The little things of Laos...

Just a few things that I've noticed

1. Extraordinarily clean public/restaurant toilets (both here and Thailand)-possibly related to number 2
2. If you go to a restaurant you are most likely to be sat in someone's living room. To make a little cash, people open up the front of their house, draw up a menu and serve food whilst keeping a beady on the latest Thai soap blaring out of the TV at the back of the room. It is quite normal to be sat in the same room as an entire three generation family watching TV.
3. The length of the menu doesn't necessarily correlate with diversity of food. It is likely that only one or two items on a menu are available.
4. In a restaurant, you will be given a menu and the waiter/waitress will hover about your shoulder whilst you decide. Extremely disconcerting for an indecisive Librian.
5. Pavements are an extension of the road and it is perfectly normal to ride a motorbike along them as needs demand
6. It takes at least three police officers to sit and watch traffic go by at junctions
7. Dried squid impaled on a kebab stick IS a delicacy....so i've been told
8. Delicacies also include fertilised eggs (beak and feathers included) eaten raw
9.When a Tuk Tuk driver says 5,000 kip...he actually means 10,000
10. whatever anyone tells you.....red mud stains
11. sitting on your moped and staring at the Mekong is a local daily must-do
12. Laughing Cow....yep you have to just grin and bare it
13. Coffee and condensed milk...likewise
14. Papaya salad is hot, let this be a warning
15. No matter how sunny it is, there will be a tropical storm at 5pm, just as you're about to leave work
16. A meal for 3 quid is expensive
17. It is perfectly normal to turn up to the bank with a 70 litre rucksack full of cash (I witnessed this today)