We had looked at the options:
- take a series of buses over 3-4 days, crossing the border at Dien Bien Phu into northern Laos
- take a continuous bus that stops for rest breaks and transit, total journey time 24 hours (if it goes to plan!)
- take a 12h night train back to Hanoi and fly into Laos.
We decided against option 3 as we didn't want to go back on ourselves and it's not the most ethical choice, not to mention the expense. Most people go for option 1 as northern Laos is very beautiful so taking your time travelling through it isn't a chore. Time for us was becoming a factor - reaching the last couple of weeks of our trip and hoping to visit Thailand before flying home we opted for option 2 - the worlds longest bus ride...
The journey began at 2pm in Bac Ha, Vietnam on Sunday and ended at 11pm in Luang Prabang, Laos on Monday...!
The first leg of Bac Ha to Sa Pa was easy enough, we were relatively fresh and got chatting to an Aussie couple about their home farm. Gary and Caroline really inspired us and I genuinely believe that we were meant to meet them. Time for an 'arabian night'... what is an arabian night you ask? It is when you go off on a huge tangent in a conversation, a tangent that may eclipse the initial subject of conversation. This is the distinct writing style of the '1001 Arabian Nights' stories, so here goes...
Our outer journey has been fairly well chronicled, but I have only given you glimpses of our inner journey. The inner journey is experiential and the outer descriptive, so transmitting the inner journey cannot be done via description alone. I can tell you how I feel but I can't make you feel the same, I can describe the taste of honey but to really know what I mean you must taste it. But it is possible, if I transmit from my heart you will see something of our experience between these lines on the page. As the wisdom goes, 'what is transmitted from the heart will reach the heart, what is transmitted from the tongue won't go beyond the ears.'
For quite a few years now i've been realising to a greater extent large scale injustices in the world and since getting married Mandeep has been teaching me a lot more. Ethical Consumer and New Internationalist magazines are 2 great sources of knowledge of such things - we highly recommend them both. Things like the global financial system, corporations and consumerism, the destruction of our ecosystems, the depletion of non-renewable energy sources and freshwater. The aformentined factors lead to an unsustainable lifestyle which trashes the planet. When money is the bottom line we undermine our higher characteristics - what truly makes us human. We recently watched a relevent documentary called 'Home' which is available free on you tube and another good one is 'Money as Debt' - also on you tube. Also watch 'The Corporation' - really good. Spiritually too we're becoming more aware of the dangers of an ever increasing desire for more material. This movement away from material has naturally led to a movement toward the Ultimate Immaterial - God.
The more we learn the more we must change, so taking small steps we're trying to buy more ethical produce and started growing veg. Mandeep has been learning how to make her own clothes, we switched to an energy supplier that only uses renewable energy ('Good Energy'), boycotting Nestle, Coca Cola, Amazon etc. I have learnt on this trip that the pursuit of a sustainable lifestyle has a name - 'permaculture' and we are currently staying in an organic permaculture farm in Vang Vieng, Laos. We have spent a lot of time in rural areas around SE Asia. The lifestyle in such places is sustainable, evident in the fact that it has remained largely unchanged for thousands of years. We may ask, what is wrong with this lifestyle? No WIFI? No TV? We can live without these things but can we live without food and water? What do you think of a people divorced from the world that sustains them? Unable to grow the food they eat, unaware of the processes involved in it's production, how it got to the plate? People served by unsustainable corporations. We are such people, realising this we had to ask, what will we do when the supermarkets are empty? When the oil party is over? It has become apparent to us that we have been denied our human heritage. The basic knowledge of living that we must never forget. Our travels have only enforced that senensation.
Remember Gary and Caroline on the bus? Yeah I know it's been a while since I've mentioned them... but i think the arabian night might give some useful background to appreciate our meeting. See Gary and Caroline realised what we are beginning to realise 25 years ago. Married at 22 they took a drastic move, buying a piece of land and living on it in a tent for 4 months while they built their house. Raised as city kids with no farming experience, the one advantage Gary had was that he could build. Over time, they began growing their own food, building their home and collecting their own rain water. Once children were on the scene they opted for home schooling as they weren't completely comfortable with public school. "It's the only place where everyone is grouped according to their age - no where else do you get that". We shared our feelings on the school grading system and on how school creates a social class of not-children not-adults, a class not present in home school societies. They decided with their children that the accumulation of facts and grades would not be the focus of their education, "we wanted character to be the main objective of schooling. Our children didn't have any teenage issues, they were comfortable with their surroundings - never needy for toys". It sounds crazy, their peers mocked them along their way but they went with their heart. "You have to go for it, can't live in a shadow". We were awe struck and inspired by them, giving us a new zeal for sustainable living.
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