Opening Ceremony

Last night was the Opening Ceremony of the National Games.  I almost never thought this day would come.  The city is filled with people so Tom and I thought it best to watch the opening from a bar without all the crowds.  We had heard conflicting reports about the start time.  We heard 2 and then 5 then 3 so we really didnt want to sit packed into the stadium all day.   Around 2:30 I am told that a sky dive team was dropped into the stadium.  This was not televised around 4pm Tom and I headed to the bar.  The staff gladly let us in but said that the games werent on tv yet.  So we waited.  At 4:50 the first sign of the games on tv appeared.  5pm came and the ceremony abruptly started with all the teams being led into the stadium by the sign holder and a marching band.  The president entered to a large applause.  After all the teams had been introduced the officials started giving speeches.  Around this time Tom and I decided to go to the Shinta Mani hotel which is situated above the stadium.  Ted a friend of ours teaches English to the staff so had reserved a spot to sit and watch the ceremony.  We left the bar and drove across town.  We could see the hotel when the police told us to turn back, Tom did and I drove on the other side of the police officer who gave no effort to stop me.  Tom drove around for a while found a parking spot and dropped off his bike before walking around the stadium to the hotel.  I continued on and drove up the hotel where I parked my bike and walked past no less than 10 security guards, most with guns, without being asked a thing.  I found Ted who had a great spot perched high above the stadium.  We watched the ceremony with all its pageantry and dances while Tom finished his trek and met us.  The dances included monkeys grooming each other, beautifully dressed women and some villagers fighting each other.  The finally was one of the most impressive fireworks displays I have ever seen.  The fireworks ended and we had dinner after being escorted to a different room.  The balcony we had been on was now being used by the President of Lao and the other dining room was being used by the Beer Lao officials.  Their tags say VIP.  Service was slow considering we were the low group on the totem pole.  After dinner we said our goodbyes and then I drove Tom to his bike.  When we arrived there was an empty lot with no motorbike and no attendant who had given Tom a ticket.  Collectively our hearts sank.  We walked around to some guys drinking beers and they laughed and took us to a makeshift police station across the street where luckily there was Toms bike.  The cops called the number on Toms ticket and then we rode off into the night happy we didnt have to share a bike back.

Now for the good part.

 Tom and I from our perch above the stadium.

 Fireworks.

Elaborate dances.

 Roman Numeral 9 for the 9th Luang Prabang Games.

 Monkey People.

 All the colorful flags.

 The finally.

Tom at the bar before we left to Shinta Mani.  On the screen in the back is the Luang Prabang team entering the stadium.


We are one week away from the end of the games and the end of my time here in Laos.  I am thinking of keeping the blog but changing the link and losing its affiliation with CLI.  But if I stay on with CLI I will keep it going.

One Week Away

This past week has been a roller-coaster of sorts.  First the team started to look pretty good and we were preparing to start easing down on the workouts.  Our group of 6 male sprinters came up from Vientiane and they look like the biggest, strongest, and fastest Lao guys I have ever seen.  They have a swagger which I have only seen in big time college or pro athletes.  This obviously was a high point.  Then the low points started to come.  First off one of my girls got sick and has spent 3 days in bed.  Ok not good.  3 other girls on the team got cut.  Next I met a film maker who made a good movie about a Lao soccer team going to Sweden. He goes out of his way to set up a showing for the team and then at the last moment the team ditches and I look/feel like a complete jerk.  Last off yesterday my only female hurdler lands awkwardly on her ankle and rolls it really bad.  Within 4 minutes its the size of an orange and it only seemed to get worse.  She later gets taken to the hospital to check it out.  With all likelihood she will not be competing in the games at all.  This leaves our already thin team very thin.  Meaning we are using a back up runner for both the 4x100 and 4x400 with no female hurdlers.  I guess I just am not that good of a coach if people are now getting down to race time and everyone is injured.  All the other teams have shown up and the police are out in full force.  Vientiane looks like the only legitimate team.  Somlath told me that Vientiane expects to take 21 of 40 possible gold medals.  They are obviously going to be the team to beat, which is not all that surprising considering they get to run year round and half my team never ran before 3 months ago.  On the other hand Bokeo only brought 3 runners who started working out 12 days ago.  By the end of the workout today the Bokeo coach had his crew doing drills with us.  We should beat teams like Bokeo, the only question is how many teams will there be like Bokeo.

The Police presence is so heavy now that there are cops on almost every large street and many more at the stadium.  They have just installed a metal detector which is almost more sophisticated than what they have at the Luang Prabang Airport.  Luckily Tom and I received our badges so that should help keep us from being stopped every 2 minutes. 

All that being said I am excited and nervous for our team.  We have one week, as the title would suggest, from the opening ceremonies and another week until we leave the country.  It seems crazy that the end is so near.  We finally did our most touristy thing by going out to the Kuang Si waterfall.  It was beautiful and if you make it out to Luang Prabang its a must see.  Hopefully like most roller-coasters there will be a turning up point soon with the most recent events being rather negative.