Disgusting Habit

I surreptitiously had to take this photo because of this women's habit. I was on a bus from Pakse to the Kingfisher Lodge - see text under BACK TO CHIANG MAI, Kingfisher Lodge. She produced a pair of nut crackers with one side having a sharp edge to them, trimmed off a sliver of bark, put it in her mouth and commenced chewing. She then cut through some sort of crab apple looking fruit, put that in her mouth with the bark and continued chewing. By this time I was fascinated. She then opened a box of leaves, took one out, put some paste on it and tried to clean her teeth. She failed because her teeth were a disgusting black and broken with several missing. Later she got a polythene bag and I had to turn away when she spat out this rusty red liquid, that was the culmination of everything she had inserted into her mouth, into the bag. Uuuurgh, this must be the Laos version of chewing tobacco and cannot be healthy and maybe is habit forming. For the rest of the 2 hour journey I was praying that she did not proposition me. I couldn't determine this woman's age, she still had handsome features despite the wrinkles and sun weathered skin.

The bus itself was very old and of course, in true Laos style, they filled it with as many passengers and goods as possible. When we came to a hill, 8 people had to get out so as the bus could get up the hill. The bus then waited for the 8 to join them. Imagine that happening on the 42 from Manchester to Didsbury or the 134 going up Muswell Hill, North London, there would be a riot and I'm sure several letters to the Guardian from Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells.