We didn't have to stay in the hotel for dinner. Whew. It was such a refreshing thing to be out in the open smelling the streets instead of carpets and air conditioning.
I haven't been to Laos for a long time. It is still familiar, but the town centre has changed so much. The streets have become touristy. Many more cars zoom by on the narrow roads. But there aren't any fast food outlets in the country, yet. Yay! What I really wanted to do, was to walk along the streets where the cafes were still open. But I guess I couldn't very well leave the group. I was tired- so the thought of sneaking out wasn't dominating my mind. Getting into bed to sleep was priority.
We were taken out to a quaint little cafe called La Terrase along Rue Nokeokoumane where locals and expats went to for 'good' western-style food. Cream of pumpkin soup! Mmm. But it held more cream than pumpkin bits. Eeeks. We all skipped the cakes, tiramisu and whatnots. There were tubs of homemade ice-cream in various flavors. We each chose a scoop. Mine was an intriguing mesh of ginger and honey. I enjoyed it! I could taste the freshly grated ginger that didn't sting the tastebuds. The honey rounded it off nicely. Very well made.
Our hosts regaled us with their experiences of living in Laos. I learnt that to get the familiar household products available in Singapore, I'd have to make regular drives across the border to Thailand to get a Tesco and stock up on groceries. The easiest conversation topics on a dining table of strangers (Singaporean) thrown together would revolve around food, religion (churches) and education. Those topics exactly what our table spoke about.
Then conversation turned to school systems and kicked off a lively discussion about the 3 generations of children growing up within the Singapore system; each of us contributing our memories to it. Given how rigid our education system is and what it means to excel academically, I guess it isn't much of a surprise that we went to the schools with similar academic focus or that our parents could possibly even be schoolmates.
I haven't been to Laos for a long time. It is still familiar, but the town centre has changed so much. The streets have become touristy. Many more cars zoom by on the narrow roads. But there aren't any fast food outlets in the country, yet. Yay! What I really wanted to do, was to walk along the streets where the cafes were still open. But I guess I couldn't very well leave the group. I was tired- so the thought of sneaking out wasn't dominating my mind. Getting into bed to sleep was priority.We were taken out to a quaint little cafe called La Terrase along Rue Nokeokoumane where locals and expats went to for 'good' western-style food. Cream of pumpkin soup! Mmm. But it held more cream than pumpkin bits. Eeeks. We all skipped the cakes, tiramisu and whatnots. There were tubs of homemade ice-cream in various flavors. We each chose a scoop. Mine was an intriguing mesh of ginger and honey. I enjoyed it! I could taste the freshly grated ginger that didn't sting the tastebuds. The honey rounded it off nicely. Very well made.
Our hosts regaled us with their experiences of living in Laos. I learnt that to get the familiar household products available in Singapore, I'd have to make regular drives across the border to Thailand to get a Tesco and stock up on groceries. The easiest conversation topics on a dining table of strangers (Singaporean) thrown together would revolve around food, religion (churches) and education. Those topics exactly what our table spoke about.
Then conversation turned to school systems and kicked off a lively discussion about the 3 generations of children growing up within the Singapore system; each of us contributing our memories to it. Given how rigid our education system is and what it means to excel academically, I guess it isn't much of a surprise that we went to the schools with similar academic focus or that our parents could possibly even be schoolmates.
2 comments:
Isn't it warm in Laos? The food you mentioned feel rather wintery, esp the soup!
kikare: not now. it's quite warm. it was cold last week. but apparently during this period,it can go down to 14degrees or so.
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