I was with some very good friends (Geraldine Max) with whom we had decided to enjoy our last day before new challenges (them: China and me Bangkok). The day started with some motorbike in the countryside. We cruised the whole morning in the beautiful surroundings of Luang Nam Tha and had a bit of "adventure" with a bamboo bridge on the way.
But that is when lunch time approached that things turned out to be great. We stopped in a small village on the road where there was a kind of eating place filled with army men obviously having some good time considering the number of beer Laos on the table (and later on considering the eyes of one of them for whom the afternoon must have been VERY long). Because there was no menu we asked the same (the famous same same that everybody understands in the region even when they do not speak one world of English) as the armymen and this is what we got:
Luckily I was not alone and we could laugh about it the three of us but that was really disgutting. If you do not recognise the pictures, these are buffalo liver and buffalo intestine. The first piece latter gave me a (haut de coeur) and luckily there was a hole in the wooden floor where I could discreetly leave the piece without offending our hosts. Then one of them came to speak with us and he happened to speak French and we could feel he was very happy he could practice his French (he studied medicine in France a couple of years back). We then proposed him to play petanque against us but he was too serious and said he had some work and he (as most of the officers) left. But it was not difficult to convince the other ones who happily played two games that we won (but I highly suspect them to have let us won even considering the Lao beer factor). That was really nice and they were so friendly I think they were pleased that we asked them to play.
After the (long) lunch break we took the motos again and rode under the blue sky and the sun more in the contryside before having a break and a fruit shake, going on a hill to see the view of the surrounding (in a setting light) and finally having diner with a French-Japanese couple we had met the day before.
Yes, this is a typical Laos day and I would not have wanted to finish better.
Luckily I was not alone and we could laugh about it the three of us but that was really disgutting. If you do not recognise the pictures, these are buffalo liver and buffalo intestine. The first piece latter gave me a (haut de coeur) and luckily there was a hole in the wooden floor where I could discreetly leave the piece without offending our hosts. Then one of them came to speak with us and he happened to speak French and we could feel he was very happy he could practice his French (he studied medicine in France a couple of years back). We then proposed him to play petanque against us but he was too serious and said he had some work and he (as most of the officers) left. But it was not difficult to convince the other ones who happily played two games that we won (but I highly suspect them to have let us won even considering the Lao beer factor). That was really nice and they were so friendly I think they were pleased that we asked them to play.
After the (long) lunch break we took the motos again and rode under the blue sky and the sun more in the contryside before having a break and a fruit shake, going on a hill to see the view of the surrounding (in a setting light) and finally having diner with a French-Japanese couple we had met the day before.
Yes, this is a typical Laos day and I would not have wanted to finish better.
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