For the second time in three days, we had gone to bed telling ourselves it would all be nicer in the morning. As a general rule, we try to arrive in new places during the day, not so much because of safety concerns as much as because it allows you to get a feel for a place, get orientated and see what’s around you before you set off to do any major exploring. It seems that Laos isn’t going to go along with this plan, so we are learning to adjust accordingly.
We awoke on Easter Monday in the small city of Thakhaek. Population: about 30,000. It’s a quiet spot mid-way to Vientiane with not much to attract tourists, which is exactly why we had chosen to stop there. We knew it was more of a late afternoon exploration kind of place, so we lounged and read until almost lunchtime. A wander through the Narnia-wardrobe market (much bigger once you’re in it than what you see when you’re outside) led us to more pho stalls, so we had lunch, followed by shakes at Sabaidee Thakhaek, a nice little restaurant on the way into town. My iced coffee was so rich that I had a belly ache for hours, but it was tasty!
We wandered the town, enjoying the riverfront views of Thailand and the old colonial buildings dotted through the town. The locals were, for the most part, completely disinterested in a pair of falang and we weren’t upset by this. One marked difference was a baby boy, who was sitting on the sidewalk and had spotted our approach, then watched with great interest as we got closer, bobbing his head under or above the little plastic chair in front of him according to what afforded him the better angle. He gave us a big wave and watched us gleefully as we passed.
Our tour of town took up a good three hours, after which we headed back to the room for a break from the heat before heading back into town for dinner. There are spots to buy food all along the waterfront (are you listening, Cornwall Waterfront Committee folks??) and we decided to stop for a mango shake at a place where we’d been greeted earlier in the day by an exceptionally friendly young woman. She saw us coming and gave us a big wave, then took interest in my camera (now working once again after being out of action for 3 days) and took a couple photos of us before letting us pick our spot. When we asked for two mango shakes, her response was “No. Not possible.” Okay, they must have run out of mango. “Only kidding!” This bit of unexpected humour tickled our funny bones. Shakes delivered, she sat and used my camera some more, before disappearing again. I went over to look at what was on the grill, since we had decided that we would snack our way across town instead of having one meal. While holding my hand, she walked me through what was on offer – duck, chicken, dried squid.. How about some crickets? Okay I’ll try one. Crunchy and…surprisingly tasty! She fed one to Rich, too, and then I settled on our snack: one piece of duck and some buffalo. Food arrived and we gnawed our way through as much of the buffalo jerky (complete with grilled hair and skin) as we could, but most of it was rather like trying to eat the sole of your shoe and was, consequently, surreptitiously tossed down the riverbank for the cats and dogs to find. We parted ways with big smiles and a song, as she sang along with the music coming from next door. While I never got her name, this girl was definitely the best thing about Thakhaek. Feeling surprisingly full after our snack, we decided to head home instead of eating our way across town. We made a quick stop at a Thai-style pancake stall for a takeout banana pancake laced with condensed milk (which I’m starting to think might be in a food group of its own, by the way) as a perfect end to our duck-cricket-buffalo meal.
Thakhaek was pleasant; it felt much like Ninh Binh, Vietnam – a small city full of people getting on with their own lives and happy to let you get on with yours. It wasn’t, however, worth more than two nights, so we made plans again to catch an early bus. This time, we were off to Vientiane.
Grateful for: smiles from a stranger
