PAKBENG: MASSAGE, BOSOMS AND...

Going through the immigration from Thailand into Laos overland wasn't a big hastle. The officials in the immigration didn't know how much to charge me for visa and how long period of stay should I get with my citizenship. The officer looked around for my country and after not finding it, I was given and charged the same as many others, US$30 for visa and 30 days of stay. Canadians, Germans and some other countries are charged $42.
After one day of slow-boating we stopped at a small toan-village called Pakbeng. Before it got dark we decided to walk around the village, where we saw a little monkey chained to a tree, so we gave it some flowerceeds and were able to pat it. At one point the monkey got interested in Katy's hair and started pulling with its tiny hands. It was quite funny to watch, albeit a bit painful for Katy. Because it was evening, everyone was getting off work perhaps, so it was washing time. So, we saw quite a few people washing outside at the communal basins: men in their pants and women covered with sarongs. It was kind weird to see it, because everyone can see you washing, your neighbours, tourists flocking around town, pigs, dogs, chickens...
After walk we went to have dinner at a restaurant run by an Indian guy, and out of 5-6 dishes we ordered, only two are worth mentioning. Sour fish soup and baked egg plant salad. The freshwater fish soup was particularly good.. very refreshing. Then we decided to have a massage. If you're ever in Pakbeng, take my advice: Don't thave it. The girls who were there didn't speak English, so they called the owner who turned out to be the same Indian guy from the restaurant. We were led to a massage room where two other people were getting what looked like oil massage. We decided we woudl get oil massage as well. The other two clients, rather heavy people perhaps didn't notice our presence, at least the lady didn't. Because when I was preparing to lie down the lady was told to turn over on her back and she did... but not covering her breast area. And so I saw. The bosoms were of the size I, personally, wouldn't know what to do with... hmmm... Anyways, I felt a bit embarrassed that I saw though unintentionally, so, I quickly turned away. Now I'm getting distructed from what I wanted to say about the massage. Anyways, it was very bad. The girl who was massaging Katy didn't know what to do, so she constantly looked at my girl for the hints, who apparently was a bit more experienced, but not much more skillful. So, we ended up paying 50% more than we thought, for 30 minutes of oil rubbing, instead of one hour of massage. But we couldn't complain because perhaps girls did the best they knew. So we just think of it as our passive way to support local community.