It was Marie and she said 'Er Chan, i think we need your help with something...'. I followed her into her room where she and Sophia were standing around Sophia's rucksack. Sophia then said there was 'a bug' inside one of the compartments. When i asked what type of 'bug' (like a beetle or a cockroach?) they just said a 'big bug'... Why i asked is that I can handle most things (snakes, spiders, scorpions) but I can't stand cockroaches (it comes from my early memories of the huge cockroaches in Sri Lanka and their habit running up your leg or flying at your face)... but i didn't want to display any cowardice in front of them, so i zipped the compartment shut and took the rucksack downstairs and outside. When i opened it, a medium sized cockroach crawled out...i was keeping it together till Sophia saw it and started shrieking behind me, which freaked me out as well..at that point, one of the male hotel staff quickly dispatched the beast under his slipper...still,i got a few brownie points from the girls for my 'perceived' bravery in the matter :)
After this we went back to their room, but Sophia was still upset. When i asked why, they said her camera had been stolen. I tried to say that everyone has stuff stolen at some point but she was still upset as all the photos she had taken on her travels were on it..
I suggested we should retrace her steps that day and go back to each place before going to the police which we did. In the last place (where she had been for a pedicure) we found the camera...and she was so happy..we all had a celebratory pizza and drink that night....
The next evening, the Canadian girls wanted to go to the night market so i went along with them. They apologised profusely for dragging a guy along and i did moan initially, as is expected behaviour for a guy...(but secretly I enjoyed it...I have to say, this market was amazing, much better than the ones in Chiang Mai & Bangkok, Thailand). There were beautifully embroidered silk cloths, clothes for young children, ornaments, lights etc. I ended up buying lots of silk cloths to use as throws for beds. Each silk throw was just over GBP 7 each, after haggling. They cost 8 times this in John Lewis back at home..i bought so much i had to post it back but i made sure i didn't haggle too hard, as these people are quite poor...
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We had to go to the obligatory cake stall too, which i suppose few girls can resist..the chocolate cake was delicious but expensive (for Laos)...
That night, Sophia, still felt too ill to eat dinner, so I went out to dinner with Marie. We went to the 'Lao Lao Bar and Restaurant' which was well known for its 'Lao barbeques'..
They bring a charcoal stove and a hot plate and install it in the middle of the table...the hot plate has a kind of 'moat' around the centre where you put meat stock and vegetables, garlic (and chilli if you want to) to create a soup. A piece of solid pork fat was placed in the centre where the meat was to be cooked and them strips of water buffalo were barbequed on the centre for 3 minutes...you can see the white chunk of pork fat in the picture below..very unhealthy but made the meat taste DELICIOUS!!
The waiter showed us how to do it first and then left us to do it which was great fun...
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I found that Marie did most of the cooking while I did most of the eating... beautiful !! :)
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