A Week Passes

Wednesday 12^th Dec

So we’ve been here a week. And we have neighbours for the first time. A young couple have just arrived at the bungalow next door to ours. English I think.

Life settles into a pattern. I wake up quite early before 8 and sit on the verandah, reading or writing. It’s quite chilly in the mornings so when Trevann gets up he needs a blanket!

There’s no electricity until about 12 so the shower would be cold. That’s another reason I’m often still in my pyjamas at midday. In the afternoons Trevann paints. I sit and think – or sometimes just sit! The sun comes round onto the verandah and by mid-afternoon it’s really too hot to sit there in comfort. We either retire indoors or go down for a cup of coffee in the cafe and to check whether the wifi is working – usually not.

Artist at work.

We sometimes go for a walk. It’s only really feasible to walk along the road, which is a bit dusty. We have to choose a quiet road. Up the hill away from town and towards the hill villages is better.

The road to Ban Na Det.

Our bungalow. Home sweet home.

Then in the late afternoon we’ll often go into town in the jeep, to look around and perhaps have a meal. The free wifi’s more reliable there too.

One of the many temples in Luang Prabang.

Night Market setting up in Luang Prabang.

Our evening meal tends to  ... OK so I forgot to plug in the netbook to charge last night and it’s run out of juice. There’s no electricity this morning so this will have to continue later.

Building a bamboo bridge across the Nam Khan. These are washed away in the wet season and rebuilt each year.

For our evening meals we tend to alternate between a meal in town and a meal at K&K. Yesterday it was a K&K night so we went into LP in the afternoon for a couple of hours first. I wanted to find out whether it is possible to find a book about the fauna and flora of Laos. A long shot, I know, but worth a go. There are two bookshops listed down by the Nam Khan so we wandered along one of our favourite streets to find them. We almost walked past the first “L’Etranger” – combination of cafe and bookshop. Virtually no new books of course – and they’re not arranged in any dewi system. Shelves are stacked with a random assortment of Michael Crichton novels, tatty travel guides and studies of Buddhist practices in various languages – predominantly Lao, French and English. A torch was useful to see the titles as the light fell. I found one book on Birds in Thailand but nothing on ecology or plants of SE Asia.

We had an expensive Pepsi and used the free wifi to check emails and Facebook – as you do. Then on to the next bookshop on the other side of the road – slightly more organised but still no botany section.

We walked back towards the post office, looking to see where the library is. We’re much more relaxed now than we were a week ago. As the place becomes familiar we feel more at home.

The roads in this area are lined at night with lottery sellers, each sitting behind a little table in a pool of light from a lamp with a base in the form of a colourful plastic teddy or elephant or some such.

We posted our pcs and checked prices at the money changer next door. 7985 kip per dollar was a better rate than down the road so we changed $100 – and saved ourselves 20p! Feeling gratified by this we bought some banana cake for our next day breakfast from a street vendor and met up with Bo for the ride back to K&K.

As we arrived, Mrs K invited us to join them for rice soup (no charge). She had made a huge vat full over a wood-fired stove for the family and they had plenty left over. It was delicious – thick and chicken flavoured with herbs adn spices sprinkled on top with fiery chilli sauce on the side. The family had eaten already but we all sat around, guitars were played, kittens watched, and chatting. And the wifi was working so we were able to Skype Holly and show YouTube videos of Ben and Liam to the kids. We feel very welcome and accepted here.

These butterflies are 3 or 4 inches across and beautiful - but they *will* not sit still to be photographed!