The following morning we all rose early and clambered into minibuses for the eight out trip to Vang Vieng. We drove through the astounding scenery, stopping at a mountain peak for lunch. The mountain translates as 'high as the sky mountain' and I could see why.
We then passed some small local markets, where they seemed to love to pickle! You could get bears feet, snakes and scorpions all floating in yellows and browns.
We eventually arrived at our small village and Tom and I were dropped off at our house. We had dinner and a tour before heading to the local hall for a dance. The children showed us some traditional dances before we were invited to learn.
Bear in mind now the average Laos man is around 5'5. I'm 6'3.
A small girl of around seven or eight trotted up and offered me her hand, I smiled and stood up. She then took two steps back and with an exasperated expression blew out hard from her mouth and slapped her hand to her forehead, saying a couple of words to her friend next to her. I imagine it was something like "look at the size of this bugger!"
I learnt the steps easily enough and had a good time. The song finished and we sat back down. Another started and again after a display we were collected by the children. This time however all the other, clearly less menacing looking tourists got collected, children fighting over them. I was left with three little girls pushing each other towards me, none wanting to get to close to the man in fluorescent shorts. Eventually I went off with a young lad who had been causing trouble outside. He knew the dance even less than I did so we ad-libbed. Before long we were raising the roof and lawn mowering about the place. I even cracked out a modified puppet master, one that didn't involve head or neck movements.
The whole evening was great fun and after the kids went to bed Tom and I went back with Tong our guide and our host Sim and played some cards, with a punishment drink of beer and water for the loser, high stakes!
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