listening to the rice sing

I read a saying about Laos the other day - Thai plant the rice, Vietnamese harvest the rice and Lao listen to it sing. It's wonderful. Tied in with the Laos expression that you shouldn't feed the baby till it cries, it sums up how wonderfully laid back life is here.

I think I'm going to buy some land. It's about a fifth of an acre and covered in teak trees. (around 40 - all about 10 years old). I'm then going to slowly build a place to stay in - so that I can come over at weekends and clear the land of the rubbish plants, plant some vegetables and fruit trees and generally have it as a weekend getaway from the rest of my life (which isn't exactly stressful - but hey!!!).

I had a cooking class last weekend - I can now cook all my favourite Lao dishes - or rather I could but it's a bit more difficult now that chicken and eggs have all disappeared from the shelves. A couple of people in this town have died from bird flu and (especially as they didn't have any connection with poultry farming - beyond walking past loads of them like we all did here) all birds have been slaughtered in Vientiane and it's now illegal to sell chicken or eggs, so I can cook the pork and fish dishes, but not the chicken one.

The rains of the last few days have gone now (apparently they always come when the mangos are ripe on the trees) and it's now stinking hot - general outfit complimented by a layer of sweat - how attractive! I find myself getting up in the night to shower, just to cool down. At least I don't get woken anymore by the cockerals - it's a complete lie that they just crow to welcome the dawn - everyone I've come across happily crows all night long - and a large percentage of the day too! And they like to compete with one another to see who can make the most noise - or at the most inconvenient time!

Opportunities seem to abound here - I'm being offered some really interesting projects that should prove fun and lucrative - but I'm waiting to clarify the details.

I've got a long weekend coming up soon so I'm thinking of going away for a few days - no definite decision yet, but I fancy checking out Wat Pho - a massive ruined temple in the South of the country.

The pictures have been chosen now for the calendar - apparently I'll need to submit them to the government for approval which sums up so much about this place! The photography is continuing to go well. Some photos of mine are appearing in the Vientiane Times this week and a friend has recommended me to a couple of people with a view to holding an exhibition and sale of paintings.

Really looking forward now to having some visitors - which should happen soon. Can't wait!