wish only a few short hours later.

The next day the funeral began.  We were quite unprepared in terms of what we should expect from a Lao funeral, and we were soon to find out that it is a 3 day event with specific things assigned to happen on each day.  On the first two days pork is the only meat consumed, along with veges and rice, and on the third day buffalo is also eaten, usually a raw and a cooked option of buffalo is available.

The first day the family build and decorate a coffin for their loved one and the body is placed inside.  This is followed by intense wailing by many who visit the coffin (mainly the women), each visit begins with throwing rice on the coffin and then lighting incense, and then a massive and loud outpouring of grief.  Then each visitor returns to outside, where the women sit in groups talking and some of them cooking or drinking Lao Lao, and the men either play cards, usually gambling while drinking Lao Lao (rice whisky) or build other necessary items for the funeral such as a roof for the coffin.

A group of monks then arrive and spend about an hour blessing the deceased and their family, chanting and basically wishing the spirit a good journey into the other realm.

Then the coffin is moved outside the house and put in a truck and taken to the cemetery and put in front of the platform for burning.

The monks then perform another blessing and the coffin is moved to on top of the platform.  All of the guests light more incense and a small candle, then walk up the stairs and throw the lit incense and candle into the coffin (which has just been soaked in petrol!) to start the fire.

All of the guests sit and watch the coffin burn, and then return to the home for more food and Lao Lao.  The next morning, they return to the cemetery and collect the bones from the fire pit and bury the bones underneath a stupa (which is essentially the same as a gravestone).

More eating and drinking takes place back at the house, and the men build a little 1.5m x 2m spirit house which the women decorate with coloured paper and money, and inside they put blankets and cushions for the spirit to rest on.  They also make ‘trees’ of money and other items such as toothbrushes, hairbrushes, face cloths, dried fish, rice and other snacks for the spirit.

The afternoon is then spent at the temple getting even more blessings, and this is followed by even more eating and drinking.

On the third and final day there is a string ceremony, to protect and bless the living, and then more eating and drinking.

All in all it was a very interesting and utterly exhausting process.  We felt so sad for Thong’s family throughout the funeral and now.  The most intriguing thing for us was that they wanted as many photos as possible taken, people kept asking us to take more photos.  Why anyone would want such extensive documentation of a funeral of a family member is beyond us, we guess some things are still lost in translation.  In the beginning we felt quite culturally insensitive taking so many photos of a funeral but every time we’d stop, the family would ask us to take more so consequently we now have hundreds of photos of the funeral.  The family even borrowed our cameras and took photos inside the coffin while it was on fire… something we really had to draw the line at taking photos of ourselves!  This was such an unexpected and intense experience that hopefully won’t be repeated anytime soon.