Takraw

At the University Games, I saw many new sports. I think there were 4 different kinds of boxing and this awesome sport called Takraw.

It's like volleyball with 3 people but they use their feet and head instead of their hands. Also notice how they like do a flip every time they kick it over the net.

Sorry, the quality of the video isn't the best and I couldn't find any from the games this year so it's kinda old.

http://youtu.be/7L9xlSls8T0

Tall Asians

This past week Laos hosted the ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) University Games. A big sporting event for university students. I watched more sports in this week than I have in the last 3 years of my life. But it was fun.

I saw many tall Asian men. The average height of my university boy students is probably 5'4". I think I've only ever had 2 or 3 students who have been taller than me. (5'8") I didn't think tall Lao men existed. But I was wrong!

I saw quite a few Indonesians and Thai people who were over 6 feet- some even 6'4" or 5". And coming from the Dutch heritage that I do, and knowing the many tall Dutch boys that I do, I like tall boys. I guess in NW Iowa 6'3" isn't even that tall. But here in Laos it's like a giant!

At the games, I was introduced me to a male volleyball player for Laos who was 6'4"! I'm still in awe that there are actually tall people in Laos! And it's nice to be around "normal" sized people. :)

Helmets III

So I paid my 250,000 kip and left the office.

Ty and Hong go to find the guy to unlock my bike. He is nowhere to be found. Some other police guys call him but he doesn't answer and doesn't come. He musta been really tired and was taking a long nap. He arrived a little after 3 but he couldn't find the key either. After a little more looking they found it and unlocked my bike.

I'm usually pretty easy going or at least good at hiding my feelings at the appropriate times. While sitting at the police station I was not so good at hiding my anger and frustration. Ty and Hong kept trying to tell me how fun it was and how lucky I was to be able to see the police station in LPB - I hadn't ever seen it in Vientiane. They tried hard to cheer me up. Even though it didn't work very well at the time, I now have a good story to tell. 

Moral of the story - wear your helmet - even when it's a bad one. :P

So after losing lots of money and lots of time, we were on the road headed for the waterfall at 3:30. And it was beautiful. The road there was also gorgeous.

 These are Lao swimsuits - normal clothes.

We jumped off of part of the fall into the water.


Even though it was a pretty frustrating day, it was still good and our whole trip was lots of fun!

Helmets II

When we arrive at the big police office at 11:30, they lock up my bike and tell us to come back tomorrow to pick it up. Ty and Hong tell them that we're going home tomorrow so we can't. We need it back today. The police say we can come back after lunch.

After a little lunch of noodle salad we head back to the police station. The cops come back at 2:00 after a nice nap. Hong and I are going to enter the office to talk to the guy. He tells us that we can't enter the office until we have on a Lao skirt.

Lao people usually wear Lao skirts whenever they go to an office or school or such place. I think it's great for them to wear traditional Lao skirts, but we're traveling! Do they expect every Lao girl to keep a Lao skirt in her back pocket just in case something like this happens and she needs to wear a skirt to enter an office?

Thankfully I had one along because I visited Ty's school and Lao people always wear Lao skirts to school. Ty also had one along for some random reason. So we went to the guesthouse to change into our appropriate clothing. I asked Ty and Hong what we would do if we didn't have any along. They said go buy one. They were kinda kidding. . . but I don't know what our other option would have been - borrow one from the neighbor lady would probably be OK too I guess.

We returned wearing our Lao skirts and sat down at a desk with two other little Lao kids who made some driving mistake. When we sat down, I saw my lady write:

 30,000 ($4) for not wearing my helmet

20,000 ($3) for not having my drivers license

200,000 ($24) for running away from the police

I almost threw a hissy fit right in the police office. How can I need to pay 200,000 for running away from the police?! I "ran away" from them 40 feet because I didn't know if I was the person who was making the mistake or not. My understanding from Ty was that if we waste time we do not waste money. If we waste money we do not waste time. Since we had already wasted over 5 hours - from 9:00 to 2:30 - I figured we wouldn't waste any money.

But then a nice old policeman came in and lectured us all about being good drivers and good people. So then I thought, maybe that's their plan - make us think we need to pay lots of money, but then make us feel bad for being bad people and breaking the rules and then tell us to be good people and obey the rules but then not pay any money.

But then he says, "Pay up." So I paid my 250,000 kip.

Helmets

I wear a helmet every time I ride on my motorbike. I wear it to protect my brains but even more so to protect my lungs and eyes from the dust. 

When I went to Luang Prabang with Ty and Hong, I made a big mistake. We rented motorbikes and they give you crappy helmets to wear. Sometimes Lao people wear helmets, sometimes they don't. 

This is me not so happily wearing my (crappy) helmet after I learned my long and expensive lesson. :(

 We were going to visit a waterfall 25 kilometers away and ride motorbikes to get there. Before we left, Ty told me about 6 times to wear my helmet. I was not going to wear a crappy helmet because the visor kept falling down making it hard to see and then the wind would catch under the visor and blow it off of my head and then I would be choked by the chin strap. It was more dangerous to be fiddling with the helmet every 12 seconds than to just take it off. So I made the mistake of not wearing it.

Two minutes after leaving the guesthouse, we drive past a police box on the side of the road. I was a little nervous, because I knew I was breaking the rules not wearing a helmet, but I looked and saw 17 other people in the same intersection not wearing a helmet, so I figured I was safe. I hear a little police whistle and slow down a little and ask Hong who is riding with me if I should stop. She doesn't say anything, so we continue. I kinda slow down again to check if I should stop or not and continue again. The policeman hops on his bike and chases us down all of 40 feet. We go back to the little police box with him. This is at 9:00.

I know I was in the wrong in not wearing my helmet - I made a mistake - but how am I supposed to know I'm the one he wants to stop just by blowing a little referee whistle at me? There were 20 other people in the same intersection also not wearing a helmet, but I was the one they went after. 

 Before we even arrive at the box, Hong and Ty whip out their phones and call their friends and friends of friends and cousin's boyfriend's uncle's teacher all of whom are cops in LPB. Ty and Hong won't give any information to the cops until they call their friends. One cop tells them that it's 300,000 kip which is $36. It sounds really cheap, but 300,000 kip is a TON of money here!

Ty's friend comes and talks to the cop and says 100,000 - 12 dollars - is OK. I say super! Let's pay and go and continue on our way! This is at 10:30 or so. Ty's other friend says that since we already wasted our time we shouldn't have to pay any money. I tell her many times it's OK. Let's just pay and be done! But she listens to her friend so we wait.

Waiting around for the police and Ty and Hong to decide what to do. At 11:30 the police tell us we have to go to the big police office. We all drive to the BIG office.

This is kinda a long story so I'll stop here and continue next time. :)