Source: Page 59 of White Noise Keywords: "river," "office," "watch," "tended"

From: dlanxang@my-deja.com Subject: Along the shores of the Mekong River... Date: 6 Jan 2000 Newsgroups: soc.culture.laos

Savannakhet was very much like Thakek or Pakse in regards to population content. That was it had a big concentration of Vietnamese residents in town especially in the urban areas. One thing that showed this aspect was when a certain Vietnamese died, they would have a long procession of Vietnamese looking people parading behind the black casket truck right in front the post office as this town belonged to them. Besides, as a person in charge of the post office, my dad was constantly visited by the Vietnamese bringing presents in the hope that they would get some favorable treatment from my dad. The big present, of course, came when the Vietnamese (Chinese) New Year arrived. There was a joke circling around the post office employees. It went like this: there was a certain Vietnamese who wasn't received warmly by the Lao. Then, when the Vietnamese New Year kicked in, everyone was extremely nice to him so he said: "Before, everybody called me Buc, Buc. Now, everybody called me Ong, Ong." I, personally, knew one Vietnamese woman. She was a woman who regularly came to the post office to sell Nam Vane Thoua Dame. Her name was Lane but the employees liked to call her "E Lane".Her Nam Vane was so good that it was sold out each time she came by the post office. From her, I learned that the Vietnamese work very hard to earn a living; unlike us, the Lao, who spent most of the time idling around. Besides the Vietnamese, there were the Chinese in every corner of the town. Wherever they were, they had shops selling everything from candies to food. With time, the Chinese shops seemed to get bigger and bigger. Lastly, there were the Indian selling cloth and Roti. Their main headquarter was near the Hong Nang Lith movie theatre. There, the whole street virtually belonged to them. It was not hard to distinguish them from other groups for they (the men) tended to wear turbans on top of their heads. In general, we considered them to be very honest. That was why my mom loaned them a big sum of money for their business. Honesty or not? that Indian fled when his business was bankrupt. I guess you could not fully trust people because they belonged to a certain respectable ethnic group no matter what. I almost forgot one group of people. Though looking and talking very much like us, they were called Thai Isan. They were the coolies hauling the bags of rice in and out of the boats and trucks at Tha Dane. These people skins were a little bit darker than us, the Lao, but they worked extremely hard that we could envision doing the same.They were from Mukdahan, a Thai town from across the Mekong River. At this point of the river, it was very wide. You could hardly see what was going on in Mukdahan from Savannakhet shore, unlike Thakek or Vientiane. As I remember, I went to Mukdahan a couple of times and witnessed how hard the Isan people worked to earn a living. No wonder why so many Isan people settled in Savannakhet or any Lao towns across the river. As I liked to frequent the river, I saw many things happening to it. Of course, there were boats bringing people and goods across the river. Also, there were fishermen stationing their paroques a little bit off the shores. The time that the river was mostly swarmed by people on both shores was on two occasions: bathing at sunset and boat race in the eleventh month of the Buddhist calendar (October). You wouldn't believe how many people bathed in the river if you never lived by the river. Yes, there were a lot from people of all ages. Some just grabbed a bowl and poured the water on their bodies. Some would dive and remained under the water for some length of time. Some would swim with fast moving arms and feet, and some, especially the female, would make a balloon out of their Sinh and float with it. Sometimes, some people especially the young male would stop by to watch the female taking a bath in the river. I wonder why they were fascinated by that sight. Of course, I didn't know at that time how fascinating the female body was because I was too young and too naive. Anyway, bathing in the Mekong river was fun.People really had a good time and helped tie a bond between people in the community. Thinking back, I wonder why people liked to bath in the Mekong river which was murky and muddy. I guess only the above statement explained it all. About the boat race, I didn't have much collection for I was young to enjoy it. The only memory was that there were so many people lining up the shores of the river. With fun, the Mekong river also brought sadness especially during the rainy season. At times, I would see a drowned and swollen body floating with the current past the shore. As my residence was next to the hospital, I came to see so many bloated bodies getting pulled out of the river and lay face up on the hospital floor. I guess that was life. Good times and bad times came together in one package. You can not pick and choose one and discard another. What you can do, instead, is to come to terms with it, and then you will be fine. Isn't life is to grow wise with time, after all? (to be continued)

Back to "The Usenet Project" Main Page - Back to Starve.Org Main Page - Contact - Starve Archive