Lao language

Learning Lao is difficult for me. Firstly I have never learned a second language, and secondly, Lao is a tonal language and I am tone deaf! At first I could not find any Lao language resources so I thought that learning Thai would give me a step into Lao. Thai and Lao are members of the Tai group of languages and are very similar. So I bought a lot of tapes to help learn Thai, though I barely used them. But the picture above illustrates a problem. The Thai script has been changed to a "modern" form, so written Thai (top on the sign on the immigration station booth) is rather different from Lao script (on the bottom, below the English.) When this is combined with the different words for a number of things, learning Thai seemed to be a complicating approach rather than a help. I have recently given my Thai language learning resources to a young colleague, who I hope will use them better than I did! Meantime I have found a number of resources for learning Lao.

The first is "Lao for Beginners" by Buasawan Simmala and Benjawan Poomsan Becker which is a book which can be bought by itself, or with tapes or CDs. The second is "The Shapes and Sounds of the Lao Language" by David Dale which come with a CD. It is specifically designed to address "approaches that will help the native English speaker how to read, write and pronounce the Lao language" and helps particularly with the tones. I have made vague attempts to learn other languages but could not really progress learning words and phrases off by heart so I felt that if I could read and write the language I would have a better chance of learning to speak it. So I came on a learning programme from the Foreign Service Institute in the US, which though quite old (and old fashioned, helped me learn to read and write the language. It came as a CD with multiple MP3 files and a PDF format book. I found it very useful. But it will be a very long time before I can communicate in a meaningful way in Lao. Fortunately there are plenty of Lao people in my profession who can speak with me in simple English!

Vang Vieng, Laos, December 2009

Vang Vieng is a small town about 150 km north of Vientiane on the road to Luang Prabang. During the Vietnam war it was an airbase for the infamour Air America, but since the 1980's it has been a popular haunt for backpackers and more recently for Lao and Thai tourists. It is situated on the banks of the Nam Song river and is surrounded by amazing limestone karsks which contain numerous caves. The picture above shows some of the limestone outcrops in the early morning.

We drove from Vientiane to Vang Vieng on Christmas Day, 2009. The Lonely Planet guidebook to Laos warned that if one was to take a bus it would be wise to use an antiemetic before starting the trip. As we travelled along in a little Hyundae Getz it was easy to understand why! The road was steep and winding and buses and trucks raced along with little regard for other traffic. It was my first time driving on the "open road" in Laos and it was extremely stressful. The drive took about three hours. We had not booked accommodation so our first task was to find somewhere to stay. The guide book suggested several places but it was difficult to work out where they were. After looking at several we found two places close together that seemed reasonable, but the one I liked best did not respond to calls at he reception area, so we surveyed the town again and came back to the "resort" next to the one we first tried to check in to. It was quite simple but clean and nice, though expensive by Lao standards. After checking in we went out for lunch ending up at a simple restaurant on the main street that served basic Thai type food.

We thought we should visit the caves but it was mid afternoon so instead we walked around the town looking at some shops and at the other hotels and "resorts" and going across the river on a bamboo bridge before returning to our hotel at dinner time. The sign below was just over the bridge, but it was too late to take up the offer! The place next door to our hotel had a restaurant by the river so we ate there.

The next morning we decided to visit the more famous caves, which are accessed through the most expensive resort, but were told the caves were closed because the electricity was off from about 8 am to 4 pm. Instead we explored some of the countryside around the town.

One of the attractions of Vang Vieng is watching the sunset over the mountains. I managed to photograph it, though it was not as dramatic as I had hoped! Still, this is what I got.