This weekend one of the Thai teachers, Teacher Sao, took me and the other foreign girls, Cait and Meaghan, up to Chiang Khan in the province of Loei. This time we stayed the night in a home stay along the Mekong River. When we got there we ate lunch. This consisted of many, many dishes, one of which was gung den (dancing shrimp). The dish was served with a small plate covering the saucer keeping the shrimp from simply crawling out. When it was ready to be eaten the plates were held together and shaken. The sauce that is at the bottom of the plate kills the shrimp when it is mixed, leaving a tasty meal.
After lunch we took a trip on a boat down the Mekong River. On the boat we enjoyed a nice lao u. This is a drink made by pouring your beverage of choice (we chose 7-up) into a little born jug of fermented rice. As the pot runs low, you just add more soda.
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| Lao U |
After enjoying a nice boat ride, we finally made it to our home stay. Our room, one of three in the house, was simply a large room with beds lining two of the walls. With our home stay came bikes-extremely small bikes- that we used to ride up and down the street. We took four of them to shop and go to dinner. Teacher Sao even bought us matching team shirts!!
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| One wall of matresses |
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| The home stay was under construction so they set up a table on the construction area of the second floor. Clearly it was a good idea. |
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| Riding our bikes down the street |
The next day we got up at 6:00 am to give offering to the monks. After that we checked out and went up to Chateau de Loei winery. We drove south a bit more and we wound up at a lake where we ate lunch on covered bamboo rafts. There was even a masseuse who came with us on our journey and of course, she brought her 11-month-old infant.
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| our matching shirts! |
Teacher Sao was wonderful to have brought us on this weekend getaway. We even learned some Thai while teaching her English. Weekend number three was a complete success!
ooolalaaala
ReplyDeleteI cant believe you have been gone for 3 weeks!!! sooooo crazy, but it looks like your having tons of fun!! keep the stories coming!!
love ya LL!
--mauck
I am so happy for you. That sounds like a wonderful weekend. I look forward to your blogs and pictures.
ReplyDeleteso so so awesome, my dear! Keep up the blogging, and I will follow you! Congrats, and have a great time!
ReplyDeleteNancy (from our teacher training course in SF)