The Life Sabai

CanCan, 24 July 2008,
Categories: Laos

“Sabai” is technically a Thai word, I guess, but Lao and Thai share many words in common. “Sabai” is hard for me to describe in English: it is the epitome of good, relaxing, perfect… The first time I heard it used, other than in the standard Lao greeting “Sabaidee”, was when I was in a steam room at a health club before Jojo was born. I was sitting across from some Lao women who were putting all kinds of milk based products on their skin in order to become more white. The steam was hot, but it seemed that everything was perfectly in balance. I wanted to sit there for a long time. One of the women let out a sigh and said, “Sabai, no?”
No answer was required.

This week we had a visit from an old friend and we tried to show him a taste of sabai. Ever since we discovered this fun river cruise restaurant, we make it a point to take all of our guests. If you came to visit, we would take you too.
That’s me and our guest, Andrew. Besides the fun of pigging out and then floating relaxingly down a tranquil river, we like to show our guests all of what we feel to be the highlights of authentic Lao cuisine. This restaurant was the first place I ever ate deep-fried crickets. We didn’t order them this time, but we enjoyed papaya salad, jaew, sun-dried beef, Luang Prabang river weed, sticky rice, fried fish, and stir-fried morning glory.

This was also the first time that we allowed Jojo to tag along. Deeds stayed at home with a baby sitter, since he wouldn’t have understood the importance of sitting still and staying on the boat at all times.
Our driver didn’t speak to us the whole time; he just gave me pained looks whenever Jojo moved too quickly about the boat. I felt pained as well so our anxiety was mutual.