Rockin' Out in Xam Neua

After sleeping for a solid 14 hrs and fully recovering from our crazy adventure crossing the border and getting to Xam Neua, we were ready to explore. We started the morning with a glorious cup of Laos coffee with sweet milk near our hotel and ventured around the small town to find breakfast. We crossed a somewhat sketchy footbridge and made our way towards the town food market. The market was beautiful, rows of tables stretched beneath a tent showing off all the bounty from local gardens and surrounding farms. Off to the right was the town meat market, we were warned that we may see animals here that we’d prefer to see running wild in the jungle, so we decided to hold off until we’d eaten breakfast in case the sight made us lose our appetites. By the afternoon when we’d returned, the selection was picked through although we saw lots of pig heads and a roasted dog!

"Mackenzie, stop rocking the bridge!!"

After seeing everything there was to see in town and eating a late lunch we decided to retire early to work on the blog while we had a good internet connection. However, on our way back to the hotel from the local cooler where we’d stopped to buy some beer, we were flagged down by a group of locals who’d been drinking beer by the river all afternoon. They saw we had beer and invited us to drink with them, after exchanging a couple ‘cheers’ and downing a glass or two of Beerlao, we realized that although most of the guys could understand English, they couldn’t really speak it. As is customary when we can’t communicate well in English, Mackenzie nudges Caitlin (dubbed our Lord of Language) to ask “Parlez vous Francais?” and to our delight the response was ‘Oui!’

Our new friends

Through some jumbled French and broken English we found out that we were hanging out with a Laos rock band from the capital Vientiane, here in Xam Neua to play a show that night. We were stoked when they invited us to attend the show as VIPs with them and we didn’t hesitate to accept the invitation.  We ended up spending the rest of the afternoon hanging out with them by the river, drinking beers and doing our best to get to know one another. At dusk the guys put together a makeshift BBQ, tossed on a chicken and asked us to join them for a real ‘Laos’ dinner and how could we say no! We started the meal with what looked like a large pizza tray filled with a blood red liquid substance, lots of cilantro and possibly mushrooms or liver? We were all a little nervous to try it, as they sat the tray down in the middle of our circle and handed us spoons but Cait braved the questionable substance with little reservation and Mackenzie and Sam soon followed. The dish was a spicy one, and tasted mainly of spiciness and cilantro. Sam and Cait liked it well enough and took another spoonful. Unfortunately for Mackenzie, she is allergic to cilantro – not in the serious sense, more so that it simply tastes like soap – needless to say, she did not like it. They heated up some sticky rice over the fire and passed us each a piece of the chicken and a ball of rice. Sam was just starting to get into her drumstick when it slipped from her hand into the dirt below, feeling like an idiot she picked it up quickly and continued to eat the dirt chicken. After a few minutes of laughing at Sam, Mackenzie came to the rescue and slyly tossed the dirt covered chicken over her shoulder. After we all finished up we jumped into the band’s van and headed off to the concert!

Cheers!

Part of Laos hospitality is to offer something to your guests: this tradition often turns out to be one killer drinking session, as usually you'll be served Lao Lao whiskey or BeerLao. When drinking Beerlao or Lao Lao rice whiskey, it is customary is to fill a small cup up for yourself, down it, then fill it up again and pass it to your left, until everyone in the group has had a cup and then it is the next person’s turn to be the pourer. We did one more round of this in the van prior to entering to the concert, just for good measure.

Sam's turn! 

When we entered the bar, it was completely empty with chairs still on the table, so we helped the guys set up until they forced us to sit down and drink a beer. While they set up and continued to pre-funk Cait decided to jump on the drums and give it a whirl. A little bit of liquid courage and a badass leather jacket made Caitlin look like a rock star. Mackenzie was in the bathroom when Cait started to play and thought the band was just warming up, she was shocked and super excited to see that it was really Cait rocking out on stage.

Out front before the concert

Cait looking like a total rock star! 

After spending a few hours drinking beer, dancing and listening to some awesome Laos rock we decided to call it a night. It was only 10:30, but we had a big day ahead of us as we planned to rent motorbikes and drive 30km through winding mountain passes to the city of Vieng Xai, in order to visit the cave town that was built during the American War to protect the Laos PDR leaders. So Cait told our new friends “allons-y!” and after a confusing conversation of French, English and Spanish (because any time Sam tries to speak French, Spanish comes out instead) one of the band members jumped up and ended up driving us back to our guesthouse, even though it was only 1km away. Thanks for the great night guys!

"rock on"

"The Big Boss" aka the bar owner

The DJ and our awesome driver - Thanks again for the ride!!