Sao Lao

I received a second batch of photos from my cousin in Laos and was happy to see a photo of Grand-Mama making food to take to the temple for the Boun Hor Khao Padapdin.

On this day, Buddhists prepare food for their relatives who have passed away and for abandoned spirits that have been suffering in hell. They believe that on this day they will be released from hell to come and eat the food put out for them around homes and temples.

This ritual occurs in every temple and requires devotees to get up early in the morning to bring the food they prepared the day before. Up to nine kinds of offerings are bound in a horkhao , a decorative package wrapped up in banana leaves and containing fruit, sweets, dried fish, flowers and other items.

Grand-Mama can’t sit in the proper way with her legs fold for too long so she couldn’t attend the Morning Alms Giving. She still can’t walk beyond the front gate of the house but did her best to help with paying respect to her deceased mother and other relatives. I asked her why she was putting this different ingredients in one banana wrap and she told me that is to give the spirits different types of food in one serving.

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It has been a little over a year since the passing of my Grand-Papa. When I was a kid in Vientiane I never knew he was my blood related relative. I found out last year after he passed away that he was my Papa’s father. I had good memory of this nice man and went to pay my respect at his Boun Loy Vanh earlier this year. When I came back from Laos my aunt Kian gave me a CD with pictures of the funeral of Grand-Papa. For some reason I didn’t see the few photos of him from Lao New Year in 2004. These photos were of him a few months before his 94th birthday. Aunt Kian was there to wish him a happy new year and asked for his blessings.

Grand-Papa would have been 98 years old as of October 11th, 2007 if he was still alive. Sadly he passed away, less than a week before his 97th birthday in October of 2006.

I have been thinking about his passing the last couple of weeks and trying to process my feelings. I wanted to ask my Grand-Mama about Grand-Papa but since she has been sick the last few weeks I didn’t want to give her more stress. Grand-Mama was his first wife and he didn’t treat her real well. But after all these years it was Grand-Mama’s children that took care of him during his illness and through the last breath he took. It was also the first’s wife children that gave him a proper burial. I don’t know what was in the past but I have good memory of this man. For better or worse he was my Grand-Papa and was good to me all those years. I want to remember him the way he was to me and will always honor and respect him. He was the man that I admired and wanted to be more than I could be. At 5 years old I wanted to grow up and be an architech  and took over his construction company or be an ambassador like my great-uncle.

I thank Grand-Papa for giving life to my Papa and for my existence. Without them I would not exist. We are not perfect but with love and grace we are capable of so many beautiful things imaginable.

When I first came to Lao online community in 2003, there was not much information about Lao music in general. Lao Waves was already shut down and I never knew about it and only heard about the site from Sam_Vong. Being the only Lao person in this town I was happy to be able to find good Thai sites so I can find some music to listen to. When I went to Paris in 2004 I went looking for Lao and Thai music but was met with disappointments. The store owner wanted too much for a CD seeing how eager I was to have found an old stash of Thai music in a bin. I later called a Lao music recording studio in Paris and then called Chidharani so I could buy some CDs and DVDs.

I decided to order CD and VCD from Thailand. The first time was through E Thai CD store. I was very happy to have the package delivered to me but was in a state of shock when I had to pay tax for the music which was double the price of all the CDs I ordered. In the end I told the post man to come back the next day so I can get some cash to pay for the “imported tax” and was so happy to listen to Thai music, next to my tiny collection of Lao music.

Marsha’s album of “Fine Days” was one of the CDs I ordered. I had no idea who she was or anything about the other artists. I ordered the music based on one or two MP3s I’ve heard on the net. I thought she has a really good voice. When I told my aunt Vieng about ordering some Thai music and about Marsha, she told me that Marsha was on a “hate list” in Laos. Apparently there was a rumor about her having said something bad about Lao women. I don’t know the details of the rumor and didn’t ask my aunt for more information.

To me music is music. I never pay much attention to tabloid or to entertainment magazines. I don’t read those things. Most of the time I can’t even remember the faces of those singers I listen to. I only care for the music. I don’t have to like them or know what kind of person they are and whether or not they are “perfect beings” because all I need from them is to produce good music for me to listen to.

I like this song by Marsha. It’s on the CD that I bought.

Phra-dek-seua-kai-wawk พระ-เด็ก-เสือ-ไก่-วอก Thai movie released in 2006.

I was given an MP3 of this song in 2003 by a member of Laoplanet.net but never knew the name of the song or who the singer(s) until I saw a music video by the group a year ago on Thai ITV. I don’t know if U.H.T is still around but I still like this song very much. This is the only song I know from the group actually.

A new video by Lao rock band Cells. They are rocking Thailand at the moment and their music videos are produced under the label of Grammy. This song has a really great beat but I can’t agree with the lyrics though. I’ve heard this Lao saying of how it is better to hold a poop in your hand than to hold a fart. I wouldn’t want to hold anything with stinky smell to begin with, lol. I don’t agree that you should have a man just for a sake of having a man or someone to walk around with you at night. Heck you can have a male friend to walk you if you are too scare to walk alone or a girl friend for that matter.

Now and then I like to have a take out order at my favorite Chinese (Dim Sum) restaurant at Beurs Plein shopping center in Rotterdam. It’s a good exercise to walk to the restaurant and then do some people watching on the street corners while waiting for the dinner to be prepared. The Netherlands reminds me so much of Laos, especially Vientiane with all the outdoor shopping area and sidewalk cafes. Somehow it feels like a second home and I don’t mind being here so much.

After a dinner like this, I just want to run around the block for a few hours to get rid of the fat. However, it’s more fun to just sit behind the computer and blog.

It’s getting darker faster now. This was what I saw when I came home from school at 19:22 hour. As the train was heading toward Rotterdam there was a sense of calmness that I couldn’t explain. It was a happy and peaceful feeling to watch the field in the distance with sheep and cows gathering around one another for the night. I tried get a good picture from the train. But with all the lights on, they didn’t turn out real well.

I got a letter from my mama today and was surprised to see my own face among the photos from Laos of the school building project at Bane Dannavieng. I had to scan the pictures since they were hard print copies from a film cameras. These photos were taken in Vang Vieng and I am very happy to have the only pictures taken of me by my Mama during our visit to Laos earlier this year.

Dinand from the Dutch band Kane at DJ Tiesto’s concert in the Netherlands.