I have been traveling with an American named Andrew from the last few days. We met when he joined my bus heading to Luang Prabang halfway through the trip- he and one other guy were standing on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere when we picked them up.
We split a room for our time in Luang Prabang and wandered around there, and now we are in Vangvieng.
Everyday I was in Luang Prabang I went down to the Mekong River and took pictures of the sunset. It is easy to find a secluded spot and just watch the sun go down and fishermen cast out some nets in hopes of a few more fish before heading home.
I heard about something called “snake whiskey” which is apparently some local lao lao (rice whiskey) with a cobra in the jar. Obviously that intrigued me, so Andrew and I had to go check out what the deal was.
It turned out to be run by an old man who when we first came upon him was looking like he was passed out in his hammock, but jumped to his feet when we woke him up and was very nice. I was expecting to see one or maybe two snakes in a whiskey bottle… that expectation was way off.
First off the jar he kept the concoction in was huge, and it was jammed with snakes, lizards, turtles, scorpions, centipedes and apparently anything else that haunts or fascinates a 10-year-old child. He even had one special jar with two rats in it… I wasn’t feeling that brave. The kicker is he apparently puts them all in there live and then stores it for three years before serving. Needless to say it was a bit of a rush and it went down hot!
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