Day 50
I have never been so relieved to find out that I have a sore throat – when it means I just had an infection, instead of malaria. Chopper didn’t want to give up on his noodle cooking yet, and started practicing at 7am. This time, we had noodles that cooked al dente with perfect sunny side up fried eggs for breakfast.
Since we entered into Laos, I couldn’t help noticing how much responsibilities the kids are taking on. We saw kids no more than 10 year old driving motorcycles; a 5-year-old taking care of her infant sibling, without adult supervision; a group of 8 or 9-year-old children helping out with slaughtering a calf. With 90% of the Laos population working in agriculture, the reality render Child Labor Laws out of place – either you have your children to help out, or you have nothing to feed them.
Feeling much better today, I ventured into the market late in the afternoon. Expecting a closing-down market at sunset, I was surprised to find the market in full swing. The empty lot in the morning was filled with more stalls and buyers. After a stroll, I had to run back to fetch Chopper and a camera. It was a different market now than earlier. “Bushmeat” is common grocery here. Dozens of rats were neatly arranged along side with a couple of squirrels. Some unknown (to us) wild furry animals were “sleeping” peacefully on the table. We were not sure if the pretty birds were sold for meat or for their feathers. Also, there were plenty of “protein buckets” filled with tiny shrimp and fish, crawling bugs (including cockroaches) and halves of little crabs.
This new discovery cast a new light on our dinner later. Feeling adventurous early this morning, I had bought some mysterious items for lunch and dinner. We had consumed what we knew for sure were a bag of horse-radish greens, and barbecued liver for lunch. For dinner we were left with a bag of mysterious minced meat with vegetables, and 2 lumps of something wrapped tightly in banana leaves. Gingerly I unwrapped the banana leaves, bracing myself for some insect delight appearing at the end of the roll. It turned out to be pork (hopefully) skin gelatin. We never find out what was that minced meat was. With some questions that I chose not to dwell upon, we cooked up some rice noodles and stuffed our faces with mysteries before finding any answers. It was a delicious meal nevertheless.
Both of us had troubled sleeping that night. Cuddled up with our stuffed rats that we brought all the way from home as our travel companions, I wonder who are the more absurd.