Travel to Luang Prabang

The old bus is a rambling hard shocked affair that holds up rather well to the punishing road conditions of Laos. The short tiny bed is supposed to be able to hold two people, but I barely fit diagonally. I'm so tired I fall right asleep.

Arrived at 3am in Vientiane and caught a tuk tuk to the Chinese high-speed train where a number of people sit outside waiting for the 7:30 to Luang Prabang. In the train I have a nice conversation with an airport security officer who got some training and is returning home.

On the bus I meet Seng and after check in at the hotel I cruise around on the hotel bicycle and he calls me over to his table, I join him and his wife for Koah soi, the renowned Luang Prabang dish. It is 'sep', very good. A vegetable noodle soup that the chef has been making for 20 years using her mother's recipe.

We have to go to his banana plantation, he rents a scooter and I pedal the rickety bike. He has a couple of acres and an 84 year old man, named Panh, living there taking care of the farm. Seng works in Vientiane for the United Nations as a project manager at a fairly high level on large infrastructure projects.

They bring their home made foods to the table, rice with fermented tamarind paste and fermented Indian Gooseberry shots. The dried tamarind seeds can be boiled into a tea. Czytaj więcej