the 12 days of Christmas
inspired by Rob…
Luang Prabang, Laos
Yep, we’ve been writing more Christmas songs!
You’ve got to promise to SING this one out loud – or we won’t publish it, OK!
On the twelfth day of market-mas
My true love sent to me….
12 sticky rice crackers
11 roosters crowing
10 bar-be-cued bats
9 sticky rice “patties”
8 bags of Mekong weed
7 caged sparrows
6 sticky rice bundles
5 fresh chilies
4 filled baguettes
3 dead ducks
2 pineapples
and some sticky rice in a bamboo basket
Which got us to thinking…..eighteen days in Luang Prabang meant…..
- * 6 days no internet
- * 2 days no electricity (6am to 6pm)
- * every day intermittent water (if someone else in the neighbourhood starts a tap, ours refuses to run…and tomorrow there will be NO water at all!!!!)
- * yesterday flickering lights
- * not one HOT shower for Mama (some of the others managed to get a short hot shower, but not me)
- * no comfortable chairs (just the floor, small wooden stools or concrete benches)
- * too many days of snorting neighbours *hoick*
- * 36 meals of sticky rice
- * 17 days of fevers and/or V&D for someone (everyone except Mama was stricken)
- * 16 nights of uninvited “guests” peeking into rooms, standing to chat
- * uncountable: the number of times we heard, “One family, you my sister”
-
* two dishes politely declined: Mekong River weed (we stirred that one round the dish to make it look eaten) and one platter of pig’s brain, liver, stomach and intestines (a bit of Lao language got everyone laughing and us out of eating. In case we ever need to use that sentence again, here ’tis: Koy bo kin! Plus we added, “Today two families. One family eat, one family no eat.” Nothing like laughter to avoid an issue!)
- * eaten: live maggot, grasshoppers, dried Mekong river weed, buffalo, baguettes, BBQed chicken and pork, divine chicken curry, fresh pineapples, papaya, oranges, bananas and coconuts (see, it’s not all bad!!)
- * 2 pair of socks completed (which means we’ve been relaxing)
- * 2 school visits (yes our children have now been to school!)
- * 2 bicycles for the kids to ride
- * about a dozen new playmates
- * no rain (no not a drop, you Kiwis! Bet you can’t even imagine what that’s like!)
- * temperature dropped from mid-30s to 12*C in the mornings…..brrrrrrr
- * 5 motorbike rides (including one exhaust burn – it’s healing)
- * 700,000 kip limit on ATM withdrawals
- * 1 fashion show, 1 music festival
Tags: food, housing, money, postcard: Laos, recreation
rayres
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