Few, if any, passengers had watches, & when the clouds cleared the cat noticed some of them checking the sky. Mr Yellow Jacket & friends at the back of the boat decided that the sun was high enough in the sky for it to be lunchtime, & took out their sticky rice, offering the cat some =)
Along the way we were flagged down several times by villagers perched waiting on large rocks, & picked up more humans, large sacks, clucking baskets, a couple of homemade 'rifle-like' guns, & two cute puppies that were carried by pieces of string around their necks. The puppies were greeted by excitement & exclamations of 'kin maa! kin maa!!' (lit. eat dog).
At times Mr Boatman had difficulty understanding what certain passengers were trying to tell him - many appeared to speak little of their national language, & those who did seemed to use their own variation of tones for certain words. Thanks to electricity, satellite dishes & TV, some could understand bits of Thai & whatever Lao the cat had picked up from locals & by listening to fellow bus passengers & noodle soup stall diners yak away. When it finally arrived in Luang Prabang city days later, the cat would discover that it had picked up some rural northern variation of Lao. Instead of sounding like a farang, it was sounding like a countryside farm cat, much to the amusement of the Luang Prabang & Vientiane natives it met! So much for being a good copycat.
Is this Muang Sampanh?
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