THE M'NONG VILLAGE AT LAK LAKE

Inside the long house

Check out the breast ladders - women run this joint

Ell nicks the kids sweets

When we return to Vietnam in a few weeks, we expect to spend a bit of time amongst the various ethnic goups of the NW, but the central highlands also supports many ethnic groups who have often been at loggerheads with the government. We spent a few hours with the M'nong near Lak Lake - expert rice growers and elephant herders. The women head up the village and each family of 3 generations live in one long house with no internal walls. Houses made of natural material with absolutely no metal - encourages evil spirits, front door faces sunrise, and number of windows in house indicates the number of daughters - windows open means daughter married. Before they settle on a site for their village, they dig a hole and fill it with food (rice and corn) after 3 days they return, if ants have moved in, they don't use the site. This was very similar to the way we chose 235 Madgalen Road. They are wonderfully self-sufficient, work hard in the morning, relax in the afternoon, and now believe it or not they can watch telly in the evening as 2 years ago they had electricity. Perhaps this village would have been the perfect role-model of Pol Pots agrarian revolution that went so horrendously wrong in Cambodia.

Tomorrow we are off to KL to meet Ell's sister Maria, or a holiday from a holiday....Again!