Last Week in Paksé, Randoms

I can't believe how fast the 6 months in Laos passed. In a week from today I'll be at home, between appointments at the doctor's and the hairdresser's. Still, the past few days here brought some fun Lao life to share...
 
Paksé has a welcoming committee (apart from the omnipresent Tuk Tuk drivers) - she's about 40 cms tall, blonde and has a beautiful smile.

She loves Falangs! I swear, she spots white people, smiles at them and shows them around town. All the tourists love her. Josh and I call her "Schätzeli" ("Shatzeli", in his case). We were worried about her for a while; she was expecting puppies and limped badly during this time. I think she got hit by a car once. Like many dogs here, she doesn't look left and right before crossing a road... Apparently birth went well, but her owners didn't keep the puppies, telling by her teats. Schätzeli seemed to be depressed for a while... But now she looks happy again. And prettier than ever - no limping and her owners even bought her a nice red collar!

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Working off my culinary to do list: I finally got to try bamboo soup. In Lao villages that's what they eat every day. Most falang don't like it. One of my coworkers told me it's because of the bamboo smell, I guess it's also because usually they add quite a bit of padek (remember, the smelly fish sauce that they put into every dish...). My friends didn't add padek, and I really liked the soup! A little spicy, quite salty, and the bamboo was nice and soft!

(image from http://laoscam.blogspot.com/)

Another typical Lao dish I tried this week is Capun (say "capoone"). Thin rice noodles with padek, cabbage, green chilis and green beans. In Lao villages that's what they eat on special occasions. Despite the padek it tasted surprisingly good. And because it's got a similar name to the Graubünden dish "Capuns" I can even remember the name...

(image via yelp.com)

Today we'll go for Lab. The cold meat/intestines bits that you eat with what they call "vegetables" (salad, cabbage and a bunch of different herbs and leaves) and sticky rice.

I love it. But to be honest there's rarely a dish that I don't like, as long as I think it's safe and healthy to eat. (Which, strictly speaking, the vegetables that come with the Lab aren't, but we always go to the same place until someone gets sick...) I just love food, all the different tastes and spices and smells and textures. I didn't like the vegetable though that our staff cooked earlier this week (first it was really sour, then it stuck to my tongue, I almost couldn't swallow it without water!), and I really don't like padek, although I'm getting used to dishes that contain a hint of it.

Gestern konnte ich wieder mal ein neues typisch laotisches Gericht probieren: Capun! Dünne Reisnudeln mit Padek (die Stinkfischsauce), Kohl, grünen Chilis und grünen Bohnen. In laotischen Dörfern offenbar ein typisches Festessen. Trotz Padek schmeckte es überraschend gut. Weil es fast gleich heisst wie das Bündner Gericht Capuns, kann ich mir sogar den Namen merken...

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Yesterday it was the same temperature here and in Aarau:

20min said you even got the thunderstorm that we had at night!

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On Saturday I'm going to have sort of a farewell party at our local restaurant. I made the reservation in Lao, yay :) "One saao, jed muung, sao khung, because khoy pai sai pathet switzaland on sao-haa (point to calendar)". I haven't exactly counted who's going to come, but even starting to I'm easily at 20 people. It's amazing how many friends I have here, and I've only been here for 5 months or so... THANK YOU so much to everyone who was so kind to welcome me here in the Paksé Falang/Lao community! It feels like I've known you for much longer, and I will miss you a lot. And I hope to stay part of the family even when I'm back home-home.