Bears and Snakes and Vomit. Oh My!

Laos has been entertaining so far. The trip to the Laos Vietnamese Friendship Circus was a lot of fun and caused Susan to face her largest (and I mean this literally) fear. To my knowledge, the only thing she truly fears is snakes (or anything that has the shape of a snake such as a worm). All went well through the wonderful acrobatics and clown performances. The only animal act advertised was a bear riding a bicycle. Instead, a large box was brought out into the arena accompanied by a muscle bound strongman. He reached inside and managed to remove a 12-15 foot (it was at least 30' and 10-12" across in diameter - Susan) Burmese python. After wrapping it around his body (it must have weighed a hundred pounds (it easily weighed 200 lbs - Susan)), he paraded around the ring to the gasps of the crowd, especially those in the first rows. He then placed it in the center of the ring and it started to slither around as he attempted to direct it. The folks in the front rows looked pretty nervous. Then he returned to the box and pulled out an equally large python. He now had two snakes to control and the second was far more active and intent on entering the stands. There was just a small raised ring separating the arena from the stands and the 2nd python started to slither over causing the first couple of rows to scramble back to the delight of everyone else but Susan, who had her eyes tightly shut. Thankfully we were about ten rows up on the other side of the arena or Susan would have been out of there! This reminds me of a really funny story of Susan finding a large styrofoam cup with a lid in the refrigerator up at Mammoth Lakes. She opened it suspecting some mouldy leftovers. Instead there was a mass of wiggly 3 inch nightcrawlers used for fishing bait. The box flew up as Susan screamed. Worms landed all over the kitchen and I fell on the floor laughing. For the record, I knew nothing about the worms which had been left by a prior occupant. I only marginally redeemed myself by collecting and disposing of the worms. Yesterday we drove to Luang Prabang after visiting a village and spending the night with a village family sleeping on the floor (or a wooden bed covered by a thin mat in my case) under mosquito netting. Not the most comfortable night, but what a visit to remember. They took us on a hike through the hills to a muddy pond where villagers young and old were busy catching fish with baskets for our dinner. Along the way we met the most delightful farmer. He had a twinkle in his eye and the most infectious laugh. He was about half my height and found me to be really funny - especially my belly which he rubbed and hugged. He had all sorts of clever inventions that created a clatter if someone approached the hut he shared with his wife. Daniel especially liked his homemade cell phone. It was comprised of a large log of bamboo hanging from a tree which he would strike with a mallet to send various signals to his closest neighbors about a half a mile away (ie: "please come help on a project" or "extra food, come on by"). Before dinner, a village elder honored us by leading a special blessing ceremony called a "basi" with the help of other villagers. Our family sat around a large arrangement of flowers with a candle and strings coming down the sides. The elder recited a long series of blessings in Lao for good health, happiness, employment etc as strings were tied around our outstretched wrists. Each of the villagers then cut off additional lengths of string to tie around our wrists and add their blessings. Its origins appear to reflect aspects of Buddhism, Animist beliefs and Lao general friendliness. We viewd this as similar to a blessing that we often sing for visitors at Handong. Getting back to the drive to Luang Prabang, it took us about 6 hours and involved going through about 3,000 curves in the road. Everyone in the family but me got carsick along the way prompting a mental note to never travel without Dramamine in the future. We are now deep into the mountains and jungles and spotted a bear along the way. We are delighted to have two Laos traveling with us in addition to the van driver. One of the Lao speaks English well and told us of village life along the way. We met him through a literacy project that we are helping with that involved a visit to a village school where we helped him entertain the students with songs and games centered around the literacy project. Each student got a book in their own language which they were encouraged to trade between themselves. Other books went to the library. Most Laos that live in the villages are illiterate, so the project is quite a help. The other Lao had never been out of his village, so he came along to see his country. Today we have an elephant ride through the jungle scheduled for Susan, the kids and our Lao guests. I'll stay behind to read, which is about as adventuresome as I get outside of watching pythons at the circus.