Odai's Village
Posted by Stuart at 06:54 PM on November 30, 2003I'm siting on the train now, watching the rice fields go by. Usually I enjoy seeing the rice fileds, but this time they are stressing me out... only because they are no where near Bangkok and, accoriding to my clock and my ticket, we should be arriving at Hualamphong now but we are at least two hours away.
In any case, it gives me some time to refect on another amazing weekend getaway. Most of yesterday was spent at Odai's village outside of Vietiane. It took us about an hour to make the 30 km trip by truck. But there was so much to look at, the time passed quickly.
The last time I visited Odai's village, I didn't get a chance to explore much. But this time, the four Americans decided to walk around a bit. The village was actually quite big and was located between the main dirt road and the Mekong. On the banks of the Mekong old ladies were busy tending terraced plots of corn, chives, beans, tomatoes, and other staple crops.
Most of the houses in the village were the traditional style: raised on stilts and made of wood. Pigs, chickens, ducks, dogs, and Lao children were everywhere. The animals mostly ignored us, but the children didn't. They were shy at first, but when we smiled at them and said Sabai dee (Hello) they would smile and giggle and follow us. By the end of our tour, we had about 20 dirty but very happy kids on foot and on bike following us down the dirt road. So cute!
Back at Odai's house, we had a lunch of ginger chicken and fish soup before we piled back into the truck and made our way back to the bridge. Now we are sitting at the Nong Khai (Thailand) train station waiting to take the overnight train back to Bangkok.
