I should have written about this when I was actually in Luang Prabang, but we stayed on the most marvelous street for getting a slice of the local life. It was just across a major street from the morning produce and meat market, and appeared to be a prep kitchen for both that and for the outdoor cafeteria next to the night market.

Every morning when we woke up and ventured out, there was a new scene there. One morning, more than a dozen men were butchering chicken carcasses, guts in one giant tub, meat in another, cleaving away into piles of thigh and wing quarters. It was gruesome but sort of workmanlike and comfortably plain, and I didn’t see any actual killing. Another afternoon, a man had a live bamboo rat (it looks like an albino capybara baby, but uglier). He was dangling it on a string by one of its feet; the next day, the Elegant Frenchman told us he saw roast rat for sale in the market.

Other days, I saw masses of vegetables being chopped and steamed. And sometimes we would come back past the midnight tourist curfew, and see the alley crowded with card tables and cards, people eating and playing and smoking with happy late-night faces. then the professor and I would have to climb the fence back into our guesthouse out of their sight.

I will say here that the only time I ever got food poisoning in Luang Prabang was from a fruit juice in a relatively fancy bar. No problems with the street food ever. Unlike Koh Tao, where my stomach wasn’t right for much of our stay. Now that we are in Koh Phagnan, I am hoping that improves.

I will give a shout out to one restaurant in Koh Tao, though: Boomerang. When the lovely proprietress learned that I was feeling ill, she made me a special “boomerang stir fry” of vegetables with fried rice to settle my stomach. They may have been the most delicious vegetables I have ever eaten, which if you know me is saying a LOT. The fried rice was also amazing and so soothing. the professor also said his dish was perhaps the best Thai food he has ever eaten. We also liked Su Chili, though it wasn’t as astonishing.

We are presently in Ban Chalok Lam, a little fishing village on the north coast of Koh Phagnan, eating a little lunch before heading to Haad Khuat, aka Bottle Beach. We’ll be staying there for the next few days. I am imaging it must be very,very quiet there, because it is already small and drowsy here. Which sounds great!

– The Private Eye