one foot in laos
one foot in laos
副标题: a fresh picture of an enigmatic country
ISBN: 9780006552215
内容简介
Lament for a changing Laos
October 30, 1999
Dervla Murphy is a remarkable woman and in many
ways the very model of a traveller. The passion
she brings to life and to travel, she also
brings to her writing. The latest in her long
series of travel books is a vivid description
of, ode to, and lament for Laos - a country on
the verge of major development.
Over her 68 years, Murphy has walked and
pedalled herself across countries in Asia,
Africa, Latin America and Europe. In this, her
15th travel book, the indomitable Irish
sexagenarian pedals across the Annamite
Mountains with an injured foot, walks
kilometres of jungle trails, floats down the
Mekong and charms Lao villagers throughout the
country.
Murphy's journey is travel as it should be.
She firmly eschews the harried race from
tourist site to tourist site. Instead, she
relishes the sheer joy of the journey, from the
open road to a random encounter with a musket-
wielding Hmong hunter. Where others take
tourist buses, Murphy simply starts walking.
For Murphy, the delays or discomforts that
enrage other travellers are just part of the
adventure of Laos.
Her enthusiasm is matched by her eye for
detail. When recounting meals with Lao hosts,
she leaves no bug unturned. The astounding
vistas of the Lao countryside, the havoc
wreaked by logging companies, the beauty of the
Lao's traditional clothing, the feel of the
country's dirt roads, all of these are vividly
and engagingly described.
But Murphy is most engaged by the Lao
themselves. She is enchanted by everything from
the ubiquitous smiles of the majority Lao Lum
to the gracious hospitality of the minority
Hmong in their remote mountain villages.
Eager to please and difficult to anger, the
Lao, Murphy writes unequivocally, are 'the most
lovable and in many ways the most civilised
people I have ever travelled among'. She drinks
with them at their (Hmong and Chinese and
ethnic Lao) festivals, eats bamboo rat and
monitor lizard at their tables, and bridges the
language gap with intricate sign-language
conversations.
Her love of Laos exactly as is leads to her
strident denunciations of any and all change.
Laos is embarking on the transformations that
have occurred in (afflicted, Murphy would say)
neighbouring Thailand, China, Vietnam and
Cambodia. While the issues of economic
development and cultural change are complex,
Murphy's handling of them is overly simplistic:
Laos good. Change bad.
Many of Murphy's villains are deserving, and
easy, targets: bribe-wielding logging companies
or arrogant and ignorant UN bureaucrats. Others
are less clear cut: Murphy is depressed by
electric pylons in an otherwise beautiful
valley. While pylons are not aesthetically
pleasing, Laos is not a nature preserve for
foreigners, it is a country with inhabitants
who deserve to enjoy the benefits of
electricity we take for granted.
For such a keen observer and on such a vital
issue, Murphy can be remarkably dismissive. She
portrays any Lao's desire for change as nothing
more than seduction or corruption by rapacious
outsiders.
Murphy rarely takes a nuanced look at the
desires for change. For example, while we
greatly admire Murphy's bicycle riding, is it
unreasonable that an older Lao woman would
prefer a motorbike? The joy of a Cambodian able
to explore the world on the Internet or a
Vietnamese whose family can afford to send her
to university instead of the rice fields are
testimony to legitimate benefits of
development.
Similarly, Murphy's lament on the demise of
Lao culture in the face of 'progress' is also
worthy of thought, but not of
oversimplification. She equates modernisation
with a total loss of cultural identity, but are
Hong Kong Chinese, for example, any less
Chinese than their counterparts in poverty-
stricken Anhui province? All of these are deep,
complex questions.
Even if one finds her political commentary
oversimplified, she brings up vital issues. The
Lao, whom Murphy so affectionately describes,
are on the cusp of drastic material and
spiritual change. For these people, the
questions Murphy raises are of supreme
importance.
This is an excellent travelogue written by a
remarkable woman. Her passion for adventure,
the passion of her narrative, and the passion
with which she condemns what distresses her all
produce a memorable and vivid reading
experience.
One Foot In Laos by Dervla Murphy John Murray
$322