Attapu 13/03/06

Ok, well here not only is there no wifi, but there is no internet access, so you will be waiting a while for these posts.
After yet another bum numbing bus ride I find myself in sleepy little Attapu, they don't get many "falangs" here, I'm getting stared at a great deal, I find the kids all wave and practice their english (which is exceptionally limited) while the parents just stare until you say hello, then they have great big wide smiles, and there are lots of little girls smoking great big bongs! In fact it seems more women then men smoke around here. (what exactly they are smoking I'm not sure mind you, perhaps those opium dens from Vang Vieng have migrated a long way south).

It is beautiful here, I went down to the river and played frisbee with a band of kids for several hours, we all ended up swimming about in the river I managed to not drown any of them, it's amazing how many small children can sit on you before you sink! I succeeded eventually escaping up to the restaurant above the banks of the river to watch the sunset, it was one of those great pink ones with the clouds in just the right place to make the sky light up, the clouds themselves wore gold halos, embarassingly perfect really.

N.J.

Next day
The market here is really cool, not a souvenir in sight, it's all food, domestic appliances, and clothing, for the first time I have had trouble finding baguettes. I am kind of over rice and the fish soup I had for dinner, I can live without ever having to sit through again.

I hired a motorbike today and wandered out to Pa-am, which apparently is one of the most bombed areas of the "Ho chi min trail". there is lots of new and interesting uses that folks around here have put old bomb casings and other war junk to, there is even an old surface to air missile still in it's launcher in one place. Many of the villages here are tribal and the people can't read so my already limited communication avenues have become further reduced. From there I went on to "Dong Ampham" nature reserve where there are still lots of wild tigers and UXO so I didn't venture too far off the track, saw lots of birds and believe it or not actually caught a glimpse of a tiger, (that was close enough for me!).

Got back to Attapu in time to watch the sunset from my favourite restaurant, the kids here are amazingly athletic, they can do a somersault back flip from a still standing position in waist deep water, there is no problem with childhood obesity here! The restaurant decided to have karaoke tonight, not in Lao/Thai, not in English but in French, oh my god! thankfully no-one asked me to sing (it was pretty funny actually), Not a bad way to spend my birthday. There was some mad vietnamese bloke who wanted to marry me so I ended up showing him the photo of Glen and his Dad from which he assumed Glen was my baby and his Dad my Husband, I'm becoming extremely glad I carry that photo around with me!

You know your becoming acclimatised when it becomes quite normal to see Women driving their motorbikes with one hand and using the other to hold an umbrella, when choosing an ice cream flavour between the one with kidney beans and the one with sweet corn in it does not even phase you, when kids in wooly hats in 30 degree heat seems reasonable.

There seems to be as many Vietnamese as Lao people around here, weirdly they have morning aerobics on tv the same as in many western countries, but where we have blonde women barely contained by their strips of lycra, they have young girls, I assume this is in order to desexualise it, somehow it makes me feel exactly the opposite and think of how much paedophiles would enjoy this kind of programming.

N.J.