Villages 2

Despite what the Lonely Planet guide tells you, villages aren't all that. Not to mention the smells and noises, M told me of couple instances where the people just aren't very nice, or are hard to depend on.

In one case, his bro-in-law lost his cell phone in the village. He goes there (about 700m away), and asks around. Finally someone says he found it, but will give it back to him for 400,000 Kip. A new one would cost a little over double that (figure about 8000 Kip per US dollar). Now, M's bro-in-law comes into the village often looking for people to do jobs, and he's brought them to the doctor in town, about an hour's drive (and no one has a car here of course). He's nice to them. M and his family were all upset by this, but what can you do.

Another time, we actually passed the village chief. They were walking on M and A's land, which they've allowed. She was showing me around. It's about 7 ha (2.24 acres per ha). They only ask that no hunting or felling of trees be allowed. They allow the villages to keep their water buffalo up there too. So as we were passing by, A brought up that some trees had been cut down. The village chief, after checking me out, didn't miss a step, and kept walking by on the narrow trail. Small or big, he asked without turning around. She replied, it doesn't matter. We don't want people cutting down trees. And they sort of mumbled off in the distance.

The last example, some people in the village borrowed desks and benches from the local primary school for a party, and they got all bashed up. No one's taken responsibility for them and won't repair them, or replace them. After complaints from the teachers that the school desks and benches were all decrepit, M agreed to buy a whole new set.