Now I'm in the sleepy town of That Phanom across the Mekong river
from Laos. The guidebook says there's a floating restaurant on the
river, but it's nothing but a flat barge now. Apparently they tore it
down after some people fell off it and drowned.
The guide book also
promised there was a movie
theatre near the town center and I was hoping to go see Spiderman. In
it's place I found an empty grass field. I asked one of the locals
about it and she said they tore it down because it was blocking the
view of the local temple and everybody has video-CD players now
anyways.
This place is like progress in reverse. There was an
elephant sauntering down the road outside this internet cafe when I
sat down.
Not that I'm seriously complaining. It's very peaceful here and the
local temple is a sight to behold. It has a 52 meter high chedi (pointy
obelisk-thing) that you can see from almost anywhere within about 2
kilometres, and the thing is covered in gold (118 kg from what I've
read). There's also some very nice lakes around the town centre where
I like sitting in the shade and tossing fish kibble to the lazy
catfish that live there.
Scott
