and i say row, jimmy, row, gonna get there, i don't know

     In October, there is Boun Nam (water festival) also called Boun Suang Heua (boat racing festival). Many villages from around the country, build boats, and have boat races in the larger towns. The small village where I lived, built three boats for this years festival, and will be raced in the Lao capital, Vientianne, as well as Pakse and Si Phan Don (4000 islands). I had a chance to watch the building of these boats at the villages wat, Wat Luang Kao. The process took about four weeks, and I went to the wat every few days to watch the boat-building process.

     The longest boat was 24 meters long, and I watched the tree’s main beam coming down the road and into the wat. The tree was cut on the nearest island in the Mekong river, Don Daeng, and was cut into a squarish beam before transport. One end of the beam was attached to a lao tractor, and the tractor’s cart was placed in the middle of the beam. The villagers came out to watch this, and the atmosphere was festive! The tree was brought into the wat and lifted off the cart. The next day the chain saw came out, with a rip chain, and the beam was cut, freehand, all 24 meters. This was amazing to me, after my years working as a ripsaw operator with precise, technical machinery. This beam was cut freehand with a chainsaw!!!

     I watched the beam take shape using an electric hand-held jigsaw, and an electric sander. Measurements were made, and curves developed.

     The ribs were cut with a jigsaw and sanded into shape. These were screwed onto the bottom beam.

     The boat sides were cut, again freehand, using a rip chain on a small chainsaw. These were attached to the ribs with screws.

     The gaps between the boards were filled with caulk and the entire boat was sanded, inside and out, before installing seats.

     The boat was turned upside down and coated with, of all things, automotive bondo! Traditionally, a tree sap is used to fill the gaps of a boat. The sap hardens and is flexible enough to deal with the expanding wood as the boat is submerged in water. I was a bit disappointed to see gallon jugs of bondo being applied to make an outer shell.

     The entire boat was sanded again and the top rails were installed, voila, one boat complete! the last thing to do would be to paint. Last years boat is the painted one, alongside, in the background.

ashes, ashes, all fall down

     It was difficult finding a title for this blog. I couldn’t find any Grateful Dead lyric dealing with bridges, certainly not fallen bridges. There were no ashes, but the bridge definitely fell down! The first week I was living in the small village south of Champasak, this bridge collapsed. I was outside watering the plants along the front fence, when I heard a large truck coming through town. This was making much more noise than any other vehicles that pass us by. I noticed neighbors running to the street to see what was happening. Well, a large semi-truck with two trailers was passing through Ban Wat Luang Kao! We watched the truck safely pass over the town bridge, thankfully, the structure was steel. The bridge into the town of Champasak, however, was not so fortunate.

THE DAY AFTER - LOOKING FROM ONE END

THE DAY AFTER - LOOKING FROM THE OTHER END - TRUCK LOWER LEFT

     

     This bridge, on the south end of Champasak, crosses Huay Phabang (stream Phabang), with a posted sign reading weight limit 15 tons, and no trucks allowed. Well, full fuel trucks use this bridge, large busses use this bridge, it is the only bridge crossing this stream. The stream was spanned by two steel trusses. The problem was that only wooden beams connected the steel trusses, and these easily broke from the weight. The truck had come, loaded full, on a slow, bumpy road on the other side of the hills. The truck was empty as it attempted this crossing. The driver was ok, but the bridge would take an indefinite time to fix.

BRIDGE REMOVAL PROCESS

STEEL FRAMEWORK REMOVAL

OLD BRIDGE REMOVED - READY TO BUILD NEW BRIDGE

    

     The problem, as my town villagers saw it, was that when the rainy season comes, there will be no way to get to Champasak, Pakse, and the rest of Lao. The road on the other side of the hills is impassable during the rainy season, and this bridge is crucial to road travel for thousands of people. A new road is being built from Champasak to Wat Phou, but is not finished, and the bridge across this stream is nowhere near being built. A detour was made around the collapsed bridge, down the stream bank, across the stream, and up the other stream bank. This worked ok, but would be covered by water during the rainy season.

NEW BRIDGE ALMOST ACROSS STREAM

FINISHED WITH FRAMEWORK

FINISHING TOUCHES - READY FOR USE

     

     We were told the bridge would be repaired in two months, and it was finished in four months, which is actually quite quick for this country (bureaucratic bullshit and the Lao work ethic, make doing anything extremely slow in this country). I was able to watch this process from February to June, from the removal of the old bridge to the building of the new bridge. The detour was a mess, loads of gravel were put down, but it just got packed into the soft red dirt. Crossing the stream by detour was a challenge for motos and bicyclists. Fortunately the rainy season had not really begun, and the bridge was passable before the first rain storm washed away the detour route.

DETOUR ROUTE AFTER FIRST RAINSTORM

     

     I enjoyed watching the bridge removal process and the rebuilding, because most of it was done by hand. Very little machinery was used, other than an automotive jack, pulleys, ropes, and human energy. The broken wooden beams were carried up the bank, the twisted steel frame was torched into pieces and carried up the bank. The new bridge was assembled in pieces and pulled across the gorge with ropes and pulleys, and lots of people. An amazing process to watch!