Hiding in Napho

We are currently laying low in a small village called Napho where my Grandma lives. It's a little village 1.5 hours north of Vientiane and has about 2000 people. I took the liberty of kicking my cousin out of his bungalow in the middle of the rice field so we can "camp". Since we are "falang" I am having a toilet installed so we dont have to do any digging ourselves. It'll be nice to be out in the middle of nowhere to enjoy the peace and quiet. It is a little cold and very hard to find scotch so I'll just have to get more blankets.

The maids are extremely cheap here, we have one for each duty such as a cook, laundry person, Beer Lao runner, etc. We only pay them about $1US combined for all their hard work each day. I'm working on importing them to the US for sale so let us know if you want any. I think I could fit about 5 in each suitcase.

Pretty much just hanging out and waiting for my mom and uncle to get here one way or another since the airport in Thailand is still closed. As soon as we find out whats going on with that, we'll head up to Bokeo and hang out in the trees with the Gibbons monkeys. Now Amy is going to rant about the roosters that crows at 11PM.

Yeah the roosters are American or something because they like to crow at night especially after 3 in the morning. Everyone is friendly at Grandma's house and I'm starting to catch a few phrases but mostly I just smile and nod and say Co-op Chai, which is Thank You, or Sabai Dee, which is Hi how are you/Bye/Fine, thank you, all in one.

We went into Vientiane (mainly for hot showers) and it has changed a lot. The village looks the same except everyone who used to ride a bike now owns a scooter that goes just as fast as a bike and spews black smoke as a bonus. But in Vientiane there are a lot more Western goods and stores available (for Western or at least Thai prices.) The morning market, which used to be pretty shanty (where we bought the couches if you saw the photos from the last trip) has changed a lot. It now bosts a 4 story concrete parking garage and the indoor mall part is fancier and bigger. Out by the Mekhong, the open strip with a few chairs and cafes is now covered by restaurants built on stilts. There are a lot of Euro tourists too, all looking as pale and sickly as I was - the food is still a bit of a shock to the system here. I'm feeling better though as of today.

The weather is much cooler than Thailand, cold at night actually but warm, dry, and sunny during the day. Definitely this is the best time of year to visit. For Colin Cotterill fans, we've seen almost everything in the books, including the Lao Women's Union, the black stupa, the Ministry of Education, and Mr. Geung (with Down's syndrome) who went on a bender last night and came by all the houses in the village causing an uproar. But apparently he is normally a hard worker on the farm and very popular. There is also an Auntie Dtui. And of course the bicycles with no brakes are a must! We'll try to avoid those.

We also did a nice walk around Sam's cousin farm which looks just like the shire, if hobbits grew rice. It had a cool footbridge made out of bamboo which surprisingly did not collapse when Sam crossed it. It probably waited to collapse for the next poor person to come along!



Well we are heading back for some R&R and then some camping at Grandma's house now. We'll post again when we head north.