The Rum Diaries Part XLVI

Happy birthday Martijn!!! We've been trying to tighten our belts a little over the last month or two, in an effort to stretch our funds through the Melbourne winter, but hey, a birthday is a birthday and it seemed like a good excuse to buy a bottle of insanely strong rum. 

St James Rhum Agricole is produced on the French-Caribbean island of Martinique and comes in at a whopping 45%, which at least meant we couldn't do our usual trick and down the bottle in a night or two. 

Rhum Agricole is the French term for rum that derives from freshly squeezed sugarcane juice, as opposed to the usual base of molasses. Most of the rum produced on Martinque is distilled to 70% and then watered down to around 45-55%- rather eye-watering after the comparatively mellow 35% of some Latin American rum!!

The alcohol content means the rum is slightly rough neat- even Martijn has consented to an ice cube with this one, and I need a healthy dash of soda not to turn into a gibbering mess after one glass. In other words, we like it :)

Si Phan Don- 4000 islands, 3000 beers, 2000 papaya salads and one awesome Lao family

We're coming up to ten days here in Don Det and by now we've really got this relaxing thing down to a fine art. It helps that our guesthouse is one of the nicest, friendliest and most beautiful places we've stayed since leaving South America. 

It also helps to have three like-minded, trouble-making, Scrabble-playing, beer drinking companions with us to while away the hours!

Our day begins with coffee and breakfast, prepared by the 17 year old daughter of our hosts, Pradthana. She's an awesome cook, speaks amazingly good English for someone who's only had one month of actual instruction and unlike teenagers at home, is a sociable, sweet and giggly girl who never seems to get sick of feeding falang endless papaya salads and shakshuka breakfasts. 

Her parents are also very sweet- her mother never tires of Beer Lao-falang-ting-tong jokes and giving us fruit from their garden. Most afternoons we get a visit from the cute nieces and nephews from next door too. 

 

After breakfast it's time for a bit of hammock action or maybe a game of Scrabble. Before you know it lunchtime rolls around- occasionally we rouse ourselves to get to another restaurant, some days we just force Padthana back into the kitchen. After lunch it's time for...you guessed it, more time in the hammock. And then suddenly it's 5 o'clock, the sun is setting over the Mekong and it's time for the ritual sundowner Beer Lao, followed by more food. Phew. It's hard work. 

Despite this punishing schedule, we have actually managed to squeeze some proper activity into the last ten days. One day we rented bicycles and cycled over to the neighbouring island of Don Khon to check out the Li Phi Falls. 

 

Another day we organised for a local guy to take us out on his boat fishing, followed by a BBQ on the beach. Louie had won the lottery just the day before (10.6 million kip, or about AUD$1600, more than a years salary for him) so he was suitably chuffed and on his way to getting drunk when we met up with him that afternoon. Unfortunately the glee of lottery winning meant he had failed to do any real preparation for our BBQ and dinner consisted of two fish between five of us. 

 

Luckily we came prepared with a bottle of Thai rum and some fresh coconuts. Coco loco's filled the spot where food should have gone and we were happy. 

  

 The only problem with all this is that it's going to be mighty hard to leave. We're pretty happy in our little bubble and although we have tentative plans to head to Cambodia on the eleventh of February, I can easily see us putting the whole thing off until our visa expires on the fifteenth. 

Anyway, lunch time has rolled around again and I'm feeling energetic today so I think we'll stroll up to the next restaurant and have (surprise) papaya salad, sticky rice and perhaps some chicken with basil and chili...then it's just a few short hours til Beer Lao Hour. Sabaidee!!