The Great Khong

Director Wun Yip instructs our tuk-tuk driver to pull over to the side of the road near the university in Vientiane, Lao. Wun and our ace cinematographer, Gloria Kurnik, grab their cameras (Cannon DSLRs) and head inside the hot and dusty rows of foodstuffs looking for large sacks of rice being purchased and stacked on the back of motor scooters and bicycles. The preproduction shot list guides our daily agenda, minute by minute. The driver and I sit in the hot shade provided by the canvas top and wait as the ladies shop. We try to make conversation but it proves hopeless. He goes back to his cigarette and I dream of a cool breeze off the Pacific. Earlier, we left the Laotian Office of Agriculture and Forestry who explained they are midway thru a 4-year program calculated to train rural farmers to be “climate change-ready.” Today is the second consecutive day on their huge compound that sits across from the great university coliseum. But today the man assigned to us is a soviet trained Lao analyst and Doctor of water management. He shows us a power point presentation that was of some interest but repeated time and time again that he no power to show us anything more, such as, their rice test kitchens and laboratories. With not a moment of footage shot, the day is a dismal failure but still we plod on. We catch an overnight sleeper-bus that leaves Vientiane around 7 p.m. and head for Pakse located down the Mekong River near the Cambodian boarder. My female camera crew makes a bet that my bunkmate (bunkmate?) will not be the Swedish college girl they accuse me of dreaming off. Bunkmate? Well - this is a surprise. They remind me that Thailand is a proper country that would never place a man and a woman in the same bunk. The girls are right, of course, and a Lao college-age kid says his two words of English (“Howdy - howdy”), climbs in and plays video games all night long. It is a most grueling night. As I write today the light is beginning to turn from day to dusk here on the second story porch overlooking the river. The full moon should rise soon and promises to be spectacular. You see, this morning we made it over to a large island called Don Khong that sits in the middle of the Mekong. The camera crew left four hours ago to charter a boat and cruise around the island looking for, as always, shots that will make our trailer even better.

Me, I remain behind to research a possible connection between organic rice and climate change. Our interviews tomorrow are back in Thailand and will be about, hopefully, the profound connection that I manage to find between the two. And I hope to find time to take a much-needed nap. It’s dark now and there is still no sign of the ladies. They seem indestructible. Not to worry, I tell myself. I’d say it's time for a gin & tonic and just hope for the best, oui?