Looking after our soul, stomach and fitness
Trip Start
Jun 04, 2006
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Trip End
Sep 04, 2007
Luang Probang, Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Anyway, I got into the room and you do what you need to do until the girl comes in and gives you a cup of tea and asks you to have a shower. She started by massaging my back and then the legs and the arms and eventually the face. The whole thing was going to be for three hours including the foot massage! It was fab. I have to say I was very worried at the beginning, because we had heard how painful these massages can be! But she does ask at the beginning if you want it soft or hard! And whilest you are lying there and have her tiny yet very powerful hands on your back, squeezing the daylight out of you, you know your brain is telling you to say soft, but there is always that little annoying voice inside your head that says: come on don't be a chicken, get a hard one! So I was foolish to say you can go harder! :[
The most fantastic part of it was hearing Steve outside my room, giggling like a little girl as he was being massaged by the guy. He wasn't giggling for reasons that you may think since this was a massage similar to Thai massage. At least I hope not! Since the guy was a man! :) He can't be touched anywhere specially on his back and his neck. So the loud giggles coming out of him, was just hilarious to listen to! Needless to say that 20 minutes into my massage, I was almost reaching the heaven doors and finding myself a good spot on the dream cloud number 1. It went up to 100! ;)
The massage was lush and by the time she reached my legs I was hoping this doesn't end soon. But sadly this like anything you are enjoying in life goes by very quickly. Once it got to my facial massage, they first wash your face with warm water, then scrub it with something which feels like salt and then she puts some ointments on your face and leaves you for about 10 minutes! At this point you are a goner! You have sat on cloud number 50 thinking of nothing but how refreshed you are going to look and the relaxing music also is a bonus.
She comes back in the room and just when you think that she is going to smoothly rub your face again with some more ointments, she puts this cloth which has been soaked in cold cold water on your face! You are not on cloud number 50 anymore! If anything you are wide awake and every single hair on your face is standing tall from the coldness! What in god's name was she doing I thought! She repeats the whole things again of course and again you almost fall sleep when she leaves for yet another 10 minutes, but this time, it wasn't the cold towel that woke me up, it was my desperate need to go to the toilet which was really agitating me by this point! ;(
Eventually she comes back and after just over 2 hours of being pampered by her, she tells me to get dressed and to go downstairs for my foot massage! Of course at this point all I could think about was the toilet! Downstairs I sat on the comfy chair, awaiting another lady to come for my foot massage. Someone perhaps with gentle hands. How wrong was I! :) A man arrives who Steve told me was the same guy massaging him. He was small, but having been in South East Asia and Asia for almost 2 months I am beginning to realise, size doesn't matter! He was very good but very strong hands! I thought I he was about to take my legs and spin me around the room, and not in a dancing fashion!
The foot massage was also great. They use something which looks and feels like needles, but it is not that sharp and they press on your pressure points. My feet felt great and actually by the point I felt like a new person. He even bashed my legs and hit them quite hard! Steve was watching and I think he was taking noted down! God help me! :) At the end of my massage, he asked me to stand up, turn around and sit on the chair! So I did as a good customer does and he gave me yet another back massage which was nothing like the one the lady gave me! I think I was ready to scream. I didn't know whether to cry or to laugh! But it was all good! ;)
After the massage, Steve and I went to Internet, met the others and went out for our dinner. The dinner was at a lady's house, who used to be an ex-intrepidtravel tour leader, who is now married to someone from Laos and has set up her own restaurant. The food was absolutely lush. We started our food with dried leaves, which are like algae, not so much seaweed, apparently the latter is the wrong description of them. And you have several different dips, where you dip these leaves which have sesame on them. It tasted great. The dips are slightly spicy, one in particular. They use a lot of coriander and salads such as lettus and other green leaves. They eat mint like a salad. The main dish was fish. It was divine. In Laos people eat the whole fish. Very much like the northern part of Iran, near the Caspian Sea. We had eyeballs, the spinal cord and even the gills! ;) They are tasty. The eyeball I have tried before many many years ago, it is very much like an egg. The idea is to put it in your mouth, roll it around until it pops!
The fish was cooked by steaming it whilest it is wrapped in banana leaves and it was stuffed with lemon grass and coriander. It was very tasty. For desert we had sticky rice with coconut, which was nice, but I was very stuffed at this point! After dinner we walked through the night market, which is very nice.
This morning a few of us went on an early morning hike to the waterfalls here in Luang Probang. We drove through several small villages, saw lots and lots of small kids and schools. It was a nice break to get away from the busy cities we have been to see lately, it was nice to come across local kids and people in general smiling and waving at you as you went by. It is a beautiful country here, many rivers and valleys and many rice fields. Life is very basic, but people are very happy and beautiful. I have really enjoyed here so far. Quite sad that we are leaving Luang tomorrow, but then I am sure the rest of Lao would be great too.
The hike was about 3 hours. The path was up and down, nothing strenuous, but it was slippery as ice skating! We called it Laos mud skating! At one point it was just easier to get down on all fours and slide on your bum! But mud wasn't what I was thinking about all the way. Oh no, it was leeches! That's what I was worried about! We were told that since the trail goes through jungles and many rice paddies, we will see quite a few leeches! That gave me an incentive to be at the back of the group, since I was told that they tend to fall on you once they have been disturbed and apparently they like the warmth of our bodies, that is why they get hold of you and suck your blood like there is no tomorrow, and then they die! What a stupid way to kill yourself! I mean they suck our blood because they need it and then they die because they have been sucking out blood! I did have a few very tiny ones by the end of the hike. I told the guide that I can't promise not screaming, since I don't like things crawling on me generally, yet alone taking something it's not theirs. But these ones were much smaller than I anticipated, so I managed to keep calm! I was more thinking of those big black ones that look like slugs!
The hike was well worth it though, even if Steve and I regretted leaving our proper hiking shoes back in Thailand since we are going back there and badmouthing the company which made our sandles, they are suppose to be waterproof and made for water sports, but obviously that doesn't include heavy rain and mud! At the end of the hike we reached the waterfall and just before going to see the waterfalls we visited a few Asian Black bears which are being kept at the park and after the waterfall we visited a tiger which was rescued. The tiger was a she and she was 6 years old. Beautiful! We touched her and fed her, of course she was behind bars, but free to go outside in her own area. She was lovely.
We have had quite a lot of activities in the last two days. We have had our showers, we smell good, the clothes are soaking in the sink back in the hotel, and hopefully by tomorrow we can get the mud off of our clothes! :) I think now it is time to feed our stomachs and maybe look around the market! :)
