Well after my home leave in Australia I went a more exotic follow-up with two weeks in Laos at the end of July. This tiny land-locked country is unspoiled in a tourist sense and a pleasure to visit. Accompanied by my wife and children, I hoped top see the pintailed parrot-finch, strawberry finch, weavers and assorted munias that call this country home. The Lonely Planet guide warns rhetorically that many ask “Why can’t I hear many birds?” and gives the answer “Cheap protein”. With 40% of the country still forested all is not lost and if the government is successful in lifting this to 70% all is not lost but for the moment hunting is heavy and anything that moves is eaten regardless of the law. For the average Laotian wildlife preservation comes in three flavours: fermented, pickled in alcohol and smoked!

http://www.un.int/lao/laos_in_brief.htm.

A few birds do however escape the pot and are kept as pets often by wealthy Chinese business owners. I only saw two actual pet-shops, side by side in the capital Vientiane – a far cry from Cartimar here in the Philippines they sold in addition to fish and birds, hamsters, kittens, puppies and turtles but the locals tell me the at the occasional squirrel or civet turns up as well. While I was there the only captive bred birds on sale were budgies and a large unidentified quail or partridge. The most popular of the wild birds appeared to be the starlings and mynahs. The ever popular Hill Mynah sells for around (US$10) and there are also Indian Mynahs. Collared and crested starlings were also sold along with various proprietary foods from Thailand and China. There were also common Columbiformes too – Spotted turtle doves, peaceful (zebra) doves and ring-neck doves. I also saw bul-buls but couldn’t identify them.

From Vientiane we traveled north to Phonsavan where my wild-life encounter was restricted to their colourful morning market. Filipinos might be delighted to see the embryonated chicken-egg for sale but be warned you have to cook them first. In addition to the usual assortment of Asian fruit & vegetables were an array of wild mushrooms and other plants harvested from the forest. It was the animals however that caught my eye. Cages of live tortoises and bamboo rats were openly sold as were a pair of silver pheasant and an assortment of smoked rats. Slightly more exotic were the hornet larvae and pupae – these would make excellent live food for birds or fish but they are destined for human consumption. The adults are also sold pickled in lao lao (Laotian whiskey) for a drink with a real sting in it’s tail! Also seen were a pair of Silver pheasant which are not uncommon in aviculture all over teh world but are a rare table treat.  It as sad to see the bowls “sour swallow”. During the dry season the swallows are netted as they partake in purpose built dust baths contracted on nearby hill tops. The birds are killed, beheaded, plucked, gutted and tightly packed into brine in ceramic dishes and left to ferment. Fermentation as a way of preserving almost anything in Laos and the preserved fish and meat section of the market is not for the faint-hearted or those with a queasy stomach.
From Phonsovan headed further north into the mountains to get to Sam Nuea. It was here I found two business sporting caged birds. One had a magnificently articulate Hill Mynah – articulate if you speak Lao that is and another that has a beautiful silver-eared mesia (a relative of the Pekin Robin). The latter was on a diet of uncooked rice so I doubt it was long for this world. After crossing a rickety suspension foot bridge to the market we saw some more sights like boiled dog, baskets of writhing eels, strings of bats and frogs and small piles of assorted water insects, tadpoles and fish. Bamboo rats were obviously in season as they were at almost every market but it was unsettling to see them with their massive front incisors ripped from their mandibles in order to make them manageable for the home consumer.
After visiting the fortified caves of Vieng Xai from where the Pathet Lao withstood the onslaught of the American bombings during the CIA’s black ops war against these communist insurgents/freedom fighters during the Vietnam war as it’s known by the Americans but in reality it continued the Indochinese war of independence. This area was so heavily bombed (it copped more tones that the whole of Europe during WWII) and defoliated that I was delighted just to see the Eurasian tree sparrow but once there were tigers, leopards, rhinoceros and elephants. It was a sobering experience after which we headed south for the world heritage temple-rich town of Luang Prabang.
Driving through the National Protected Area we hoped to see one of the estimated 20 remaining tigers but I had to be satisfied with small flocks of white-rumped munia (Lonchura striata -an ancestor of the society finch).

At some of the temples and on special Buddhist holidays these and other wild bids are offered for sale (KIP10000 or USD$1) to pilgrims wishing to purchase and release the birds in order to gain credits for the next life – pity the guy that caught them. As you can see I gained my credits but for a dollar and the only finch I saw it was hard letting them go.
Laos was a great holiday destination and wasn’t too exotic for the kids but unless you’re prepared to go really remote you’re unlikely to see much wild-life other the specimens at the market.
Back in Vientiane 10 days later I visited the morning market where in addition to the fresh section with its range of conventional foods fish, frogs, wasp larvae and bubbling, scum-filled tubs of fermenting plants fish and animals I discovered the medicine section. Luckily I don’t speak Lao as I would like to think the rhino horn and tiger teeth were fake – not so the porcupine quills, mouse deer antlers and many things I didn’t recognize but would no doubt read like a CITIES 1 list.