February 17, 2007

181206 morning in Chiang Khong

View of Huay Xai across the Mekong from Ban Tammila Guesthouse:

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Sai Klang Road (sounds too much like 'sai kang' to the Hokkien-literate =P), Chiang Khong's main street, was empty save for the odd tuktuk or motorbike piled with kids heading for school:

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Beautiful (Tai Lue style?) house at corner of main street & soi 2:

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Wat Phra Kaew, decorated with Tai Lue 'banners', โคมหูกระต่าย khom1 hu2 kra3 tai3 (rabbit ear lanterns) & Tai Lue style lions that look more like mane-less dragon-headed dogs:

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Someone's garden:

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Breakfast at a tiny porridge place just north of soi 1, somewhere opposite the internet cafe closest to Ban Tammila:

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Wonderful thick pork porridge with hard boiled egg + century egg + bowlful of nice crispy stuff to mix with the porridge - popular with locals, many whom stopped by on motorbikes to place large takeaway orders of several packets.

cat: เท่าไหร่จ้าว thao4 rai3 jao4?
owner: ซาวบาท sao1 baht3

Fishing out a green 20 baht note, the cat realised that it had 'unconsciously' understood the Northern Thai dialect & Lao word for 'twenty'.

The only Lao the cat knew was what it managed to remember from flipping through pages 292-7 of Lonely Planet Laos (2005 edition). Was banking on broken Thai + Chinese + sign language & pointing + pictionary-style drawings to get through the next 2 weeks...but now there was a small glimmer of hope for linguistic survival =)

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