Edición de «TrekShare.com - Crashing A Wedding In Laos - Part 1»

 <br>Any reasonable person would think it slightly off-color to crash a wedding.  When that wedding happens to be in Laos<br>who is to say if it’s inappropriate or not?  Whom am I kidding?  I was well aware of the potential drawbacks of dropping in on an event that I was clearly not invited.<br>It<br>wouldn’t be the first time leering eyes would be cast upon<br><br>me as I casually pressed my way up to the buffet table.<br>Let’s regress for a minute.  Some people might not know what<br>the word "crash" means in the first sentence.  For those of<br>you who have been sheltered from large community<br>centers/bowling alleys for the duration of your lives I can<br>understand.  It’s been my experience that a bowling alley in<br><br>the same venue as a wedding reception brings out the largest<br>proportion of uninvited guests or what we like to call<br>"wedding crashers."<br>That certainly wasn’t the case here.  No bowling alleys in<br>Laos!  In particular no bowling alley that doubles as a<br>reception hall.  This of course is not a researched fact,<br><br>but I’m willing to bet anyone 100,000 kip that in two weeks<br>you couldn’t find any sign of the leisure sport of the<br>drunk.  Lawn bowling doesn’t count.  For all I know lawn<br>bowling or "bocce ball" is their national sport eclipsed<br>only by badminton and a game of hands-free volleyball played<br><br>with a wicker ball.  The name eludes me almost as much as<br>the skill needed to play the sport.<br>The truth is I was hungry.  A traditional Lao massage<br>administered by blind women in the late afternoon completely<br>wiped me out and I had just woken at 11PM from a 4-hour nap.<br>If you’re still reading this you might wonder how does one<br><br>get "wiped out" from a massage.  Aren’t these things<br>supposed to be relaxing?  Yeah and no.  Primarily NO in my<br>case.  It appears that the muscles from my toes to my thighs<br>don’t like to be physically manipulated away from the bone<br>as the massage suggests.  For a mere 30,000 Kip or $3 US –<br><br>an hour massage from a skilled therapist seems like a great<br>deal.  That is if sometime in that hour you don’t burst all<br>the blood vessels in your face from wincing so hard.  If my<br>therapist hadn’t been blind I’m pretty sure she would have<br>thought she was killing me.  I would have felt like a puss<br><br>so I broke out the yoga breathing and [http://vtr.org.vn/kham-pha-xu-chua-vang-myanmar.html Tour du lịch Myanmar] prayed not to succumb<br>to hyperventilation.  <br>Regardless, it was now 11PM and if I didn’t move from my<br>guesthouse quickly there would be little chance of finding<br>any late night eatery in Luang Prabang. Places tend to close<br>after the electricity cuts at 9PM.<br><br>Things looked bleak upon leaving the guesthouse.  There<br>didn’t appear to be any lights, tuk tuk drivers or for that<br>matter people in site.  There was, however, a clear path of<br>music being generated from beyond the cement building<br>horizon.<br>Sounded like a party.  Parties oftentimes have food.  So off<br><br>we went.  At this stage of the story I introduce you to my<br>friend Paul who spent most of the duration of the night<br>within earshot of me.  It became clear to me as we rounded<br>the first corner that the music was definitely coming from<br>this street.  It was time to move beyond my usual sloth like<br><br>pace caused by the extreme heat and humidity.  I could see a<br>few motor scooters in the distance coming and going.<br>As we got closer it became evident that this was the real<br>deal.  People were hopping on their Chinese mananufactured<br>motor scooters in suits with [http://pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=beautiful%20Laotian beautiful Laotian] women draped<br>over the backs.  They sit sidesaddle because their silk<br><br>skirts or "sins" wraps tightly down to their ankles.  A<br>quick decision was needed as we approached the entry gate.<br>Just walk in slowly and pretend I’m not with the poorly<br>dressed vagabond to my side.  This wouldn’t work.  We<br>entered the gate, saw about 20 people sitting at tables and<br>another 30 or so under a wooden canopy dancing to live<br><br>music.  I noticed there weren’t any people doing the drunken<br>"hook-up" stager that are so prevalent at weddings in the<br>states.  The vibe was comfortable, respectful and fully<br>devoid of my wedding experiences.  <br>I made a b-line for the 15-foot buffet table.  It was<br>definitely the path of least resistance.  It was obvious<br><br>that everyone had finished eating at least 2 hours prior and<br>the table was in the process of being taken down.  Seemed<br>fairly logical that I grab a spring roll and dowse it in<br>some spicy papaya sauce before it becomes a leftover.<br>Before I could even put the first bite in my mouth a pair of<br>women rounded the table and handed us all the utensils we<br><br>needed.  "Kop Chi Li Li" or thank you spewed from mouth<br>about 100 times in the next 3 minutes.  They either liked<br>the way I pronounced the phrase or had giant hearts because<br>their smiles stretched from ear to ear.<br>The buffet had what appeared to most of the staples of the<br>Laos diet.  There was a type of yellow chicken curry, some<br><br>spicy beef, spingrolls, fresh vegetables and a giant vat of<br>sticky rice.  Within seconds of loading up our plates the<br>two drunkest 20-year olds at the party pulled up four chairs<br>for [http://vtr.org.vn/kham-pha-xu-chua-vang-myanmar.html Tour du lịch Myanmar] us.  One for our plates and the other for our asses.<br>Before even taking my first bit I had a 1/3 glass full of<br><br>BeerLao between my eyes.<br>This is where the story takes a dramatic twist.  It is not<br>because I started drinking.  That’s a little later.  The<br>twist is because this story is being composed for Break<br>Magazine and they don’t allow any references to drugs or<br>alcohol.  Therefore I have written two versions.  The one<br><br>where I drink myself to a point where I believe I can<br>understand the Lao language is the version you are reading.<br>Although we were given utensils I chose to forego the<br>westernization of the land and eat using the dipping<br>technique utilized by most people.  Three bites in and once<br>again a 1/3 full glass of BeerLao is between my eyes.  The<br><br>young man offering the glass was pimped out in a black<br>tuxedo and appeared to be the kind of guy whom you should<br>accept a drink from.  Another "kop chi li li", a swig from<br>his glass and we were friends.  I pulled up another chair<br>for the special guest and [http://vtr.org.vn/kham-pha-xu-chua-vang-myanmar.html Tour du lịch Myanmar từ hà nội] we began to speak.  The<br>conversation took a slow start.  Not because of tuxedo man,<br><br>but rather because I had been so used to talking to people<br>who spoke absolutely no English, that I was conversing like<br>a trained monkey.  <br>Shortly into the conversation I learned Pond was indeed the<br>honored guest at what I learned was his wedding.  The<br>handsome 24-year old had just been hitched and he oozed<br><br>elation.  As I scarified down my food I learned he works for<br>the Lao government as an AIDS educator.  He also told us<br>about a cousin of his who lives in NYC and his desire to my<br>town.  My door will always be open.  <br>Laotian men usually marry in there twenties.  The bride is<br>usually younger.  She will most likely be from the same<br><br>village and will probably be related in some degree because<br>most villages are small.  Couples choose each other, but the<br>heads of both families decide when the couple will marry,<br>where they will live, and what bride price must be paid to<br>the girl’s father.  This is usually in currency, although in<br><br>olden times it was in livestock or grain.<br>The groom’s family delivers the bride price to the bride’s<br>father on the day before the wedding.  The groom’s<br>relative’s parade to the bride’s house with gifts of food,<br>tobacco, betel and so on.  The groom makes his formal<br>request for the bride. Her family, after a long-winded,<br><br>purely ceremonial show of reluctance finally agrees.  In the<br>presence of a bonze or village elder, the couple is<br>officially betrothed.  The next day, the groom and his<br>relatives again proceed to the bride’s house, where they<br>make a great show of fighting and bribe their way into the<br>yard.  The groom must persuade the bride’s sister to wash<br><br>his feet before he can ascend the steps to the house and<br>claim his bride.<br>Divorce is rare in Laos, [http://vtr.org.vn/kham-pha-xu-chua-vang-myanmar.html Tour du lịch Myanmar] partly because each marriage<br>concerns everyone in two large, extended families.  If a<br>marriage is dissolved, the bride price has to be returned,<br>and there are endless complications concerning inheritance<br><br>and land use.  It is much more sensible to compromise.<br>Working things out, in general, is the Laotian response to<br>almost every [http://wordpress.org/search/conflict conflict].  Isn’t that a novel idea?<br>In the background we watched the nucleus of the party dance.<br>Thankfully there are no traditions of the Marquerena or<br>chicken dance in Laos.  This is one of the things I’m<br><br>happiest about.  Tonight they danced the Lamvong.  It’s a<br>combination folk dance and courting ritual.  Girls dance in<br>place with short, rhythmic steps, while boys weave circles<br>around them; no one touches.  The faces of the dancers are<br>completely expressionless, but their arms and hands wave in<br><br>complicated patterns expressive of love and devotion.<br>Frankly, unless you are Laotian, you will end up looking<br>like a queen doing this jig.<br>The groom apologized to us that the party we crashed was<br>almost over.  He insisted we accompany him to the parents of<br>his wife’s house for an after party.  The two guys sitting<br><br>next to us indicated that they would escort us to the party.<br>Pond cordially dismissed himself and affirmed our<br>attendance.<br>As soon as the 48-ounce bottle of BeerLao was cashed we<br>would head out.  As the pace and the amount of the beer in<br>the glass increased I decided to engage the transportation<br><br>question.  I was pretty sure these guys had scooters.<br>Frankly I’m not a big fan of riding on the back of those<br>things in any situation.  In addition, I was positive both<br>these guys were half in the bag.  Through struggled words<br>and gulps of beer I asked our new friends about drinking and<br>driving.