Heart-land
Priceless Lao T-Shirt Philiosphy:
MIXING WITHOUT RESTRAINT BEING DARRING WHEN NO-ONE CAN SEE SHE PLAYS WITH ALL HER POSSIBLES.
I'm coming home now; I've found the meaning of life.
Bi-Cultural?
Walking past one of the many tacky TV bars in Vang Vien, Nam spotted a Good Friend waiting tables. The Friend greeted us both with a wide smile and a hearty back pat for Nam. Despite the fact the friend was as small and lean as a 10 year old, he had an impressive semi-full moustache. Standing next to him I felt like a giantess; I could snap him in two & dip him in my tea like a sweet biscuit.
Tiny ‘tache guy fussed around us, taking orders for Beer Lao (for Nam) and Red Wine N’ Coke (for classy me*). He and Nam chatted spiritedly & I asked Nam ‘Won’t he join us for a drink’.
Over the three days of our stay in VangVien the wife remained elusive; an imagined figure of dominant scorn… but Tiny kept appearing like a magic fairy. I would look up from the table and see him draped across Nam with doe-y eyes, or perched on Nam’s lap, arms flung about his neck.
Walking back one evening I ventured to say to Nam ‘You know, in England that would seem very gay….’ He threw me a reproachful look as if I were a nasty child who’d just yelled ‘POO!’ in class. He shook his head, ‘No it’s not like that’.
I quickly shut up. Either I’m totally failing to grasp the local culture or I’m totally failing to grasp the obvious.
* The wine here is so horrible the only way to make it remotley palable is by mixing with cola.
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