The New Head of the Village

On Wednesday we arrived in Luang Prabang. For those that don't know it is one of the largest towns in Laos and is a World heritage city because of the many temples and colonial buildings. We have been here twice before both times on our first trip. We decided to stay in Nok Noy guest house where we had stayed before. The family that run the guest house are really friendly and welcoming. We arrived late in the afternoon so headed straight out for a wander and some food. We noticed on our way out that there was a huge speaker stack being built in the lane way so we figured that there was going to be a big party. On returning from dinner we found the lane way full of tables, chairs and people eating and drinking and someone talking through the huge speakers. We tried to discreetly walk past not wanting to intrude but we were called over by someone at a table. It turned out to be Tui (the manager of the guest house) he got us seats and poured us all beers with ice (thats the done thing here). I asked him what was going on and he said that every three years the village head man changes and today was that day. I got the idea that on the same day the prime minister and everyone else in high positions of power change as well (I could be wrong).

Soon enough the next song started and half the crowd stood up and went down next to the speakers to dance. Katie was first to be asked and to my surprise she jumped straight up and went to dance. Annie and I soon followed and soon found that there was a particular way to dance. The crowd made a circle with the men on the inside and women on the outside. The circle moved very slowly anticlockwise while everyone slowly bopped moving their hands slowly in front of them. It was all very funny for us and funny for the locals seeing the farang try and dance.

It turned out that the band was Tui's brothers band and Tui and his crazy partying dad Mr Som Phone, sang songs as well. The song finished and we all said Cop jai (thank you) and did the little hand together praying thing then all sat down again. As soon as we were seated we had fresh full cups of beer and ice and people topping them up after every sip. Soon enough a new song started and we were up again. We had to be careful of the drinking as we could have got quite drunk. The locals seemed to be drinking much slower than they were getting us to drink so we just kept full glasses for a while. There was one guy who kept trying to get us to scull our drinks even though he wasn't sculling his. I don't know if he was just being friendly or if he wanted to see the farang get drunk. After a couple of hours we made a quiet exit before the party turned messy. It was heaps of fun even if we did feel silly trying to do the Lao dances.

Le Vendome

While staying in Vientiane we decided to spoil ourselves and eat out at a fancy restaurant. Sam (a guy I work with) had recommended to me that I eat at a French restaurant called Le Vendome and he said I had to try the souffle "It's bull shit" was his description. This is a good thing. So we got dressed up in our best backpacker clothes and headed out. We were seated and given menus and drinks. We ordered in French with all of us pooling our French to work out what everything was. I think even though I speak no real French I was best with the menu knowing more terms and food items than Annie or Katie both of whom speak a little French. We ordered:

Creme de potiron
Gratin de choux flour au becon
La fougasse
Magret au canard de barbarie
Escalope duc de guise
Souffle au chocolat avec coilis de chocolat chaud
Souffle au citron avec coulis de miel d'accacia
Creme brulee

I ordered the house red as I couldn't eat duck without wine but couldn't bear to pay as much for my wine as a week of travel. As it was at US$3 a glass it was as much as a room in Cambodia. The food was great, as much because it wasn't rice or noodles as the fact that it was well cooked French cuisine. My duck was medium the chicken was moist the soup was creamy and the vegetables presented on the plate were perfectly cooked and arranged with care.

Of course the whole reason we had come was to see the souffle and we were not disappointed.


Souffle au citron avec coulis de miel d'accacia

Personally I liked the lemon the best but the girls liked the chocolate more. I think though the brulee was my favourite desert as it was text book just set wonderfully creamy and the caramel nice and dark. While we were having desert the Chef came out to wander through the restaurant and he gave us a look of "I am glad you are enjoying that but who do you think you are you pigs" as we shoveled souffle into our faces. It was very funny for us at least.

We were a little anxious to see the bill knowing we had spent more than we normally would and more than two nice guest house rooms but for US$25 we really couldn't complain. All in all it was well worth it for a memorable great meal.

Summary

Hi all,

We are currently in Vientiane, Laos. We have covered quite a bit of ground in the last two weeks. We stayed 2 nights in Karon beach, Phuket. What can I say, it was a beach, there were tourists, there were prostitutes, there was sun burn, anyway... We moved to Bangkok where we arranged our Lao and cambodian visas since we had made a decision to skip the islands in favour of revisiting Angkor (Siem Reap, Cambodia).

We had a fun bus ride to Siem Reap including hitting cameras and heads on the roof of the bus and having knees crushed under seats while surfing pot-holes. It was great to be back in Cambodia even with the huge number of huge hotels that have popped up since last time. The temples were still amazing so were the thousands of tourists. It made a good photo just that bit more challenging, but we did manage, with the help of our tuk tuk man, to find some quiet spots for sunrises and sunsets. I think the highlights for me were Tha Phrom, and Phreh Khan which are both huge yet have sucumbed to the jungle somewhat.

Tha Prom


Sunrise


From Cambodia we headed back to Thailand to Nakhon Ratchasima for one night, Nong Kai for one night and the to Vientiane yesterday. Of course as always there are more tourists but the people seem as relaxed and honest as ever. We will stay here for at least one more day before visiting "Lao Vegas" aka Vang Vien which is like the Kao san of Lao but it has the function of breaking up a very long bus ride and the scenery is beautiful.

I will attempt to post some pictures soon, I have stolen Annie's camera for a few shots as I am shooting film and Katie's shot are not able to be posted yet.

Hope everyone is having a great summer.

Dylan

P.S. feel free to post a comment and say hi.