The Day of the Sweat

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Ahhhhhhhh, today was sweat day. But before I develop why, a quick update: yesterday I was supposed to go to this village called Ponsavang, but I woke up to torrential rain and thought that a 10 hour bus ride in the winding mountains road via a local bus (read rusty and about to fall apart) was not a good idea. So instead I jumped into a "VIP" bus (read not rusty and about to fall apart) headed for Luang Prabang (Laos' secong biggest town and also a piece of heaven on earth).
When boarding the bus, it appeared they had sold 3 seats too many, and after thinking about what to do for 25 mns, in the end hey presto they found a solution, they put 3 wooden chairs in the middle of the aisle!! A bum-killing journey for 3 sad travellers..
I felt a little bit guilty because most people had booked this trip at least a day early, whereas I had only decided to jump into it a couple of hours before departure... So basically, I was one of the last ones to have booked but still had a comfy seat 😊
The trip was 6 or 7 hours but the bus was comfortable (it was a VIP bus yaknow!!) and the scenery once again amazing (yes I know I keep going on about the scenery and should probably start to show some pictures or no one will believe I am actually in Laos, maybe i am just sitting in a cellar in Hong Kong PRETENDING to be adventurous 😊
Once in LP, I found a nice little guest house overlooking the river, and fell asleep quite early after such a ride (but even a bit tired I still managed to listen to my Inner Organiser Voice and booked a cooking class and a two day kayaking-cycling treck..).
So today I woke up quite early (yes you see you are not the only ones people) to go to a Lao cooking class. It was really cool, my fellow cooks were 2 Australians and one American, a very friendly atmosphere. Hey Csaba if you read this, maybe you already sampled the food of the chef from this school, as he used to have a restau in Budapest.
First we went to the market, where there was really odd stuff like fried maggots, jellied blood, and kello kitty bath towesl (which one was scariest?). Then headed back to school where we made:
- Chicken in Coconut curry
- Fish in Ginger Sauce
- Chicken salad
- Spring rolls
- Sticky rice in Coconut and Mango.
Basically, the base of Lao cooking is ginger, lemongrass, galangal (a root like ginger). Then you mix these + sauces like fish sauce, oyster sauce, soy sauce, add a bit of greens, and voila, you end up with fab food. Always served with sticky rice, which as its name subtly hints, is a rice of a sticky sort. Yeeeeees, I can make you some one day to show off my new Lao cooking skills, but for that you have to come and visit me in HK 😊
More on Lao cooking a bit later, as today was the Day of Sweat, and I need to go to bed..
After the cooking class (where you actually end up doing more EATING than cooking) I felt over stuffed and decided to do a bit of exercice, and thus rented a bike. It was already nearly 2 pm, the sun was high up in the sky, and most sensible people who opt for a bit of exercise at that time go on a gentle stroll in the shade of the trees, or a little bike ride along the river. But not me, oh no. I decided that it was a really good idea to start a 32 km journey to see some waterfalls. Waterfall = mountain = windy road in the mountain = difficult as hell when you are biking on a city lady bike, at 2 pm in big sunshine heat. But I still decided to try. I spent half of the time pushing up my bike on the mountain road (as it was going up a lot of the time). And every two minutes a tuktuk laden with tourists (slackers! they used a motorised vehicle to see the waterfalls!!) would stop by me and ask me if I was ok and wanted a lift (as in "you crazy foreign lady, you know you are never going to make it??"). The tourists were all cheering me on too.
In the end I did not make it, I stopped after 11 km and turned around, so in the end I did do 22 km on a very steep winding mountain road and I did feel good! (and sweaty!!). I guess I will have to take a taxi to see the waterfalls next time.
Then in the evening I headed out to the Red Cross (La Croix Rouge) centre where they have a sort of public bath in place, so for 4 USD, I went to this super nice smelling herbal sauna (more sweating!), and then had an hour long massage, which was amazing.
So now I have not got a drop of sweat in my body, and I feel goooooood. And tireeeeeed. So now it's time to head to bed (especially as tomorrow another early start is planned for the kayaking/mountain biking trek. And apparently we will sleep in a real tribal village and everything, I shall report).
More on Luang Prabang also to follow once I snap out of my sweat bubble.

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Comments

[ElisabethV]

This post is a dupe
This post was initially lost when this website crashed, so the next post re-tells it all again. Just thought would explain so you won't think I have lost my sanity. (or just trying to pretend I have some sanity left for those who still have that illusion).