Day 89

Sleeping Lady Hike (Again)

On my first day I had done a hike called Sleeping Lady but Michelle really wanted to do it as her boyfriend did it 8 years ago and had a terrible time fighting for his life in the heavy rain so she wanted to prove she could conquer it. For breakfast, I went to the place where we had dinner yesterday and ordered a Laos breakfast as I was curious what it was. It turned out to be some sticky rice, dried Mekong river weed, omelette pieces, and a cup of tea which was actually really nice - especially when dipped in the Chili sauce and made a nice change as the river weed is a very local delicacy and was surprisingly pretty good. Unfortunately, Elisa was leaving this morning to Luang Prabang but I wasn't able to say goodbye in person which was a shame

For my first Smoothie of the day I grabbed a mango which as always was beautiful and also wanted to stock up on some snacks for the day. I decided I didn't want any Western snacks so along with the stuff we still had from yesterday, I also brought some oranges, some bananas, and a mango from a fruit stall. We made our way up which compared to our hike yesterday was much easier as it must have been only half the height - though the path wasn't as good. At the top we enjoyed a lovely feast of sunflower seeds, peanuts, fruit chips, bananas and oranges. Also, due to the rain yesterday the view was much clearer than 2 days before so that was nice and boded well for the next couple days.

I usually adopt a "falling with style" method of descent from hikes which meant that I stacked it a few times last time I did this hike but this time I moved a bit slower with Michelle and saved myself the hassle of sliding down on my ass. When we got down my next mission for the day was to find a knife so I could cut up fruit as it seemed like a cool thing to do - especially with all the the fruit stalls dotted about. Surprisingly, I found one straight away in a massive hardware store and I had the choice of a few sizes but went with the smallest one just to be less of a threat. This one had a peeler built in to the middle which I thought might be useful but ended up being a pain in the ass when cutting.

We went back to the usual spot for my 2nd smoothie of the day where I went a bit adventurous and brought a mint, lemon, and honey smoothie which happened to have a very strong mint flavour which I wasn't the biggest fan of but I persevered regardless. I saw a sign for some local honey and thought it would go perfect with the mango so went on a mission to find the shop and buy some. I ran into Paul from the boat journey from Muang Khua and said hello, as well as Rasmus and Kasper who we had booked the kayaking with. After getting the honey, we eneded up having lunch with them before I started on the mango. I asked for a plate then got to work cutting. It was my first time ever cutting a mango and was very surprised to learn that mangos had a massive seed in the middle. After butchering the hell out of the mango I eventually had it cut into little chunks ready to eat. Dipping the chunks into the honey, I was in heaven with both the taste of the mango and the local honey. Another side mission of today was to find people to join our tour as it would have made it cheaper for all of us, but unfortunately depsite our "best" efforts (we didn't try very hard) we didn't find anyone, even after asking about in the restaurant.

I precariously cleaned my knife with tissues and hand sanitiser then we chilled at the restaurant for a while longer before I went for my 3rd smoothie of the day - a banana and coconut combo which tasted solely like banana with no hint of coconut unfortunately. The boys hadn't slept in a few days so they headed to bed early and Michellle and I went back for a shower before dinner. Michelle had moved to the same homestay as me which made it alot easier as we weren't on other sides of town to eachother. After a shower, shave and a bit of a rest, we went out for dinner and tried a different restaurant where they had an adorable little cat who begged for food and cuddles. I went for a red curry and Michelle went for a green curry and it was bloody tasty and possibly one of the nicest meals I've had in Laos. I've fallen out of the habit of taking pictures of my meals but thought this deserved the privilege.

After them not having any sticky rice for a sticky mango rice, we called it a night and went to bed as we were starting our 2 day kayak tour tomorrow and needed to be fresh.Leggi altro