Browse, smell, eat and hear sound of music
(KPL) Near the entrance to the annual bazaar site of the Women’s International Group or WIGs, located in the grounds of the Faculty of Engineering of the National University of Laos in Vientiane, you can see two long lines of cars parked on both sides of the road and it stretches on and on as far as the eye can see. These car owners, the more affluent people of Vientiane, the motorcyclists, the less affluent and the ones who came on foot, the poor-they all headed to see what Wigs has to offer on 22 November.
They were not disappointed as there was something for ‘everyone’. For the rich farang and Laotians they could browse among the stalls that are bent on recruiting their offsprings to the expensive and exclusive boarding schools in Thailand. And a hefty price!
Everyone has to eat and the visitors are spoilt for choice because of the offer of a wide range of national cuisine. You can spot the stalls offering Russian, Singaporean, Indian, Korean, French and Lao coffee.
I imagined that I am a poor and struggling reporter and so I resigned myself to just smell the aroma of the food ingredients and spices. Still, it would be a satisfying experience. Just to smell the coffee and the experts said it has 800 aromas and I love it as I am a slight coffee addict. How about all the aromas from the spices of Asean and that could add up to a few thousand. I can get that ‘high’ from such experiences.
As you continue to browse you are certain to see the many Lao handicraft stalls and the NGOs that advertise what they are doing. But, then you are bound to hear the sound of music and it comes from the many dance and live musical performances from the faculty’s hall.
One musical group stood out from the rest and it is the angklung band, made up of musical performers from the staff and the family members of the embassy of Indonesia in Laos. When the band performed, “Burung Kaka Tua” or “Old Kaka Bird” under the baton of Mr Noor Salim, the audience was so entranced, spellbound and mesmerised that you can even hear the sound of a drop of a pin.
This musical rendition came from a song that was popularised by Anneke Gronloh, who is of Dutch-Indonesian descent and who sang in the 1950s and 1960s. Mr Noor told me that he has heard of this song in Vientiane, albeit set in the Lao language and Lao musical style. He also said he is trying to promote the anklung instrument and band performance in Laos and this public performance is an attempt to get the local people to appreciate the sound of the angklung, which originated from West Java.
When the KPL reporter visited the home grown Lao Mountain Coffee stall, its manager, Mr Joel Babcock said that his company paid its coffee farmers fair trade prices and added an extra 10 cents for their raw coffee. It means that the staff of his company would refer to the daily prices of coffee quoted in the world’s commodities markets whenever they computed payments to the growers.
When the reporter asked the founder of this company, Mr Steve Feldschneider for a taste of his much touted coffee, he said it is not for free-not even for journalists. I replied that I would still write about his coffee as it is newsworthy and that readers want to be well informed on the taste of good coffee. However, he said he would buy me a cup and I accepted his offer and I saw him making a genuine payment. I sipped his coffee and found it to be strong and addictive and as long as two hours later I was craving for another cup of his Paksong coffee. It is likely that the goodness of the coffee comes from his traditional method of roasting coffee and in small batches.
Another stall calls itself, “Fair Trade Laos,” made up of a small group of business people and NGOs and they are campaigning for fair prices for Lao producers. Its spokesperson, Rio Pals, said that the main objective is to raise awareness on fair trade in Laos and to develop a Lao Fair Trade Certificate. She said that for commodities, hard and soft (eg. gold and maize) the fair prices are quite transparent as the prices are being quoted on a daily basis from the international markets for commodities that are based in Chicago, London and Singapore. For other products the methods of assessment are more complex, she added.
At this bazaar for all you can browse, smell, eat and feel love in your heart ( from the sound of music) and for free.
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