Muang Sing, Day 47-54

We've started to feel pretty much at home here in the small Lao town of Muang Sing. Though we've only been here a little under a week (which is longer then basically anywhere in China, even though we spent two nights on our trek) we've had time to establish a routine for how we spend our days.

Our street, one of two paved roads in town.

Morning mist over Muang Sing.

In the mornings we usually get up around 8AM. Hanna has, of course, been up for hours before Ruut and myself, reading or listening to the sounds around our cozy little bungalow (the sounds that never seem to bother her fellow companions' sleep; roosters, people moving about/talking...). After getting dressed, quite appropriately (here women should cover their knees and shoulders, a requirement we can't always meet...), we head out for the morning market on the other side of town (about 10min of walking).

Walking to the morning market

Morning market.

Walking home.

There we stroll around buying our breakfast. Always a baguette (Laos used to be a French colony, which has left its mark) or two, either sweet or 'normal', a heap of mini-mandarines, apples and other fruits and vegetables. Sometimes a couple of dumplings, a bag of sweet popcorn, a bowl of noodle soup or a bamboo cane filled with sticky-rice and coconut milk.The early afternoon we spend lying around our bungalow, reading or listening to music. And soon enough it's time for lunch. We wonder what to have today, Curry-vegetable or Tom Yum soup? Fried tofu with noodles or fried rice with vegetables?

The View Restaurant's beautiful view, hence the name.

Waiting for lunch...which in Laos might take a while. So don't let yourself get too hungry before you head for a restaurant!

The rest of the day we do whatever pleases us at the moment. A traditional Lao massage one day and a sarong-hunt the other (women have to wear a sarong when bathing, which is so unfair when men walk around half naked most of the time!).

Our bungalow is the one with the blue roof.

Our guesthouse has two bungalows to offer, each with two separate rooms. All of them are usually filled. We've had a French family, a Spanish couple, two American sisters, a Spaniard (one of the Americans boyfriend) and most recently an old French couple as neighbours. With the three in the middle we went out to a restaurant the other night and swapped travel-stories, experiences and of course had loads of fun. And yesterday night we spent with our Lao guide from the trek, Keo. (Hanna will write more about the trek after this.) First we spent some time at his house, looking at pictures of him while he was a monk (he's spent 11 years in a monestary) and browsing through his copy of 'English for eco-guides', where we could read the phrases he often used on our trek. Such as 'this hill is so-and-so many meters high' and 'the Akha grow rice by the river'.

Keo's house.

Later (around 7:30PM...) we went to a local KTV bar where we politely drank some Beer Lao (none of us enjoy the taste of beer. Especially not me and Ruut, having suffered through a case (that's 12 beers!) already once in Laos.... we tried to be polite) and danced to their limited amount of English songs until it was time to go home. Keo thought that due to the late hour he should follow us to our guest house. The time being 9 in the evening we didn't really understand his thinking. But in Laos all the bars close at 11 so 9 is quite late, and as the sun sets around 5 or 6 PM you really feel tired. But compared to this the bars we visited in China are open late. In Yangshou we stayed in a bar until 3 AM, but then the poor bartender had to come up to us and ask us to leave since he wanted to go home and sleep....

But back to Muang Sing and Laos. We mostly take it easy and enjoy the Lao way of life. And any other way of living would be impossible since everyone else lives according to the 'no rush' policy.

The bus station of Muang Sing.

After the clothes market had been packed away. The Lao people are not any better than the Chinese at using trash bins...

Oh, and in this small town's internet cafe there are chickens running around our legs and 10-year-old Buddhist novises at the next computer. Later they biked away (the boys, not the chickens..), playing serene music from a loudspeaker in their bicycle basket.
We are definitely in the countryside, but after spending a night in the Akha village, Muang Sing, with it's two asphalt roads, feels like a huge city, and we've almost forgotten the skyscrapers of China....

//S