Second Day on the River
June 8 in Laos ⋅ 🌧 30 °C
The next morning, I was woken up at 6.30am by a combination of my alarm and, yes, of course - because why not? - more cigarette smoke.
Bloody hell.
A quick fruity and yoghurty breakfast later, I was tuktuked back to the river and happily hopped on the boat.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time on the boat. It’s soothing to be in nature, and the river and surrounding scenery are stunning to look at.
I was glad I chose this tour - the issues at the accommodation weren’t their fault, and they smoothed it over quickly.
On the boat, there’s an outdoor deck with four chairs to lie on. Very convenient.
However, people are like egotistical vultures. While we were instructed to be mindful of our time there, everyone wanted to relax on the deck, and as expected, you don’t really stand a chance. As soon as everyone needed to be gathered for something, people started breaking away to grab that prime spot on the boat. They shortened meal times, etc. It’s absurd.
Around noon, before our lunch on the boat, we went to another village. This one was a little bigger than the one from the previous day. It had 450 inhabitants.
Get ready for some more spectacle.
We disembarked, greeted by the first children.
Again, we climbed the shore and made our way to the village.
Suddenly, children emerged from seemingly nowhere, holding fabrics over their arms in a practiced fashion - ready to sell.
They were as young as two years old and maybe up to eight.
It was bizarre.
Like the last, this village is poor, and life is basic at best.
The villagers know and count on tourists coming in regularly from the river cruises - it gives them a chance to sell their goods - fabrics like tissue-sized embroidered pieces made by village children and scarves made by some adults.
The few adults we spotted remained in the back. There must have been about 25 children - the youngest among them barely toddlers.
The swarm of children circled us, holding out fabrics and appealing to us in their innocent, pleading voices to look at and buy the fabrics they shoved in our faces.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that this whole ploy is entirely strategic.
Even among the children, discussions arose, with the smallest toddlers being pushed forward, fervently made to hold out the fabrics and say what to say to us.
The way this played out, it was impossible not to think of a zoo.
Tourists shipped to blatantly poor villages, the poverty shoved roughly into their faces by misappropriating and using the innocence of children to evoke sympathy so they buy something.
The twisted part is that yes, by buying these locally made products in poor villages, you are indeed supporting them and their livelihood.
But everything about this is manipulative and poorly orchestrated.
By not buying, yes, you feel inherently terrible. Should you? No, you’re doing nothing wrong. You should only buy something if you truly need it and out of your own volition.
The way the villagers and tour organisers go about this is exploitative of both the children and the tourists. You’re only told that you’re visiting a local village and that you have the chance to buy some souvenirs if you like. A matter of interpretation, to be sure.
We also weren’t shown the village properly. This was entirely for the sake of the purchase.
Many in our group looked coerced into buying something; only a few did so with full intent. You could see the moral dilemma playing out in their eyes.
Enter goody two shoes from the day before, who brought more stationery to gift to the children. This time, she was not met with hesitancy. The children zeroed in on her and grabbed what they could at high speed.
She was out of presents in a matter of seconds. Fights erupted among the kids. It was awkward to watch. Of course, it was documented for posterity.
Then she sat down, snatched a felt-tip out of one kid’s hands and a notebook out of another’s, and proceeded - just like yesterday - to write something in it with pomp and circumstance, surrounded by hesitant children who just didn’t understand English.
Again, yes, it’s great that she and her partner brought them something and were prepared. That is generous and does help the children.
I do, however, question the execution of the matter - the prevalent reason behind it, based on what I could observe.
There was one more stop before our destination, Luang Prabang. It was a cave with lots of Buddha statues. Well, not really fascinating if you ask me. Climbing the 200+ steps in the midday heat was more of a highlight.Read more