Just so this
doesn’t drag on forever, here are my remaining highlights of Laos:
A visit to a bear refuge
started by an Australian woman from Perth no less. I was surprised by how many bears
there were there – at least 30 in what looked to be a large crèche playground
with old tyre swings, platforms and sneaky places to hide food to keep them
busy. The bears have been rescued
predominantly from bile farming for Chinese medicine or from performing, often bought my the rescuers or handed over in amnesty, but because of their long captivity, they are unable
to be released back into the wild. Still, they looked pretty happy to me!
A cooking course for E, S and
me that kicked off with a trip to the market where E and I got completely distracted
buying about 80 exercise books and 50 toothbrushes for the kids back at the Hmong
village. We lost the group a couple of times, but not before we happened across
large enamel dishes containing blocks of coagulated blood – yum! – and various
bits of chopped up animal on display in the non-too-cool conditions - delicious.
Back at the cooking course, the highly international group 'oo'-ed and 'ah'-ed as
local ingredients and herbs were past around for us to smell and taste but when
the carrot, potato, cauliflower and cabbage came around – well, frankly, that
was just plain silly! We then got to chop some stuff up – and then throw it out as
someone else – thank goodness – demonstrated and cooked the dishes we actually ate
for lunch.
The budding junior meter chef
Blood blocks
Assorted bits of animal...
The Ethnik fashion parade at a local bar called Hive that showed off all the ethnic costumes of the surrounding hill tribes. As you saw from the Hmong tribe photos, there were some great looks – and the bar served a decent wood-fired pizza to go with…
Two separate sets of turquoise
water falls in which to swim, and one so beautiful, we sprinkled a little of
our Jazzy-angel there. We ate at a local restaurant in the car park of the Kuang Si falls –
and clocked up yet another exciting toilet moment as the ‘door’ to the ‘hut’
jammed with S and I in there. Thankfully there was a very large space between
the top of the ‘wall’ and ‘roof’ through which I could yell to the rest of the
family to come and let us out – much to the amusement of the locals. The trip to the second set of falls (below) was extremely exciting - down a steep and slippery dirt track to an extremely narrow, wooden power boat with a very wobbly disabled G - and his stroller which we needed at the other end. Really, who needs amusement park rides when you can have these real life thrilling rides?? Seriously, how we didn't all end up in the drink is all thanks to the kids' dad, as I confess I had my eyes closed most of the time....
Scary narrow wobbly boat in deep water.
The water was actually a milky pale blue - this doesn't do it justice
Riding elephants on new years
day – our ma hoot was so hung over or possibly still drunk he was hilarious!
Both E and I had a go of sitting right behind the elephant’s head
New Years eve was not a
highlight – Luang Prebang does NOT ‘go off’. There was a big stage show in the
night market with an attractive young woman in a sparkly dress singing so
badly, E again wondered if her musical 'talents' could possibly be appreciated in
a foreign land (we're talking a girl who was asked to mime in the school choir...)
Our new year's eve restaurant rage at Delilah's
Getting up at 5.30am to see the
monks and offer them rice and fruit on their daily walk to collect such things
– and then being utterly ripped off as the pressure of so many monks and my
inability to ration portions of sticky rice led to my inadvertent purchasing of
several more baskets of offerings – only to find at the end I owed 200,000 kip - about $24 (I find out later this is the standard M.O. of the offering seller – canny, eh.)
Terrible photo - but it before dawn...and you get the idea.
A shocking full body massage
for all the family – and we went back for foot massages for the boys and
pedicures for the girls. There’s nothing quite like lying in a sun lounge over
looking the Mekong and having your toe nails viciously attacked with a metal
file – thank god I was clasping a cold beer!!!
The nail torture oasis
Then all out to
the airport to board a flight to Hanoi, Vietnam for the next chapter of the
adventure….
Luang Prebang - is it just me or does that seriously sound like a name of a place made up by a 5 year old? Never the less, this is where we spend the next leg our journey.
On arrival in Laos, Geoff and George get waved through (probably because of George's wheelchair) and the girls and I are left to fill in 5 long forms before queueing behind the multitude of tourists, all holding their forms plus passport photos. Hmmm. We have no such photos. I think I missed that detail which I later find in the small print of our itinerary. As it transpires, should you ever happen to be in that part of the world, it's not essential to have a passport photo, you can (thank god!) pay an addition US buck per person and they copy the one in your passport. Phew! So after a long wait fuelling some unnecessary anxiety, we're finally issued with visas and admitted into Laos.
The first evening is magic as we meet up with close friends from Sydney for dinner. Just not enough time, but loved every minute at a fancy-pants restaurant (well, fancy-pants by Laos standards anyway).
The next day, yes, more wats...ahhhh! And that's where the picture of that toilet comes in. E had the worst runny bottom (and we've had lots over our years of travel). She's complaining of feeling sick and of course as you know, my sympathy runs deep so I say for god's sake pull yourself together and get in that van. So she does.
We arrive at the first wat - and she needs to go. Like, right now. We're directed to that toilet. Armed as I traditionally am with a roll of toilet paper and a packet of wet wipes wrapped in a hotel shower cap (yes, that too can be handy in moments like these - happy to explain if necessary -drop me a line) we survive. We get back to the wat...and George needs to go. OMG. Eighteen years old, taller than me by a long shot, unable to even stand on his own - and a filthy squat toilet our only option.
Geoff and I make our way through the building rubble back to that toilet, strip poor G from the waist down, support him from either side, position him over the drop and in that split second, he lets a huge one go. Geoff and I are practically high-fiving each other we're so proud. I don't think I could have felt more satisfied if I'd dropped that myself!!!
Back to the tour....E's feeling like crap (pardon the pun) and George has had enough so Geoff and I and Sass walk to the top of the giggle-inducing Mt Phou Si (pronounced Pussy). I buy Sass three small finches in a bamboo cage to release for good luck. Those birds ain't silly and I suspect they've been caged and released more times that I've had hot dinners!!
Next time.... the strange courting rituals of the Laos hill tribes....
