Well, today I decided to wander about town, visit the craft shops, and do the mandatory museum/temple tour. I discovered, not to my enormous surprise, that the vast majority of textiles shops are selling tourist schlock, and that very few Lao shopkeepers speak English well enough to authenticate the “real” pieces for me.
However, I did [...]
Well. Today has been Official Textile Excess Day. (Which of you wags was it that suggested the “tien” as a unit of excess, with standard behavior measured in millitiens? ) I’ve bought three gorgeous woven silk tapestries (two 100% naturally dyed!), half a kilo of naturally dyed reeled-silk yarn, half a pound of undyed [...]
Tastes like game–very, very, very dark meat. In places, much like chicken gizzard.
And now you know.
Oh yeah, and chicken feet don’t taste like much of anything. Rubbery and chewy on the outside, crunchy on the inside (if you insist on eating the bones). I don’t really understand what people see in them.
(There’s almost [...]
So, I spent today exploring Luang Prabang, which it turns out is a classic “quiet, charming, well-preserved heritage site”–which is to say, quite touristy, but not at all obnoxious. (There is very little junk amongst the tourist kitsch, and the handwork overall is very high quality.) Lots of shops selling textiles, lots of Internet cafes, [...]
Well, after eight hours of some of the most gorgeous scenery in the world, I’ve arrived in Luang Prabang. Luang Prabang is the second largest city in Laos–population 30,000. (Which tells you just how rural Laos is!) It’s also home to the second most revered artifact in Southeast Asia, Pra Bang–a Buddha statue made out [...]