July 24,

By 0630, we were up and about. I used the last of my coffee 😔. We took our Javas down and got breakfast. We were served our fruit plates and a purple glass of juice – all was tasty! I had a pancake with sliced banana and a serving of honey. Jeff had the omelet with onion, tomato, and chicken with the baguette. There were more people eating this morning… the Laotian guy from yesterday; another guy from yesterday (he did not talk with anyone); and a French family of three. The Laotian guy spoke with us, but others kept to themselves.

We finished and went back up to our room to figure out our adventure today. Just as we were ready to head out it started raining a bit, but after 30 minutes of down time it stopped so we went out. We retraced our steps basically from yesterday. We noticed both rivers were down from yesterday – the Mekong maybe a foot or so and the Nam Khan maybe five-six feet. But both are still higher than when we first arrived. On the Nam Khan, some of the construction areas were visible. But some embankment areas have been washed away, especially around a newly concreted stairway that allowed for easy access down to the river’s boats. We also saw at least two boats stranded up on land. It is going to take a lot of manpower to get them back to the river level!

We went to a couple of other Wats and stopped at a place for me to sample coffee… no, no, no. Jeff found another one, Aromdee, so we went there. Aromdee is a Laotian word for delightful, and it simply put was delightful. We next went by DHL, and then the post office. We are going to have to mail our pocket knives to ourselves because the train system here in Laos doesn’t allow them in your baggage! We never found anyone at the DHL office, but the post office should work. We also went by Tamarind Restaurant – not for food, but to check out a cooking class. They had an opening and we will go Saturday! Looking forward to that.

On our way back to our place, we stopped at Sokdee for lunch. I was jittery from all my coffee, and thought eating might help. (too Mucch CAFfEine, maaaN😵‍💫). Anyway, we both had a Garlic Chicken and rice. So Good!! It cost us 110,000 ($5.12). Back at our place we both had a siesta. (I did not sleep long last night- having been awake since 0350; caffeine buzz finally was wearing off, and food coma setting in.)

Around 1745, we went back out. It was pretty overcast, but not raining. We went to a storytelling of Laos Folklore, called Garavek Storytelling. We paid 140,000 LAK each, which was $6.52 each. We entered into a room/stage set up with two chairs and a drum with a backdrop of a painting done in 2014. We were the first ones, but eight more people filed in, one family had the only child of 5 or so. At 1832, the two performers showed up. One was the storyteller and the other, a musician playing the Lao National Instrument – a Khene, or a long mouth organ of bamboo pipes.

The musician started the program by playing a piece. The instrument continuously plays with the player breathing in and out… like a didgeridoo, but sounds closer to a clarinet. Then the storyteller started with a riddle. Some guessed an answer, but all were incorrect. He said he would reveal it at the end! He began his stories starting with the folklore of the beginning of the Khene. As he proceeded through this story, it lead to another story then another. Sometimes he was accompanied by the musician and sometimes the storyteller played the drum with the musician for dramatic effect. It was enchanting! He was a fantastic weaver of words!! And to boot, it was all in English! At the end he revealed the riddle’s answer and everyone applauded. It was a fantastic experience. We left walking back the mile to our place. What a great day!