Daily life

14th November 2022

People often ask us what we “do” while we’re away in South-East Asia for 4 months. I always answer “very little”! Partly because for me it’s more about “being”, living simply, and getting away from the hectic pace of life we seem to think is normal in the west.

The reality, of course, is that much of our time is taken in dealing with practicalities - food, drink, washing, exercise etc. In the morning we walk for about 20 minutes over the bridge to buy two breakfast baguettes. We sometimes call in to collect essentials from the local shop - soap, anti-mozzie lotion and butter today, for example. Then it’s four eggs from the egg lady on our street and we walk home to make breakfast - although by this time it’s often more like lunchtime! Afternoons are spent reading, writing, or playing music (Trevann). At the moment in mid November it gets rather hot by mid-afternoon (34 degrees) so we wait until 4 ish and then go for a walk before sunset.

In the evening we decide on a cafe/restaurant. Local food or western? In general, we pay about 150,000 kip for a meal with a beer for two. That’s about £7 but with the inflation rate running at over 35% at the moment it may well change. Life is tough for Laotian folk. We notice that rice is 16,000 kip per kilo - that’s double the price it was last time we were here. It’s not so bad for us because we get 20,000 kip to the pound when it used to be 11,000. Swings and roundabouts.

Then usually along to the RedBul Bar for a couple of beers (30,000 kip/£1.50 for 660ml)), perhaps to watch some football or play a game of pool in a mixed crowd of locals, expats and backpackers. Then home across the bridge to bed.

So now you know!

A few pictures

If our afternoon walk takes us that way, we'll stop for a beer at one of the wooden platforms on the banks of the Mekong and watch as the sun dips behind the mountains and the slow boats drifting down from Thailand swing round in the river before tying up for the night. Beautiful.

There are said to be 34 temples in Luang Prabang. I would've said there are more if you count the ones in outlying villages.

Not a lot of wildlife so far. Just the usual geckos and a pretty skink in the garden wall

Lovely flowers of course.

This (below) is our "garden". It's a bit overgrown but I like it.

Our next door neighbours have tidied theirs up:

I was excited to see a cloud of bats yesterday evening at the local wat. Sadly, my camera can't capture them so you'll have to use your imagination and take my word for it!

Once in a while we go "self-catering" and prepare our own evening meal. Tonight it was chicken salad with potatoes, having bought the chicken from a roadside BBQ stall.