Edited to add…
Wednesday, December 17th, 2008…as soon as I finished the last post, it was insisted that we join the shop’s owner, his boss and his family for a meal (and a lot more alcohol). We couldn’t communicate via words with anyone but him, however the smiles said it all!
We were handed plates, spoons, chopsticks and presented with a Lao feast of grilled meats, sticky rice, various soups and shots of lao-lao between each bowl. Our new friend informed us that his family was extremely happy to have us, that we were the first foreigners to share a meal with them. Once again, he would take no payment for the food or the copious amounts of alcohol, and charged us for barely a fraction of the internet time we’d used (and only after we insisted on being charged).
Laos is the winner.
*I’m sorry for the post slowdowns, but we’ve been in very few places with reliable electricity, much less computers! I’m sure that readership is slowing down with the holidays (Christmastime? What?) anyways, so it works out well. Photos should be up tomorrow!
allisonrae