Sabaydii,

 

Here is the continuation of a series ‘Coming Home’ entitled ‘Vientiane at a glance’.

 

Hakphaang,

Kongkeo Saycocie

 

Our pick-up stopped at the restaurant

Grandly decorated

But no customer was in sight

 

 

The old Chao Anou[1] hotel by the restaurant

Looked gloomily at us

My LaoNai[2] acquaintance the driver

Two Japanese businessmen and me

 

Glancing outside the window

Waiting for the food to be served

I saw Vientiane frenziedly dressing herself up

With the big truck pounding the road in front

 

Not far by the other road

The black Benz Mercedes

Waiting impatiently

For its turn to pass by

 

Once in a while

A horde of bicyclists and motorcyclists

Rushed by

Throwing the ready-to-fly dirt

Everywhere

 

A middle aged waitress

Dressed in the Lao traditional costume

Perching by window

Sent out a long and weary look

Into somewhere

Far far beyond

 

With nothing to do

I approached her

Inquiring about the place she came from

‘Savannakhet[3]’

a town to the South of Vientiane

she gently replied

 

I told her

I was from Savannakhet too

A long time ago

 

Like two long lost friends

Met in a land not of their own

Our eyes met

And we understood

 

On the way to That Luang[4]

And out of the city itself

We passed through

The once grand LanXang Avenue[5]

The very one I was first at awe

When seeing it for the first time in the 60s

 

Now this avenue was full of potholes

And flying red dust

A sad replica

Of the years gone by

 

Then

At the far end of avenue

Stood my old school

Lycee de Vientiane[6]

Painted in an awkward blue

An unusual academic color indeed

 

I did remember

It was this school

I pinned my hope on

For the bright future

That never came

 

Like a thorn stuck deep in my flesh

Nobody knew

How much it hurt

But myself

 

Smile I may be

Laugh I may do

Stuffs I may accumulate

Nothing fills the void inside

 

Riding along

Letting the breeze brush my cheeks

Stopping the liquid in my eyes

That were about to form

 

For when I left Muang Lao

The big part in me had died with it

 

Will I ever get it back?

Will I ever be the same?

Only Heaven knows

 

7.31.03