The upside of French colonialism

(** I was just scrolling through the blog entries and realized I wrote this one three months ago, saved it as a draft and never published it. Oops! Oh well, here you go! :)

Strolling down the road on our evening in Houay xay, I noticed little dogs running around everywhere, baguettes and french pastries for sale in shops, and little old men knocking around at a French version of bowling for evening entertainment ... where are we again? Here, only minutes across the Mekong river from Thailand, evidence of the strong French influence in this far-flung corner of former French Indochina is unmistakable. And it is definitely welcome.

Michael and I arrived in Laos after a pretty unpleasant trip from Pai, and we decided to catch our breath for a night in the border town rather than follow our plan to immediately depart for our next destination. We didn't expect much from the stop, but we ended up spending a wonderful evening with a really lovely French woman named Saundie who kept commenting that being in Laos was "really a dream come true" for her.

She was fascinated with everything she saw, and she told us that she has grown up with romantic visions of Laos and has always wanted to visit. I can't remember hearing anything about this country when I was young, so talking with her helped me feel her passion for this place. I imagine it must be similar to how I felt when I left America for the first time and landed in Paris, one America's most romanticized cities.

After dinner, the three of us sat by the Mekong for about an hour, talking and watching the murky river roll along. Then we made our way back up the hill to walk along the main road in town. When we got to the road, she started laughing with surprise: she saw two little old men playing pletanque, a very French game she had grown up playing with her family. She asked them about it, and they invited us to play with them. Basically, there's a small ball, and then you throw some larger heavy balls as close to it as possible. It was so much fun, even though I was really bad at it.

All in all, I had an unexpectedly great time in this little stop-over town, and I can't wait to see the rest of this country!

written by  katieandmichael on April 27, 2009 from Houayxay, Laos
from the travel blog: Katie and Michael's Travel Blog
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