Monday 19th January
At last the air is starting to warm up again. We're back to 14 degrees at night and 30 by day, which is a relief. It's very pleasant to sit outside again, and it's also great walking weather.
Highlight of New Year week was a trip over the Mekong to the pottery village, which we first visited 12 years ago. It's a 45 minute walk from here down to the ferry and another 45 minute walk on the other side to the village so a tidy step there and back.
This week we've booked our flights for April, leaving end of March and coming back 4th May. Provided the world hasn't imploded by then of course.
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| The bird of paradise flower in the garden finally bloomed! |
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| And we discovered a new plant shop with a better selection and much cheaper prices. |
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| The garden is looking lush. |
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| Great to see evidence that heritage features of the town - like the 183 village ponds - are valued. |
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| The new Lao Pottery House is a lovely traditional style wooden building with pottery classes |
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| It's a family affair |
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| The pottery industry in this village almost died out 10 years ago so it's good to see resources being used to bring more tourists and money |
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| The kilns are wood-fired |
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| The landscape on the far side of the Mekong is very rural |
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| Subsistence farming is the main occupation with cattle, buffalo... |
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| and pigs (which were not interested in being photographed!) |
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| This is the local ferry |
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| We've been enjoying the firepit in the garden |
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| These two papayas have been hanging around for months so when they started to turn yellow this week we didn't hold out much hope for taste. They were surprisingly good! |
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| I keep trying to learn to use my Canon DSLR (below) - but my Samsung phone (above) still produces better pictures! Damn! |
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| Lovely evening light though |
