Sao Darly

For dinner we had a special treat from Pakse. Aunt Tou asked her relatives to make a special batch of Som Moo (Lao soured pork sausage) and sent them as a gift to Vientiane.

Aunt Kian grilled the Som Moo and later made Sao Noi Disco to surprise me. Of course since she can’t eat the dish raw and doesn’t want me to try my dancing with Sao Noi Disco, Aunt Kian made sure these girls were not dancing too wildly.

I spent my morning taking care of Sidney and later took a walk to Gok Pho market to order a batch to Lao green papaya salad and Lao sticky rice noodle salad. Aunt Kian prepared the pickled fish she bought in Pakse and heated the famous savan ping kai for us.

For breakfast I ate khao thom made by Aunt Kiane and the rest of the relatives for the Morning Alms Offering (Giving) after Grand-Mama’s funeral. It is a tradition to give out the left-over to relatives and friends.

I found it comforting and was reminded of the same old tradition from my sister’s funeral when I was a young kid in Laos. So much memories and so much emotions but so loss of words to express my feelings at that moment.

W’re back to the long adventure of my two months in Laos. I woke up to another day of November rain in Vientiane. Aunt Kiane finally came back from Pakse from Grand-Mama’s funeral at the crack of dawn. It was not too long before the sky started to pour down on us.

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A very inspirational message that is worth sharing with you. Steve Jobs, CEO and co-founder of Apple and Pixar gave a Commencement speech on June 12, 2005 at Stanford University. He urges the graduates to pursue their dreams and see the opportunities in life’s setbacks and even death itself.

I hope you will find his message useful in your life.

Connecting the dots: Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

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For dinner Aunt Phone made what she called “Koy Moo” or Lao minced meat salad using pork. I don’t normally eat pork or beef for that matter but I when Aunt Phone made her favorite dish I had to give it a try. Just a few bites to make her happy.

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For lunch it was tum maak houng or green papaya salad from Gok Pho market and grilled chicken from down the street. Well, it was more like certain parts of chicken that I was not quite fond of unless it is chicken liver from Go Chicken Go.

It’s time to get back to the posting of my two months in Laos. So many photos I have taken and so many clips recorded. Now I must share those old memories and make room for a new one.

It was a day of rest for me on day 29 in Laos. I had long night of attending a wedding at the last minute. I was invited by Sidney’s grandmother after our shopping time at Lao ITECC.

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Robbie Williams – Bodies

God gave me the sunshine,
Then showed me my lifeline
I was told it was all mine,
Then I got laid on a ley line
What a day, what a day,
And your Jesus really died for me
Then Jesus really tried for me

UK and entropy,
I feel like its f*** me
Wanna feed off the energy,
Love living like a deity
What a day, one day,
And your Jesus really died for me

I guess Jesus really tried for me
Bodies in the Bodhi tree,
Bodies making chemistry
Bodies on my family,
Bodies in the way of me
Bodies in the cemetery,
And that’s the way it’s gonna be

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I didn’t do anything spectacular this weekend and spent most of my free time adding MP3 to my new iPod shuffle. This song by Rihanna is making the cut. I got 4GB of music to keep me happy whenever I am in the mood for some good tunes.

Russian Roulette – Rihanna

Take a breath
Take it deep
Calm Yourself
He says to me
If you play
You play for keeps
Take the gun
And count to 3

Im sweating now
Moving slow
No time to think
My turn to go

And you can see my heart beating
You can see it through my chest
Said Im terrified, but Im not leaving
I know that I must pass this test
So just pull the trigger

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