Observations from the guest house

15/5/11

Once more we decided to venture into the big bad hot world of Luang Prabang. We went in search of sofas to relax upon. We found two such venues but both only opened in the evening. After 20 minutes of walking we were once again somewhat hot so we opted for a little cafe. We whiled away a few hours drinking white wine and eating lunch whilst playing cards. Unusually I won but we will never know the score as somehow the score card spontaneously combusted when James began to add up the points. However did that happen???

The afternoon saw more guests arrive so once again we were full. Enjoying the kitchen facilities James cooked a tea loaf and dinner was a hodge podge of leftovers. Rather nice if I do say myself!

16/5/11

We have met so many interesting people during our stint as guest house managers. One morning we had three professors sitting round the table discussing post modem theories. We have Christensen an alternative American from Hawaii who has become our writer in residence and general scandalizer. We have had a Swiss lawyer, an lady who has worded for the BBC world service, someone who has worked all over the world with refugees, two people who work for the US state department and have served in Afghanistan and a who host of Germans who work as teachers to IT boffins. As you can imagine the conversation is wide and varied and it has allowed me to observe a number of interesting things

1) Europeans all speak English as a matter of course even to each other when there is another majority language shared between them.

2) Americans are loud and after a number of discussions it transpires that the the common trend is that the loudest person at the table is the most important and most effective at getting his or her point across.

3) The British apologie all of the time and precede most sentences with "I am sorry" or could i trouble you too."

4) when compared to Americans I am shy and retiring and easily shocked. Christean takes great pleasure in saying shocking things an watching me go slightly red.

5) So many travelers now have blogs and James and I have featured in two this week alone.

6) Everyone seams to have an I phone, I pad, or laptop and are continually hooked up to the web. Technology is great- how did we ever travel when there was only post cards and land lines. Well partly we communicated less and we made proper plans. Its amusing to observe people meet at breakfast and organize to meet up in the evening but instead of making firm plans agree to call each other at 6.30. So in essence a plan has been formed and they will meet up probably 30 minutes after the call but in our IT world with our inability to make proper plans the phone company also takes a cut. Ah capitalism at its best!

17/5/11

Apart from observing the world we spent lots of time with the housekeepers son who came to work with her today. Quite what his name was and why he was not at school remains a mystery but we did learn that he can count to 10 in English. We spent a large portion of the day cooking with the boy. First he made pancakes for James, his mother and himself, then we made banana bread followed by pancake enchalarders for our evening meal.

The evening should hold a massage and a trip to the night markets but on our past form there is only a 50% chance of us making it there. Lethargy combined with the heat, the ease of sitting chatting and the ever present potential for rain may mean we make it no further than the front gates. Only time will tell and on that note I am off for my afternoon nap...