Day 6 - Tuesday, May 5, 2009 - A night in Savannahket

11: 48am

We made it in to Savannahket at around 4pm last night, the bus dropped us off right at the hotel. The room we got was $10 for three of us, 2 beds, A/C, and a large bathroom.

We settled in and decided to walk around. We went through the markets and purchased some weird looking fruit. We made our way down to the river and walked along it for a while. It was very refreshing to not be hassled by street vendors selling crap.

As we gingerly made our way along the concrete and stone path a ruckus of voices emerged from the back area near a restaurant/bar. There was a crowd of men all playing a game under a large open walled room. We found out the game was called petang, a traditional Laotian pastime, like bocce ball. 2-3 players toss baseball sized metal balls to see who can get close enough and score points. Games go to 9 or 13. It's played on a packed dirt area about 8 feet by 25 feet.

There was a gentleman there by the name of Wongsai (Vongzai) that spoke some english and lived in the US for a few years. Another man, Keytoe, played many games with us after everyone left. James, Meg, and I lost our first game and the second game against the much more experienced Laotian players. Eventually, James and I teamed up against Meg and Keytoe, in the first game we staged a dramatic comeback from 8 points down to take the game at the end. However, our second game we weren't so lucky. We picked up and made it back to the hotel ready for a good night's sleep and a bus ride leaving at 7 am tomorrow.