Tastes of Laos

There is a strong French influence in the architecture and the cuisine due to colonization by France years back. All restaurants, although considered "inside", have wide open doors and scarce actual walls. Large ceiling fans turn lazily in the warm sultry night air. It feels as if we're in Indochina in a different era.

We are served riverweed as an appetizer. It is similar to nori or the dried seaweed that we eat in Japanese restaurants but it's from the Mekong River. I wonder briefly about the wisdom of this given the colour of the river but fears are quickly forgotten with the salty, slightly sea taste of this delicious appetizer served with a spicy chili jam.

Sights of Luang Prabang

Buddhist monks serenely walk the streets in their saffron robes. Will we be able to rise at 5:30am to watch the villagers offering alms? Unlikely.

Everyone walks slowly to conserve energy. Bicycles and motorbikes abound, often with the driver, male or female, holding a parasol in one hand as protection against the searing sun.

The Mekong River flows brown and wide through town. Brown as a strong rich cup of Lao coffee with a dollop of cream.

Luang Prabang, Laos

Sabai dee! We arrive in Luang Prabang which is in the north part of Laos. It is a rural village in the mountains. It is hot, steamy, and jungly. Just what I thought Southeast Asia would be. Sweat drips down my back. My camera lens fogs up from the humidity.

Reunion

We reunite with the Daughter at the Bangkok airport. It's hard to believe that my little girl can fly halfway around the world, spend the night in Bangkok, and then so competently negotiate the airport the next morning to meet up with us, just as if we were meeting to go shopping at the mall in Toronto.

Koh Samui

Koh Samui is an island in southern Thailand, in the Bay of Thailand. It is the third largest such island but still relatively small. The ring road around it is only 52 km long. We are here for 5 days of Beach!

The streets are hot and noisy and crowded with lots of hopeful hawkers and broken, narrow sidewalks that are a challenge for the Beamer's stroller. But as we walk the 300 meters from the street toward the beach, the noise fades away and what this island is really about reveals itself.

The beachfront restaurant at our hotel is open air and serves excellent food. We eat with the crashing of the surf and the sparkle of the full moonlight off the water. Or, like tonight, we eat in the middle of a downpour, protected and safe from the rain by a thatched roof.

Thai Orchids

We are left little gifts of beauty in unexpected places. Orchid blooms lining the shower, flowers floating in a barrel of water so that we can wash the beach sand off our feet before entering our little cottage, hand made soap on our pillows at night, a basket of fruit left on our porch to eat when we wake up in the morning.

We indulge in two hour massages for about $30CAD in a room that's open to the ocean.

The bathroom is my favorite. We open the door from our cool air conditioned room and step into a warm, steamy oasis. The bathroom is open to the outside and has a garden inside! We shower to the songs of birds. When it rains, it rains inside!

Beaming in Koh Samui

It's a real treat to spend all day every day with the Beamer. He has a way with people. I don't know exactly how he does it but he draws love to him. He doesn't talk but somehow people quickly recognize his worth. How many of us have people applaud when we stand up to go to the bathroom? This happened to the Beamer yesterday. How many of us have people cry and hug us goodbye 3 times after knowing us for only 3 days?! This happened to the Beamer when we left Bangkok.

I've thought about this a lot and I think it's his face. It's the face of a person who was kissed a lot as a child. This was a line from the novel The Colour Purple and I've loved it since I read it many years ago.