Well, home for just over two weeks before getting out of bed at 03.30, heading back to the airport at 04.30, then: Perth to Singapore to Bangkok, Thailand; to Vientiane, Laos; arriving at 20.45 then a brief rest for a day before flying south to Paksé.
I had a tight connection of 55 minutes between flights (and different terminals) in Singapore. As we were flying in, the pilot announced that there was an 'exercise' on the ground and there would be a delay, so we flew around in circles for about half an hour and I was assuming that I'd missed the connecting flight. I was seated near the rear of the aircraft and it took ages to get through the crush, then to find the board featuring dozens of flights (which kept changing), to locate the correct terminal and which gate. That allowed me to check which driverless train to take me to the correct area of the next terminal. Got off the train to discover the usual situation: the gate I needed was the last one at the end of a very long corridor. Mad dash through the endless throng and made it just as the last passengers were embarking. Talk about 'hurry-up-and-wait' - then had SIX hours at Bangkok airport waiting for the next flight to Vientiane! Don't know HOW Singapore Air did it, but my luggage was there when I landed - maybe it came on another flight while I was sitting in Bangkok?
Before getting into the next assignment .... Just thought I should say something more about the last assignment and living in Indonesia (as a primarily Muslim country); even if only for a month. ALL the people we met were wonderfully friendly and helpful. Plus, particularly at tourist sites, people would approach and want to have a photograph taken with them. Wandering around the local village, every single person would have a big smile and many wanted to shake hands. The family I was working with were brought up as Muslim; the brother was strictly adhering to the creed but the sister was far more relaxed and often wore shorts and a tee shirt and did not attend the mosque. On the other hand, her brother would excuse himself from a meeting, relocate to another part of the room where we were and go though the prayer ritual. Of the others on the staff: only one of the women wore the head scarf. There was no hint of animosity or comment from the more strict Muslims if other (non-Muslims) were drinking alcohol. In fact, the brother had never tasted alcohol and said that he never would - however: he would willingly acquire the local alcoholic beverage (sopi) for us when asked, and had no concerns if others were drinking beer. He reasoned that it was acceptable to obtain liquor for us; however, if he acquired some for a fellow Muslim, then the 'sin' of them drinking would be transferred to him as well. However, he did not think less of anyone else who was drinking alcohol. In discussions with local people, none we spoke to could understand the more radical actions of others who used their faith as reason for their barbaric actions.
Lao PDR (People's Democratic Republic) - or 'Laos' - is a tiny, landlocked country of just 236,800 square kilometres with a population of around 7 million (30% whom live in 'poverty') and has borders with: Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, China and Myanmar. Laos has the dubious distinction of being: the 'most bombed country per capita on earth'. For nine years, from 1964 to 1973, the US government dropped more than two million tons of cluster bombs (known locally as 'bombies') and other heavy artillery on Laos. Eight bombs a minute were dropped on average during the Vietnam war - more than the amount used during the whole of World War Two. The US flew 580,344 bombing missions over Laos, dropping 260m bombs, with many targets struck time and again as part of efforts to isolate communist North Vietnamese forces on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Most devices dropped were anti-personnel cluster bombs. An estimated 30% of these munitions did not detonate. Consequently: the number of casualties from air-dropped explosive devices - mostly cluster munitions - in Laos since 1964 is estimated by the Landmine and Clustering Munition Monitor to be around 50,000 people. Of these about 29,000 people were killed and 21,000 injured. The overwhelming majority were civilians. All through no fault of the Laotians - just a glitch in geographical location. Only in September, 2016 (as announced by Obama some 50 years later) did the USA agree to step up the program to help clear the tons of dangerous ordinance they had inflicted on an isolated, innocent country.
So - two nights in Vientiane. Really great to catch up with in-country manager Somchit and his wonderful wife Toy, plus caught up with a former client, Jerome, for dinner who has since separated from his partner and two sons. Had a brief briefing, then on to Paksé next morning and the assignment. I was staying at a hotel that had been a former client and had a few drinks and an interesting catch-up on the hotel's scenic rooftop bar with the owner - the wonderfully beautiful Noy (Jerome's former partner). That night there were guests from 23 different nationalities staying in the hotel.
Paksé is really like a small, laid-back country town in Australia; with limited traffic - big contrast to the mayhem of Jakarta, or Phnom Penh, or wherever. The office where I was working was just a few minute's walk from the hotel and I could -almost- cross roads without a sideways glance. From the door of my 4th floor hotel room to my desk on the 1st floor office was less than a 10 minute walk. As a reflection of the cosmopolitan air about the charming town: I went to lunch with three local Lao people (the guy I was working closest with, the female travel agent from the hotel and the woman who owned the restaurant) - and most of the conversation was in French, although: it was just as easy for them all to converse in Lao or English. I mixed with several people who were comfortably tri-vocal (or maybe even more, languages....).
After a week or so, we travelled for about 2½ hours to the 4,000 islands area (in the Mekong river) to hold two meetings with potential 'entrants' in a competition. Individuals could submit an application for a business idea related to tourism and ten would be selected to receive free assistance in the form of a workshop on how to write their business plan, set up their new enterprise and then operate successfully. It was an interesting exercise, we took a local boat to a larger island and were talking to local entrepreneurs of varying expertise on their ideas, thoughts and challenges about doing business in Laos.
I guess that it's a legacy of this country's history that, after visitors from neighbouring Asian countries, a high number of tourists come from France. The French colonised a swathe of Asia in the late 1800s - which became known as French Indochina - until the early 1950s. Consequently French traditionally vies with English to be the most popular second language in Laos - although English seems to be prevailing.
The French, being French, seem to feature rather a high percentage of smokers - and they have no qualms about indulging their habit in restaurants and cafés. And: what's the theory behind wearing a scarf - it's 35C for goodness sake!
And don't get me started on people and buffets! WHY can't they decide what they want without blocking the shuffling line, pontificating and then fiddling with the presentations. Then they load up their plates, but don't actually eat it all .... eyes bigger than stomachs?
I still think that it's indicative of something (not sure just what), but the British, French, Spanish and Portuguese arbitrarily colonised much of the world from the 1500s onward - but there is no lingering affiliation with those countries and their former 'coloniser'. Apart from the British 'Commonwealth of Nations' (52 countries) that is - but: there is no 'French Commonwealth', or 'Spanish Commonwealth' for instance!
Laos is another country where currency can quickly be dealing in millions. In this case, with the local Kip: there were about K8,000 to equal US$1.
I'm probably repeating this, but: is it just me - or do others suffer from this syndrome ... I have no idea who some people in the 'news' are? I guess that part of it could be that I'm 'away' and 'travelling' more often than not; so do not keep up with the latest 'gossip'. However: when I look at the headlines on the newsfeed that pops up on my laptop (when I can get an internet connection) - I often have absolutely no idea what or who they are referring to.... I'm totally out of touch with the names of most 'entertainers' or 'celebrities' (I use the terms loosely) from this century.....not that I actually care one jot!
Being accommodated in a quite good hotel this time - there was a television. For the first week there was BBC and CNN to catch up with world news. Most other channels were in oriental languages or French and any English language films were often dubbed (into Thai, I think). After the death of their long-reigning king - Thai stations showed nothing but film of the late king (one channel was just a black and white still photo of him). After a week or so: BBC just disappeared. Then, after the circus of the American election: CNN covered absolutely nothing else but rehash (over and over) about the highly amusing election for 24-hours a day 'forever' - while boasting in frequent promotions that they covered news throughout the world! Plus: there's that international disease where interviewers ask questions that are longer than the answer. CNN also continuously promote its presenters as more important than the actual news! It's all somewhat like having a sporting event restricted to America, and calling it the 'World Series'. SORRY AMERICANS.
I was invited to a function at the Australian Embassy in Vientiane for International Volunteers' Day on December 5 - cost of flights, accommodation and an official dinner with the Ambassador all covered. I declined. Didn't feel inclined to have to get to and from airports, then hang around waiting and sit on two more cramped flights ... just for a day and to meet the Ambassador.
The aforementioned 'workshop' for budding entrepreneurs was not exactly a raging success. There was a limited number of applications. On the first day: one key player arrived mid-morning (we started at 9am) and disappeared before lunch (we learned later that he had to hurry back to his hotel as a staff member was holding a guest with a knife at their throat). The aim was to give them guidance in starting a business, or refining an existing one - writing a business plan, calculating their REAL financial position, etc. However: we learned that they were, basically, hoping for funding for their business idea. Just another side-effect of the millions and millions of dollars that are poured into 'under-developed' countries, often without due diligence or checking that another country is doing exactly the same thing.
One business was a spa and 'wellness centre' - when the owner was asked what she charged for 'meditation' courses, she replied: "You cannot charge for meditation." Another operator was paying his staff the total amount of his income - and expected to be financially successful.
I was having dinner at the same restaurant most nights and was chatting to the owner (who had about ten words of English), I gave her the gist of what I was doing and it turned out that her daughter was running a 'resort' 5km out of town for her and it was really struggling with a lack of guests. Upshot was, that became my 'weekend' task: going there Saturday morning and leaving Sunday afternoon....assessing the property, setting up a booking system and an accounting system, produced a brochure, business cards, promotion to travel agents, a new FaceBook page for the Asian 'cooking classes' she ran, correcting and changing the website, amending on-line bookings agents' information, accounting controls, booking records, etc.....
The mode of travel to the resort each time was usually by local tuk tuk in various stages of disrepair. The classic was a rattletrap machine of the old design where the passenger (me) sat in a small but covered seat, open at the front and facing the same way as the driver. None of the dials or gauges worked, and the driver ran out of fuel a few minutes into the trip. He 'asked' me to disembark by using sign language and tilted the entire vehicle forward off its back wheel to get a drop of fuel to where it could be ignited and make all that considerable noise. But then - the classic move was: he unscrewed the fuel cap, put his mouth right over the opening, and blew into the fuel tank! He must have moved a dribble of fuel as the bike started, we turned around and went up the wrong side of a dual carriage-way to a fuel station, where he topped up with K1,000 of petrol...that's about 13 cents (at around $1/litre).
The 'weekend job' with the struggling resort was slowly bearing fruit. I sorted out messes and misunderstandings with booking.com and agoda.com and launched a marketing campaign to travel agents, etc...... Got her resort listed on www.southern-laos.com, plus a free full page listing for her cooking class which was getting ***** reviews on TripAdvisor and FaceBook.
Still - it's nice when you get a message like this -
Hi ! Thank you so much for your mail J J Thank you so much for your help. i can't successfully in my work without your help . without my family and the best person who is behind of my success until now . is my mother . I'm very happy that to day i have you
Thank you so much, Ngoc
In following correspondence from her - she refers to me as 'father'!
I was also working with the Shadow Puppet Theatre in Champasak and advising a struggling French guy about how to get funding to continue to exist - and grow. I started negotiating a deal with a major hotel in Paksé (a former client of mine) to do the show there - and they will both benefit. He had prospects of funding from the United Nations, and the French and Indian Embassies (the puppet's basic story has Indian roots). And, the organisation I was with seemed confident of finding additional funding if I could also submit a promising application to them. So - end result could be shows in Champasak and Paksé (perhaps including Vientiane) and employing lots more local people.
I just like living in small towns and have domiciled in several (some only briefly). On this one I was in situ for three months and, even on the walk to and from the office, people would wave "hello" (or this case "Sabaidee"). The restaurant where I usually had dinner was on a corner, with seating in the open, and people walking past would say "hi" or stop for a chat while I was having dinner and imbibing on a Beer Lao.
The ultimate 'small town' experience was when I lived on Niue (that's an island country in the South Pacific!) for nearly three years. Current population is just 1,613, and still falling.
I had taken to consuming breakfast in the hotel restaurant as they opened at 06.30 to miss the hordes and I could watch the phalanx of saffron coated, bare-footed monks as they toured the streets, accepting food from the folks who set up on the street ready for them. It was usually women who doled out the food and they would scoop up a handful of sticky rice with a bare hand and drop it into each monk's bowl as they chanted and shuffled past. I'm not sure about the significance, but after 'feeding' the last monk, the lady across the road would scoop a little more rice out of her receptacle and fling it across the street....!
My left ear was giving trouble - blocked with wax, and seemed exacerbated by me having a mild cold. Tried drops I had with me, to no avail. Bought and tried hydrogen peroxide which resulted in volcanic-like eruptions in me lug hole - but no relief. The owner of the hotel (the wonderful and beautiful Noy) found out about my little problem: made some phone calls and drove me to the hospital emergency ward. The doctor gave a diagnosis on the ear least effected - which Noy (who speaks Lao, of course, but more French than English) translated as me have 'mushrooms' in my ear. I guessed at a touch of tropical 'fungus'? Anyway - the doctor syringed the ears and it was much better.
When I started working in the office there was; an office lass, a cleaner lady, and three men (two Lao, one Swiss). The office gal left to have her baby and the Swiss guy went home (he was devising cycle routes and maps for tourists). Then: one guy was transferred to Vientiane and the other guy's contract finished on December 31. The cleaner lady popped in for an hour or so on some mornings. SO: for the last two weeks, there was just me in the office!
And so ends another one, then the inevitable end involves travel - this time from Paksé to Savannakhet, to Bangkok to Singapore to Perth - 20 HOURS of travelling! Got home at 06.00 after being awake all night.
Home for about three weeks / then to Melbourne for a three-day 'briefing', home for a week - then off on the next one..... back to Papua New Guinea. Kavieng this time to work with a struggling guesthouse.