Alas, I got side tracked about 100 metres from home and wandered into the Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre. What a find. A small museum focussed mainly on tribal customs with great (and well documented) information on things like tribal dress, cultural celebrations, hand spun, loomed and woven fabrics etc. It focussed mainly on the Hmong and the Akha tribes and had a few videos explaining some of their customs. The handcrafts and fabrics were just superb and the exhibitions showed off the talents beautifully.
TAEC was founded in 2006 and is a private not for profit organisation dedicated to preserving and communicating the cultural resources of Laos. The Museum is housed in a heritage building which also houses a shop and the Le Patio Cafe which has a great reputation.
Wandering on through the back streets I pass the quaintest homes, little lanes and gorgeous cafes along the river front. So different to the main road I had been hanigng out on over the last few days. Amazingly, despite its age the city doesn't immediately appear to be very old as everything is beautifully maintained. This part of the city is so much nicer and although full of tourists and tourist restauarntsit doesn't seem as brash as the main street with its constant stream of travel agents, money changers and souvenir shops. This is real cute.
Eventually I come across Tamarind Restaurant, the one with the reputation of THE best cooking class, so now I'm on the list for a class on Friday night. They also do a longer class in the mornings which takes in the markets as well but I have done that sort of thing a couple of times and not keen to do a repeat.
I pass by some beautiful Wats and make note to self that I must return and have a proper look.
Round the corner I find Ock Pop Tok (translates to East meets West) an organisation working to promote Lao textiles while at the same time providing tribal women with the skills and support to be able to increase the awareness of Laos' diverse textiles and communities. They practice fair and sustainable practices and achieve this through the exchange of knowledge and ideas via active projects that directly benefit the weavers, staff and the visitors.
I booked a Hmong batik class with them for the afternoon and a weaving class for the next day. The following day, Thursday, I have my name down to attend and information evening about the Hmong tribes.
Soon a tuktuk was there to collect me and I was taken to the most divine place kn the banks of the Mekong where while waiting for the Hmong lady I enjoyed a coke and gazed at the view. Today it was quite cool and the mist and clouds hung heavy over the mountains creating quite a surrel effect.
Soon it was my turn to start and I am sat in front of a piece of coarse hemp fabric and shown how to use the copper head drawing implement, dipping it into the warming beeswax which has been coloured with indigo. The colouring is so you can see what you are doing. Mastering the drawing implement was challenging. You hold it away from you, rather than towards you like you would a pen. The "nib" is a triangular shape and the nib is made of three sheets of triangular shaped copper held together with a knotted piece of bamboo.
My master artisan would start the lines/pattern off to show me what to do and then leave me to it. She was amazingly steady of hand and made it look ever so easy.
The idea is that you dip the implement into the wax and draw designs on the fabric. When your design is totally finished you then dip the fabric into dyes (the Hmong tradition is for blue and with each dip the colour gets darker). Once you have it at the right colour you boil the finished product to melt the wax and leave the fabric to dry. That colouring and drying process is quite long winded so the course only covers the drawing of the pattern.
The Hmong do not have a written language and so much of the decoration of fabric is symbolic of various elements of everyday life or depictions from nature.
To do my square it took about 2 hours. Apparently I was very fast. It wasn't difficult to do but challenging until I got the knack of drawing the straight lines (of whcih there were many). The challenge was made harder by the fact that when anyone walked on the plywood floor, the table I was working on wobbled and just when my line seemed to be going straight, up someone would stand and move around, and my hand would digress from the direction it was heading.
The lady teaching me learned from her Mom who used to whack her if she didn't practice her skills and also if she didn't do it perfectly. She looked about 80. When I asked the translator how old she was I got the reply "very old, about 60". Made me feel real bad that I was "very old" but feel great that I looked as if I could have been this ladies daughter. She had such a tired worn face. In the photo below she is starting off each of the lines that I had to draw so I knew where to do them. The photo does her justice and she looks quite young here.
The straight lines were the hardest and doing the colouring in and circles much faster and easier. I was so proud of my handiwork and loved my afternoon experience.
Back to my room for a rest and battery recharge. Made a few hotel bookings and confirmed my weekend away at a tented lodge, which includes a trip up the Mekong, a trip to a cave of Buddahs and a visit to a tribal village. All touristy things but at least the tourist hoardes wont be with me.
My room is so lovely and homely I nearly didn't go out again but now glad I did.
My first stop,was at a street vendor stall where I bought a "thing". It was a potato cut in a continuous spiral, threaded into a skewer and then deep fried. They had a variety of different sprinkles to choose from and goodness knows what I chose but it was really yummy. Like a big spiral french fry.
After a leisurely amble along the Mekong and through the Markets I was getting peckish and sated my hunger at a restaurant called Coconut Garden. A lovely garden made for a lovely atmosphere. All westerners but at least no large groups or loud mobs. My BeerLao, stciky rice and pork larb with bananaleaf salad was a refreshing change. The sticky rice was brown rice rather than the usual white and it added a new flavour dimension to the meal. Eating in the local way with my hands and rolling the rice into a ball, taking a bit of the salad with it before popping it in my mouth makes it taste so much better too.
Time for "home" and I return to my hotel and off to bed. A lovely day and I have to say that away from the hoardes it is a very pretty place. Its a shame that it has totally lost is Asian-ness, but I guess that is the price you have to pay for tourism.
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