Baan Ilan, Khammouane

So this was how the village chief greeted us last Wednesday when we arrived at Baan Ilan; with the skin of a huge snake in his hand. He said it was about 2.5 meters long or so, and had ripped up one of his fishing nets when caught.


If it doesn't work out with living with the old woman in Phin District, Katherine and I can always weekend here in Baan Ilan. Quiet village, towering palm trees, pigs (Katherine likes pigs), and it only floods two or three times a year.

And the view out back of our weekend place. This is the Xe Bang Fai river, beautiful and peaceful now, but scourge of the rice growing folk of Baan Ilan when it overflows its banks most years just before harvest time, ruining a large portion of the crop they plant every year. They don't move because a) it would upset the spirits and b) where would they go?

When the floods approach, the villagers move their few small walk-behind tractors to higher ground and put their one rice milling machine on a float to ready it for the trip to the road. Then they all get their boats and tie them to their houses, as the water generally gets more than a meter or so high in the village, and they get around in boats until it subsides.