Firstly answers to a couple of questions from my previous blog, the spider photographed in the previous entry is not poisonous, the only disturbing thing about it is it size, and lets face it coming from Australia we can’t start making judgments about spiders. The locals eat them, as they tend to do with most things that move, they however don’t trust Indian food, as ‘it smells funny’. Which is rich country that gives us those absolutely disgusting half raw yolk half chicken foetus eggs, and also ‘kii kai nam’ literally ‘horse piss eggs’. They also cook with a plant called the ‘king of bitters’ which is a beautiful looking weed but a taste of one small leaf will leave a bitter taste in your mouth that will last longer than the Ozzies loosing the Ashes to England (I know wouldn’t normally do cricket references but just could not resist that one).
The power generation from the river will be by what is called a pico generator (not a nano generator as previously stated I was 10³ out). You can buy the units off the shelf either a Chinese made one or a Vietnamese made one which are much better, they produce about 1KW and I hope to give a bit more information on the installation off one in future blogs.
I was invited to Baci ( pronounced Barsi ) at the new LIRE office, which is a house warming/ office warming ceremony, the Laos flavour of Budisism has elements of paganism mixed in because of the different ethnic mixes so it was a lot more informal than the Thai Buddhist ceremonies, but still hell on the knees. Keeping with tradition of all Baci’s, after the religious part is over then the party starts with enough food and drink to keep the foreign legion running. One of the managers at LIRE who was a bit of guitarists pointed me in the direction of another Chinese market, Talad Chiang Xiang, near the airport, where there were a couple of guitar shops. I had problems in both the shops in town, apparently so does everybody else; they just don’t like people coming into the shop. Next day myself and Flo, a German, business studies graduate on a 6 month interment, scooted out and purchased a couple of fairly decent guitars for a reasonable price, mine is a Chinese made Monica which is not bad.
I have made much in previous blogs about the differences in cultures between east and west and I have found the differences between the Laos culture and the west even more pronounced than the Thai. I have often said that Laos is probably 20 to 30 years behind Thailand in terms of development; this is a vast generalisation as ‘development’ covers a multitude of sins. For instance everybody has a mobile phone, and as with a lot of Asia, the mobile phone takes priority over everything, it doesn’t matter where you are or what you are doing, if the phone rings you answer it. Certainly doing business here is challenging, most of Asia is way ahead of the Laos, good customer service is usually achieved by the fact that Laos are generally warm and welcoming, the idea of good customer service being related to increase sales and repeat custom is completely beyond them, as is the concept of performance related pay. The really odd thing is that a long term customer or repeat customers starts getting taken for granted rather than receiving what you would expect superior service. The hotel said I would have to move out of my room for one night and in to a smaller room, whilst they make room for guests staying one night, they seemed a bit put out when I suggested it would be better to put the other guests in the smaller room.
Sunny’s Abundant water project is still progressing, he and his local potter Newcom have developed the process and are achieving consistent and quantifiable results with a 5 litre filter and now is attempting to make an 8 litre filter. He is getting ready to roll out the process to pilot projects. I am hoping to get more involved in the technology transfer to Thailand, Cambodia & Vietnam. All in good time.
At the moment there is a big festival at Tat Leuang which is a big temple on the North side of the city; I haven’t quite managed to gather what it all about seems to be a part religious, part free concert part, commercial exhibition. I thought I’d take a look see just to check it out, I have seen more temples I need to see in one lifetime, so the temple itself although beautiful and ornate did not hold any special interest. The weird mixture of religion and commercialism was abound, I understand the alms system for the monks but taken to extremes with PA’s & megaphones.
Out in the huge square in front of the temple the exhibition stalls and the market was packed solid and packed with what I can only described as cheap tasteless tat, I’m sorry to offend but it is. Not only that but each of the exhibition stall had a huge PA, so the sound of 20 or 30 multi KW PA systems competing for noise space is unbearable. The highlight of the trip the visit to the fun fair and an examination of the dodgy safety standards. This included kids Ferris wheel with open pulleys and an old style dodgem cars with the electrified mesh in the roof; I love the smell of ion in the morning.
1.Engrish take 1
2. Engrish take 2 intsructions in my hotel room
3. At the fun fair child safety is paramount
4. Old style dodgem cars with active grid in the roof
5. Prosession entering Tat Lueng; 'I have no idea what is going on' - Blogger Scoop
6. Tat Lueng
7. Responsible advertising by BeerLao
8.Newcom making Abundant water filter
9.Used Coffee grinds donated by Joma a
key ingediant for the water filter mix
10.Bakino faso's next top model demonstrates
alternative use for water filter
11. Duelling PA systems (video)
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