Since I am awake I get up throw some clothes to go in search of the chanting, maybe another festival. You guessed it. The moment I left the room it stopped. Oh well I am up now so go for a long walk. It was eerie looking out towards the mountains where they were shrouded in mist. The air was wet and the mist hung low down round the river. Everyone, except for the locals, was asleep and the only sound you could hear was the clinking of utensils as they cooked and ate breakfast after their prayers. Magical.
I walk as far as the Vat at what I thought was the outskirts of town and interrupt some young monks at work. Dressed in shorts on the bottom half with a tshirt on top covered by a short version of their usual robes, they were lugging sand in a wheelbarrow. Pretty serious work for young kids. Later in the day I see the same young monks on their bikes having a race while going into town. I guess they are just normal young kids wanting to have fun.
The info centre somehow popped up on the radar and I couldnt resist checking it out. The lovely man there was pretty useless but they had lots of brichures which I grabbed. He got me to fill in a quality control survey which hopefully will help someone. Armed with some brochures I return to the hotel for a very very average breakfast, which I will probably forgo tomorrow, but sitting down for the time it took to have breakfast gave me the chance to read a bit about some of the things I could do in this beautiful country.
Wandering further I come across the "Peeping Som" restaurant. Someone with a sense of humour anyway. I love all the translations in foreign countries and perhaps the best I have ever seen was yesterday where I struggled to figure out what "Winner snizle" was and had it not been for the photo of "Weiner Schnitzel" I would still not know what it was.
All along the streets are stalls selling sandwiches, pancakes and drinks. The signs for each are identical, in fact written by the same hand. No wknder backpackers love the place. For 10,000 ($1.50) they can get a hefty sandwich, and for another 7,000 or so a fruit juice. Maybe if I was a sandwich fan I would be eating there too. But then I wonder how they keep all those i gredients fresh with just a chiller box sitting at their feet, in the heat. Lao food is something hidden on the bottom of most menus which is a shame because it is very yum and far lighter and better for you than the stodge of western food that is offered.
Lao food is sold almost exclusively at the more basic restaurants where locals eat. Shame it is not at more of the "more upmarket" places.
Further along I get to the stretch where all the backpackers go, and there they were again all stretched out on the benches watching telly. Apparently they are all watching "Friends" for which the town has a reputation. Weird, really weird.
All along the streets are many restaurants in different shapes and forms and many local people eating there. As in other places I have been recently it would appear that locals eat out all the time, and I then think that I have not seen any shops selling produce or anything that you could make a meal from. The few mini-marts have a small selection of snack food, mainly for the tourist market, so they dont buy food there. I wonder.
I stop and watch a young lady weaving some fabric for Lao skirts. Intricate designs with threads so fine that I could barely see them, let alone be able to count them as she was doing to plan the design. The loom was a makeshift rigmarole held together with pieces of plastic bags and half of the apparatus was of makeshift materials, but she was doing a beautiful job.
Further in I stopped for a cold drink and met some Belgian people. The father owns the restaurant I was in and he appears to be mine host while his Lao wife does all the work. Sounds like Les' idea except I wouldn't buy into it. His daughter and friend were visiting and I found it interesting hearing them easily flick between perfect English, Lao and Belgian. Drink over I carry on.
As I walk the rain starts to gently fall, like a heavy mist. In the background I can hear gentle music playing. As I look across to the limestone mountains the mist moves across and partially hides the towers creating an eerie atmosphre. Shivers move up my spine and not because it is cold but because of the unbelievable haunting beauty of my surroundings.
What to do now? I remember the Organic Farms and am told it is along the same road as the market about 3k from the hotel. Its nice and coolish and I have nothign else to do so I set off stopping at the markets on the way. So this is where the locals buy their food from. Beautiful fresh fruit, meat, veg. es, fish. Al looking lovely and fresh with no flies. A big bonus. I find a cell phone shop and buy yet another sim for my phone so that. I can actually ring someone from it. The one I have is internet only. Lets see will this one do what I want it to do. Getting very much over this phone thing. Vietnam and Cambodia were a piece of cake. Thailand a nightmare, and here hmmmmmmm.
I check out the Lao skirt fabrics and here they are asking 500,000 kip for the length of fabric. I found a nice one at a shop in town and they wanted 300,000 for the skirt made up and further down was a guy selling the fabric alone for 90,000, so this palce had no show of a sale. I guess the different fabrics attract different prices but considering I may only wear it once, it hardly seems worth spending too much.
Walking on, gosh 3 kilometres is quite a way when it is getting warmer and the surface you are walking on is gravel, potholes and puddles. I persevere and glad I did. I arrive at the Organic Farm Cafe and order tempura mulberry leaves with honey and some spring rolls with lemon and chilli. Both were so so yum. The mulberry leaves crackled like chippies and dunked in the liquid honey were sweet and savoury, creamy and crunchy. Oh my, so good. The spring rolls had been cut up and then fried so were little parcels of crunch which you dipped in the lemon chilli sauce. The sauce has chopped peanuts on top so you got a double crunch with each bite. Tastiest spring rolls I have had.
I watch as a pile of youngsters take to the water in their tubes and wander if the trip down the river will be as serene as it is where they set off. Looks like fun. One girl was like I would have been, unable to get it going, and I could see from the look on her face that she really didn't want to be there.
Too far to,walk back I get a tuktuk back to town. Again I know I am being ripped off but what the hell. 17,000 (about $2.00) to go 3kilometres. Not bad in my eyes.
I walk and check out the resorts along the riverbank. Some are gorgeous, but quite frigid and lacking ght echaracter of the places in town. There was a swing bridge opposite the Riverview Villas so I pay my 4,000 baht and go for a look around the wee village on the other side of the river. All along my walk I meet moms and dads with wee kids and each and every one made some sort of an effort to say hi, sabadee, wave or just smile. Such friendly people. I love them. Not one grouch have I found.
As I start my way back. I notice the sun was setting and realised that I would not have time to get back to one of the restaurants to watch the sunset so. I take advantage of my position on the bridge to grab some shots and watch the sun sneak down behind the mountains. By this time the mist had gone and most of the clouds parted so it was quite spectacular. Gorgeous in fact.
I go back to the cheaper of the skirt material places and get a piece for 50,000 baht. Not quite as nice as others I have seen but it will work perfectly for what I want it for.
Vang Vieng Bakery was my next stop where I resisted one of the lovely looking cakes and just had a coke to quench my thirst. I overhear a woman saying to her friend that she thought I looked very smart. Wow, wish I felt it. Three weeks of slobbing is making me feel particularly slobby. Frizzy hair, grimy clothes, well worn sandals and poxy legs full of rashes. But oh well I cant be that bad then.
I return to the hotel for a break before dinner and as I sit and start this blog I hear the familiar sound outside, drip, drip, drip. Yes its raining again so that means another meal downstairs in the hotel restaurant, which I don't really mind as the food is very good. Before heading down I watch the last half of the movie American Dreamz. Hugh Grant, you do look so much like my mate the "kiwi bastard". He knows who he is.
As I write I am eating and listening to my darling Phil Collins singing one of my favourite songs "Take a look at me now." Dobbo would be saying "WTF" if he could see me and the tear that is trickling down my cheek.
So take a look at me now,
oh there's just an empty space
And there's nothing left here to remind me,
just the memory of your face
Oh it has finished and now we have Stevie Wonder "I just called to say I love you". Great choices Inthira Kitchen, I love your music. Oh now Celine Dion "Beacuse you loved me". Maybe Dobbo has a direct line to their music.
Which reminds me of something hilarious that happened in Bangkok. Bianca and I were enjoying an ice cream at Swensens and they were playing some lovely jazz. To me it sounded like Diana Krall. I asked the young lady serving who was singing the music. Her reply was "memory stick". We laughed and laughed. I wonder if she thinks that "Memory Stick" is the name of a singer, or if she was trying to tell me the music is on a memory stick and therefore doesnt know who was singing. Love it.
Inthira Kitchen has made me a Papaya Salad and Chicken Larb, both of which are very good, not fantastic but still very good. They both could have done with more lime juice so a bit bland but very edible. I am getting the hang of eating with a spoon rather than a fork. Seems odd but I will get it soon. At least this is eassier than chopsticks. My BeerLao goes down very easy. I am reminded that it should be drunk with ice but I am not ready for that one yet.
Another great day is over as I return to my hotel room. I switch on the telly again and Tomb Raiders is playing. Funny I've just been to those places. They are real and not just movie sets.
The noise from outside continues. Oh well, at least there is a TV to watch.
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