A Step Back in Time

I've spent the past few days in a northern Lao village near Nong Khiaw, where I spent my time hanging in a hammock reading a book and watching the local children splash around in the river. The village, nestled between huge emerald green mountains and consisting of little more than a cluster of bamboo huts, one that sheltered me from the rain for the short time I was there, can easily fool its visitors into thinking they've stepped back into a different age. There are next to no cars, the little boys play chess in the dust using bottle lids, women walk around in their bras carrying bags around their heads and there seems to be absolutely no concept of time (service in a restaurant takes a lifetime, buses leave whenever they feel like it). I had such a wonderfully relaxing time!

My trip back to Luang Prabang was a little less relaxing but it was a cracker! I was crammed into a truck with about 20 Laotians and twice my backpack, which was stuffed amongst boxes of fruit on the roof of the truck, fell off the back of the truck. Some Lao man would run to pick it up and upon his return I'd have all 20 sets of eyes staring at me waiting for a reaction. When I'd laugh and shrug my shoulders my fellow passengers would break out in hysterical laughter and one old man would ask 'no eggs?' and both times I'd reply 'no eggs', generating more laughter from the easily amused crowd. Such fun to take my mind off the fact that I was squashed in the back of a truck for four hours with dust in my eyes.