No hot coffee today - only hot water. Luckily, the baguettes had run out. I had also voiced a strong concern to Pon over having baguettes for breakfast again. It went something like 'bread bad - not healthy like eggs'. Our hosts made a delicious breakfast; we had sticky rice, chili paste, omelet (eggs & onion), and some pork. They even upped the ante with one apple that had been cut into slices!
After breakfast, I ate half of a protein bar. Over the last 3 days, I've been feeling very lethargic, and I'm absolutely positive that 8 - 10 hours of sleep per night is enough to recharge my body. I decided that my protein levels had been inadequate, and that my only source of carbohydrates were simple; either from a vegetable or rice. (That might explain why I was eating so much food...there may have not been enough calories to keep my metabolism content.) After eating the protein bar, I instantly felt better. Like I had some energy. Thanks for the supply of protein bars James - I left mine at The Boat Landing Guesthouse in an effort to minimize the weight of my pack.
Today's trek was relatively easy; the morning consisted of a hard climb up & down a mountain, but the afternoon was fairly flat and easy. Immediately after lunch, we had the unfortunate luck of seeing a live snake. Pon was ahead of me, and he shrieked. I looked up to catch the back end of a snake slivering across the dirt path. Pon was tapping his chest with like hand, willing his heart to begin beating again. The snake wasn't all that large, but it doesn't have to be huge to be dangerous. I laughed at Pon's fright; two days earlier he had been trying to scare me by yelling 'snake!!!'. At the time, I didn't realize that he may have been as scared as I am of snakes.
We picked up our Lantan guide along the trail; he would walk back to the Lantan village with us during the course of the afternoon. About an hour into our trek, we came upon a house with about 10 people outside of it, eating lunch. Our guide knew these people (several were from his village), so we sat down. The men decided that the Americans needed to try cha, which was the Lantan equivalent of beer. It was made in a large ceramic container that contained fermenting rice that sat in the sun for two weeks. The top of the container had 4 pieces of plastic tubing coming out of it, and it was filled to the brim with water. The 'rule' was that 4 people would drink at once. Someone would refill the top of the container with water, which I believe percolated to the bottom of the container to dilute the booze. The drink actually tasted decent; a bit like beer and it was a bit sweet - it was a great change after drinking the toxic lao lao for almost a week. We appeased them by drinking 4 cups among 4 people, but they wouldn't let us leave, because each person had to do two rounds. James and I told them that we were finished, but it was obvious that we were not leaving until another 3 cups of cha were drunk by Pon, James, and myself. While we were on the second round, I learned that the eldest man had served in the French army when Laos was still a French colony. At one time, he knew French. I said a few basic things to him, but he didn't remember enough French to reply.
Today's trek was relatively easy; the morning consisted of a hard climb up & down a mountain, but the afternoon was fairly flat and easy. Immediately after lunch, we had the unfortunate luck of seeing a live snake. Pon was ahead of me, and he shrieked. I looked up to catch the back end of a snake slivering across the dirt path. Pon was tapping his chest with like hand, willing his heart to begin beating again. The snake wasn't all that large, but it doesn't have to be huge to be dangerous. I laughed at Pon's fright; two days earlier he had been trying to scare me by yelling 'snake!!!'. At the time, I didn't realize that he may have been as scared as I am of snakes.
We picked up our Lantan guide along the trail; he would walk back to the Lantan village with us during the course of the afternoon. About an hour into our trek, we came upon a house with about 10 people outside of it, eating lunch. Our guide knew these people (several were from his village), so we sat down. The men decided that the Americans needed to try cha, which was the Lantan equivalent of beer. It was made in a large ceramic container that contained fermenting rice that sat in the sun for two weeks. The top of the container had 4 pieces of plastic tubing coming out of it, and it was filled to the brim with water. The 'rule' was that 4 people would drink at once. Someone would refill the top of the container with water, which I believe percolated to the bottom of the container to dilute the booze. The drink actually tasted decent; a bit like beer and it was a bit sweet - it was a great change after drinking the toxic lao lao for almost a week. We appeased them by drinking 4 cups among 4 people, but they wouldn't let us leave, because each person had to do two rounds. James and I told them that we were finished, but it was obvious that we were not leaving until another 3 cups of cha were drunk by Pon, James, and myself. While we were on the second round, I learned that the eldest man had served in the French army when Laos was still a French colony. At one time, he knew French. I said a few basic things to him, but he didn't remember enough French to reply.
As we left, I was cursing ourselves for stopping in the first place. I was now trekking with a decent buzz; I'm a firm believer of separating alcohol and exercise. Luckily, we only had about 30 minutes before we would arrive at the Lantan village. When we arrive, the local handicrafts were brought out. Today, it was an assortment of small bags that were embroidered. I bought a couple of them, thinking that they would be good presents for Kristin & Katie, as I usually buy something for them on each of my vacations.
I desperately wanted to take a bath, but since we stopped for over an hour at the house along the path, the sun was now setting. I mustered up some courage to go down to the river. The water was freezing, but I managed to wash myself before losing all of my body heat. I air-dryed for a while before putting some clothes back on.
Since tonight was the last night, and Pon's friend was teaching in the village he wanted to get wasted. James and I weren't really feeling it, so we avoided the insults after our dinner of duck, duck blood soup, rice, and pumpkin soup. This was the worst meal that I had all week - I'm guessing it's because Pon was adamant about having his favorite dish, so the efforts went into the duck/duck blood soup combo. As I laid down on my mat, Pon pleaded with us to drink for several minutes. At some point in time, I fell asleep, only to wake up to Pon pleading us not to tell his manager. As I assured him not to worry (I didn't care...he was having fun w/ his buddies), all I wanted to do was go back to sleep.
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