Kristin’s Birthday
I read in a book that in Cambodia they don’t celebrate the actual date of your birth until you are fifty; until then your age advances on the Cambodian New Year. So, in a region of arbitrary birthdays, we decided that yesterday in Vang Vieng, Laos would be as good a day as any to celebrate Kristin’s birthday. So, the highlights. . . .
–As we were in the first “touristy” town in weeks, things showed up on menus that had long since been replaced by noodle soup 3 times/day. We began the day with pancakes and crepes with bananas and chocolate, espresso, spring rolls, fresh fruit salad, and fruit shakes. And for dinner Kristin got the dish she’d been craving but could never betray Asian food for—pizza.
–Only in Laos. The top tourist activity of Vang Vieng is to hop into a tuk tuk topped with towering tubes, get a ride upriver, and then spend anywhere from 3 to 8 hours floating back down. Some people we met even confessed to doing this daily, beginning at 10am, for up to a week. Of course this creates a crafty business opportunity. Lining the riverbanks are at least 20 bars, most with “flying fox” trapeze swings and ziplines, others with dance music and volleyball. In some places, a Lao in a canoe will just sit midriver with a bucket full of Beer Lao for the lazier tubers. Unfortunately no one mentioned that sunset is really around 4pm due to the towering karst peaks. So, we spent the last hour blue-lipped and goose-bumped trying to flap our way faster down the river. Prayers answered, soon a skinny, big-grinned Lao kid with shredded shorts and tied-together flip flops charms his way onto my tube. At first he accepts the free ride with smiles and thumbs up, but then climbs off to begin kicking, pushing, and using flip flops as fins. OK, so maybe at first I just thought he wanted a lift to his home downriver, but Kristin recognized the business immediately; at the pull-out, the group of children collected their “motor” fees and raced off to catch the next group of shivering tubers.
—Kristin’s Birthday Cake. Jaydee’s Restaurant happily made a gorgeous, one-of-a-kind birthday cake: big, fat pancake with chocolate sauce, oatmeal sprinkles, and apple wheels. And this part I couldn’t even have been clever enough to request: CUCUMBER CANDLE HOLDERS! [For anyone who doesn’t know, cucumbers rank on Kristin’s list as the foremost offensive food.]
—The rest of the night was spent indulging in our last Lao massage, warming by bonfires, and mingling with the world’s representatives.
Tomorrow morning—WAY too early—we fly to Siem Riep, Cambodia where we will spend Kristin’s final days. : (
Tags: Laos, Tubing, Vang Vieng
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