Sunset Guesthouse as seen from Nong Khiaw boat landing:

On a whim the cat decided to revert back to ‘village style’ & bathe in the late afternoon when the sun was still out, so that it could warm up & dry long cat fur by basking in the sunshine like all cats do. It sat down in the al fresco section of the Sunset Guesthouse restaurant to catch up on writing its journal, with a view of this:

The cat’s favourite side of the river…

Hauling big fat sack-loads of sand:

Did not realise that this shape was a lady taking a break…

…until she started walking again:

Weaving walls out of strips of bamboo:

The rhythm of machete striking hollow bamboo stem is one of the cat’s favourite ‘village sounds’, just like the ‘zzzzzt-zzzzzt-zzzzzt’ of machete slicing banana trunk to

Nong Khiaw boat landing:

You grow your vegetables & sun your laundry by the river…

& build even more boats & wash even more loads of laundry (bottom right) & bathe in it…

KS, who runs this place at the top of the Nong Khiaw boat landing, hanging out with 2 Nong Khiaw guys:

The cat had excused itself to walk away & take this photo (which it would have taken anyway) in order to get away from endless invitations to join a big fat Lao Lao drinking session with not just these 3 guys, but all the rest of the Nong Khiaw boatmen too. It worked, & when the cat stepped

I found this video from youtube by the poster of her trip to Talat Sao (Morning Market) and Talat Khua Din. As a former resident of Vientiane I knew these two markets quite well. My mother often took me to the Morning Market and then Khua Din market almost daily. Looking at the food photos [...]