Lao Crafts, Prostitutes and Culture

Today I went to a big market in Vientiane to get some textiles. The craftwork done in Laos is very diverse because of the ethnic groups here. I am amazed by the Lao weaving. It is very different in style to the Guatemalan weaving I saw last summer, which I also liked, but the Lao stuff is much more intricate, has a polished touched to it and an attention to detail which is unrivalled (though I like the Guatemalan colour palette better). I keep on thinking the weavers must have gone blind making such elaborate stuff. I only have an hour at the market and am overwhelmed by the vast ocean of woven textiles. This is why the quilting catches my eye. A few shops have crafts from an ethnic group called the Hmong. I don't often see quilting in Canada, but what I have seen has been all straight lines with geometrical shapes. The Hmong master quilters, quilt in intricate spirals and circles as well as straight lines. I've never seen this type of quilting before, all hand made. I buy several items of Hmong quilting as well as some Lao woven scarves. I wish I could have spent more time to look for a woven wall hanging.

Before we leave, So's dad makes something for Ramsey to take back to the school. It is some sort of neat tonic made up of this very bitter plant soaked in a bottle of honey. I suppose the honey is there to preserve it and make it more palatable. The plant is an anti-malarial, anti-diabetic and an overall longevity promoter. Of course, anything that good for you, must, and does taste horrible. I am sure the sweet ants will love the honey though...I hope Ramsey's not planning to keep that stuff in the library...I'm not sure how many more ant infestations I can deal with.

As we head for the bus station to take the twelve hour bus ride back to the school, Ramsey points to a bunch of storefronts on the street, he says that they are all prostitution dens. The way you can tell if a place is a brothel is if there are Christmas lights hanging outside. Since it's getting dark, Ramsey tells me to look for the lights. You will never see a working girl selling her assets on the streets - the modesty of the Laos would prevent that (a complete opposite of Thailand). Then someone tells us that the government outlawed the Christmas lights recently, but since the red light districts are set, there is no problem figuring out which places sell sex.

I have been resting on my laurels. Being with So and Ramsey in Laos has made the ins and outs of Laos so easy for me. I feel a bit sheepish to admit that I haven't even opened my guidebook until now. My guidebook for this part of my trip is a guide to Southeast Asia...Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and the Greater Mekong (which includes Thailand and the Yunnan Province of China). The book describes the Lao culture as being very different than either the Chinese or the Vietnamese. The Vietnamese and Chinese are described as entrepreneurial and intense, whereas the Lao are much less so, and really laid back. Ramsey confirms that Laos is laid back and thinks that Thailand falls into that category too. The Lao view toward life is that no intense passions should be stoked, but that all things are not worth doing unless they contain at least some element of fun. Ramsey breaks it down for me like this...if a Vietnamese person has a goal, she would try much harder than a Lao person to reach it, and be much more upset if she failed. Another difference is, if two Lao friends were to get into a big disagreement, they would never speak to one another again (versus risk further confrontation), whereas two fighting Vietnamese friends will get really angry, beat the crap out of each other, and then be found later laughing and reminiscing about old times over beers. I am half Vietnamese and half Chinese, ethnically I'm from more hot-headed stock, but most likely being raised in the West has been the greatest influence on my temperament, more so than ancestry at this point. How many of you have seen me angry? Though I have been known to be industrious sometimes - I may yet create that fresh soy milk empire in the West when all this is over.