6
November, Ban Nasangleck to Thalat, 32km
Khounsapnamngum Guest House 100,000LAK
A cooler
day under an overcast sky, but incredibly humid still. We made a late start,
pottering through the countryside on a narrow, sometimes potholed road. We had
anticipated a flat stretch again today, but our road undulated through hills
lush under bamboo and bush. The tiniest hamlets sport a Buddhist temple, sometimes
a little drained of colour, sometimes brightly painted and shining with gold
and mirror mosaics. We saw a baby fast asleep in a tiny hammock, and
fat-bellied water buffalo strolling along the road. We saw men playing boules beside
a restaurant on the river, popular with school kids released at noon to lunch there.
We saw a village gym, concrete weights lying idle beside a wooden bench and men
painting a long shallow boat in bright yellow. We saw an octogenarian squatting
to peel something for dinner over a metal basin and another cycling one-handed into town
under an umbrella held high. We saw a man feeding fish on his fish farm and a
little boy stripping shoots by pushing them through a hole drilled in a wooden
plank. We saw a man grooming his fighting rooster and frangipani blooming
white. No-one recognised the name of the village for which we were headed so we
did not make it there. Instead we are sleeping tonight in a guest house beside
a wide river opposite the town of Thalat.
Between Ban Nasangleck and Thalat
Village gym
Between Ban Nasangleck and Thalat
Between Ban Nasangleck and Thalat
Between Ban Nasangleck and Thalat