No actually they taste just like bugs, as you would expect from a large grasshopper: crunchy on the outside, tender and juicy on the inside. Yes, days two and three atRivertime were quite the experience. We traveled upriver to a series of floating restaurants with our newfound friends Lorraine and Kevin, then debate the finer points of a menu that offered such delectable treats as crickets, buffalo skin, ants egg, giant waterbug sauce and the aforementioned cicadas. On Kevin's urging, we tried the cicadas, fried with garlic and served with a spicy fish sauce.
Today featured a traditional alms-giving ceremony in the village across the road. We were special invitees to the event that turned into quite the liquor-fest and dancing to the Laos beats of a 6000 Watt stereo system. (For 50 people). I chugged the local whisky Lao Lao for the first time, at about 9:00 am. Why wait to party in Laos when the beer comes out by the handful.
I am writing now from Vientiane at the Hotel Beau Rivage as we plot the next step of our journey. To my right in the mighty Mekong that looks like a creek in the dry season but will expand about a hundred-fold in three months. We hope to leave forLuang Prabang tomorrow but if we cannot find a flight we'll stay an extra day in Vientiane. If we cannot get to Luang Prabang we'll probably take the bus to Vang Vieng and chill out with the dirt-bag hippies for a while, drinking Beerlao and floating down the Nam Ngum on an innertube.
That's all for now, please excuse me while I extricate this little grasshopper leg from my teeth. So far everything has worked out better than expected and Laos has proven to be as wonderful as its reviews.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment