For Bee and I it was the last day of our long weekend together in Luang Prabang and our last chance to sort out a few loose ends before she left for home.
Our friend came and collected us and took us to check out flowers and then to a hairdresser. While Bee was having her hair done I went and checked us out of the hotel and once I collected our bags and went to check out I went to pay. Not one to carry cash around I went to pay by Visa. Sorry luv, cash only. And so I skoot along the lane to find an ATM, which I couldnt find, but did see a money exchange booth that takes Visa. I tell the guy what I want, fill out his wee form, sign the ATM machine receipt, watch as he counts out money and then pocket it quickly before the whole,town saw how much I was taking out. He didnt give me a receipt as he said the machine had run out of paper. I insisted, grabbed the receipt and off i went. A few yards on I remembered I hadnt collected my card so walked back and asked for it. It was tucked under the EFTPOS machine, but he pulled it out and gave it to me.
It wasn't until after I had paid the hotel and was on my way back to collect Bee that I did the sums in my head and realised I had been done, big time. I return to the booth about the time that a guy was getting cash. He was a little taken aback when I rather abruptly asked for the rest of my money from the lady that was now in the booth. She firstly suggested that I was lying, then wanted to see what money I received. I explained that it had been spent but remembered the receipt I had signed, and was also able to tell her exactly the format of the money I was given. It went on for a while but the long and short of it was that I was short changed USD100. Not an insignificant amount. Considering the difficulty I had getting the receipt from the guy and the fact that he had my card hidden I suspect that the guy that had served me figured he could pocket a nice round 100 bucks. Sorry mate you picked the wrong person. The moment I mentioned POLICE the additional cash was paid over with profuse apologies. Dont mess with me lady. I had a good teacher in Dobbo and they were lucky it wasn't him towering over them, going red and screaming.
The guy that had been getting money out was treble checking that what he was getting was correct and thanked me because he too discovered a small discrepancy. Lesson to all. Watch money exchangers, no matter how legit their site might be.
Returning to collect Bee we wandered along the riverside and stopped for lunch at a place called Saffron Cafe where we gazed at the Mekong, took in the sights on the opposite banks where they had terraced and planted rice, drank Beer Lao and enjoyed a meal of fish larb. Larb is the most famous Lao meal and traditionaly consists of raw minced meat or fish, raw offal, onion, mint, herbs, lime juice, chiili, fish sauce and ground roasted rice. Nowdays it is more than likely to have cooked meat minus the offal and makes a lovely light, fresh tasting meal especially when consumed with a ball of sticky rice. Yumm. The other food we ordered weren't worth mentioning, either for their splendour orbecause they were horrible. They were just food, red curry, steamed rice, fresh spring rolls and riverweed.
Ready for coffee and not wanting to risk it where we ate we walked a wee way to the Dao Coffee shop, a lovely wee coffee shop with a beautiful settign and decor and no customers, but OK coffee. The Dao brand of coffee is everywhere, in beans, ground and instant varieties. Coffee is one of the main crops grown in Lao and taste wise it is really nice, mild and quite sweet. The standard of the baristas leaves alot to be desired but they are probably better at brewing than the majority of US baristas and here coffee comes in a cup. I understand that things like a latte aren't to the Austrlian/NZ standard but I don't drink them so I don't care.
Lao also produces their variety of Luwak coffee, (Kopi Luwak), the coffee made from the coffee beans that have been injested and then poo'd by the civet. Kopi Luwak has become famous round the world and fetches huge prices. One cafe in Melbourne reputedly charges $100 per cup. Yes its nice ( mainly due to the aroma/taste emitted by the civet (sort of a musky smell/taste) which permeates the outer shell of the bean and gives the coffee it's distinctive taste and smell.), but that's a hell of a price to pay for a coffee. Each to their own. I suspect that much of what is sold around the tourist resorts in Asia is in fact ordinary coffee with an artificial aroma added as certainly in Bali there is some very cheap Kopi Luwak available in tourist stores and cheapo corner shops.
From there we walk to my new hotel. I hadn't been able to book 8 consecutive nights at the same hotel so am moving around a bit but thats OK, I get to explore. My new hotel is the Luang Prabang Legacy and is a wee way off the beaten tourist track which is fine by me. It is a relatively new hotel and I have a lovely room, with divine shower and great water pressure. Love it. The only downsides are that I dont have a safe nor do I have a jug to make my morning coffee, but hey there is a restaurant downstairs and a cafe next door, and a sizeable handbag, so no big deal.
Soon Bee has to make her way to the airport and not long after she left I get a message to say her flight was cancelled with no notice but she was on a new flight. Bummer. Just one of those things you ahve to expect in third world countries. A bummer but what can you do.
Washing done and hanging in the huge bathroom I wander into town and just slowly wander along the main road, noticing some of the lovely and very classy souvenir shops along the way. A little different to the usual with some high quality and beautifully crafted items. The market stalls were slowly setting up their stalls so i watched from afar and then strolled along the lines looking, again, at the wares.
Gettign hungry I turn into a timy lanes where I had seen peopel eating the day before. It was only a narrow wee lane but on both sides were vendors sellign all manner of food. Thei aisle of about one metre across was chocka with people all pushing kne another along. Mainly Asian people until I got to the "eat as much as you can fit on your place for 10,000 kip" stalls which were overcrowded with backpackers shovelling as much as they could onto their plates. What a deal $1.50 for a huge plate of fod. Mainly noodles and veg but wow.
I went the other way and got some BBQd chicken breasts. They are threaded onto either lemon grass stalks or bamboo and then part BBQd and left to cool until someone requested some. When they get the order they are then reheated on the BBQ. Flavour wise my chicken breast was divine. It should have come off the heat about 10 minutes before it did as by the time I got it the poor chook was totally incinerated, dry, stringy and a real test for the new teeth.
But, further along I get some pork rissoles which were glazed with somehting like teriyaki. Oh yes! and tomorrow I will be back for more especially at the grand cost of $1 for both of them. I also got some dried pork, a little like Biltong, again with a sticky glaze and sprinkled with sesame seeds. A small bag was $2.00 and worth every cent.
As I wander back towards the hotel I am attacked by pineapple and cocnut cakes. Whack across the head. "Buy me, buy me" and of course I had to, I couldnt leave them sitting in the cake stall, sad and bereft. I had been good all day with no naughty carbs (sticky rice and BeerLao don't count) so one wee cake or so could be my reward.
Ha who are you kidding girl. Both divine and both devoured when I got back to my hotel room, where I sat on my bed and watched a bit of telly (including a little clip about SBW, rugby player, league player, boxer and !!!!!!!!) while doing this blog.
Glad I am not in Bangkok at the mo and because of the unrest I have have decided not to cross into Thailand next week to do a border run and renew my visa. Getting stuck at the border if borders close is not by idea of fun so I am better off getting an extension from here. I can pay to do it, which will also cost less than the cost of a new visa and the cost of the border run as I only need a short extension until I go to Vietnam (Pho I can taste you already - I hope I love Hanoi as much as I love HCMC).
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