15 April 2010 - Beautiful villages and crazy bridges!

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At breakfast I play it safe and go for the bread with jam, butter and cheese. I discreetly pocket the cheese, intending to buy some bread later to eat with it (desperate situation and all that ...) I want to visit some local villages but the tour operator is quoting a huge price. I manage to find a moto driver who speaks English (thanks to good old Wikitravel) and show him the brochure for the tour operator. He agrees to the same tour for less than half the price. We book in for 2.00 and in the meantime I eat a mango purchased at the market yesterday and that’s my lunch sorted (kind of).

The tour is great! We cross the bridge to the other side of the river and it’s a totally different world. We spend ages driving through some of the most beautiful village areas I have been to. We drive for miles past canals, through greenery and it actually feels as if we are in a gigantic park. We also go over some crazy bridges (I have to shut my eyes when it comes to crossing a canal via wooden planks laid across it).

We visit a coconut candy shop and my entrance sets up a flurry of excitement amongst the workers (apparently tourists rarely visit this factory). One lady runs ahead to let the rest of the workers know I am coming and as soon as I enter they start talking and pointing at me and I just grin back at them helplessly. They keep pointing at my legs and I cannot figure out whether it is my legs that are such a subject of interest, or my shorts (they are actually a pair that Rik bought for himself and I cut them down so I could wear them - okay, so they are a bit on the baggy side ...) Anyway, the ladies give me coconut candy which is still being cut so is hot and very delicious (I doubt it tastes as nice when set). As I am busy eating the candy, one lady takes advantage and starts rubbing at my arm; the guide explains that they are wondering why I am dark if I am from England. Aaah!

Anyway, it is soon time for us to go. One of the ladies is talking to the moto driver and he tells me that they want me to stay longer (it seems the novelty hasn’t worn off yet), but he explains to her that we have to get on with the rest of the tour. We carry on driving and nearly go off a bridge (we would have landed neatly in a canal). We stop at the house of the driver's friend and I have some coconut juice, lying in a hammock. Local people from the village pop over to take a look at me and I start wondering if I should set myself up as a local attraction. Everybody is really friendly though, I have got used to the attention and it doesn’t feel as weird as it did when I first arrived.

In the evening I am really hungry and desperate for something other than rice and salad. I speak to the lady at reception, saying I am vegetarian, and she gives me the name of a place round the corner. It is a restaurant? She shakes her head. Cafe? Nope. I set off anyway and find the place. It actually looks like a grocery shop with vegetables being sold at the front. I can definitely smell food cooking, though. I gather it’s an informal place where they do you a take away or something on request. There is no way I am going to be able to communicate what I want so I return to the hotel for some rice and salad.

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