Merry Yule again to you all.
We had a lovely Christmas day. Presents in the morning - lots of great Laos textiles from Andy to me, including a gorgeous scarf, and a kayaking voucher from me to Andy. He's been going on about kayaking for years, but is in serious danger of lunching it out, so we ARE going. Sometime...
We went to the Floating Buddha photography exhibition at the National Museum (the former royal palace), which was very interesting, and almost made me want to chuck my camera out in despair.
We had lunch at L'Elephant, just down the road. We met up with some Thorntree folks as arranged and had a very amusing and delicious meal. I wore my new siin (traditional Laos skirt) - made to measure by the lady down the road.
I don't know where the day went. To be honest, lunch went on quite late, and then I spent ages yakking to my folks back in Blighty (Hello, Folks!), before wandering off to the night market again. This time I managed to track down the lady with the blue hands I had been looking for, but her hands were pink now. Shame, it would have made such a lovely photo, but we had a good chat with the help of a passing volunteer translator.
I bought a Thai dam (Black Thai) headscarf and then got talking (communicating...) with another Thai dam trader who showed me a another bit of flat piece of material technology, the traditional headwear. I ended up with the traditional hairstyle - all knotted on top, and skewered with a 6in silver nail-and-chain effort. We had a great time with her showing me how to put the headscarf on and taking photos of me. I looked up and there was this little crowd of traders and tourists watching the proceedings with amusement. It was a wonderful episode, and extremely nice to have some interaction with the locals - I miss being able to spend time with HC hosts, but we have contacted all the ones in Laos and not had a reply, sadly.
Laos in general is a most wonderful and beautiful place, we are totally spoilt and privileged. Luang Phrabang is mostly World Heritage site on the banks of the Mekong and ideal dawdling territory - as packed with exquisite goodies as Japan, and that's saying something! The only down side in Laos (dodgy history aside) is the bushmeat trade and the occasional example of animals getting a rough time of it. In Asia, dogs, especially the ones due for eating, seem to get particularly bad treatment. I've been looking at the animalsasia site to get more information. That said, I have seen many people who obviously love and care for their pets.
One of the wonderful and threatened things about Laos is that almost all the noises you hear are natural. There is very little artificial noise. Especially at night - wandering home after curfew (midnight round here) is almost totally quiet. Even the most enthuiastic of cockerals hasn't yet started, and all the good people of Laos are early to bed before getting up at 6am for the alms giving ceremony with the monks. As you gather, curfew isn't enforced with any degree of vigour. In fact I don't remember seeing a single policeman in Laos.
Tomorrow we are going to help out at the Language Project, which I am looking forward to, although a little bit nervously.
Right, am hungary now, and quite fancy either a banana fritter (ha, rice flour!) or a scrummy rice/coconut thingy from one of the street stalls down the road.
