Erk...

Hmmm... my shower water turned brown the other day.

I was in the shower when the water pressure dropped off for a few seconds, then came back on. I thought nothing of it until I opened my eyes and noticed the floor of the shower had turned brown.  I jumped away from the shower head and IT HAD MURKY BROWN WATER COMING OUT OF IT AND IT WAS ALL OVER ME! Gross. Oh god, it was so gross.

Instead of just turning off the tap, I started panicking. Screaming from the shower - I was trapped between the spray and the wall - for Tom to come and help me. I'm not really sure what I expected him to do (bend the hose shut or wrench the whole shower fixture out of the wall maybe??) but by the time he got to the bathroom the clean water had kicked back in and my silent gagging in the corner was rendered kind of unwarranted. But still. Never. Drinking. Tap. Water. Ever.

This was my first real reminder that, oh yeah, we are now living in a developing country. This has been really, really easy to forget since we've had it pretty good for our first few weeks here, living in an apartment with a cleaning service, cable tv (with HBO... Asia) and a driver on call. Spoilt.

Plenty of locals who live in the city don't have access to running water in their homes and while most have electricity a lot don't have the luxury of air-conditioning, which is almost unthinkable when for eight months of the year the temperature is pushing 40c. Having the internet at home is still a relatively new opportunity for a lot of the Lao population and currently there's only one bank here that offers internet banking. Coca-cola has only just arrived in Vientiane to challenge Pepsi in the soft drink market and there is no sign of McDonald's, KFC, Burger King or the like. Although we did find a Chinese KFC spin-off called McconKey... interesting.

By contrast, there are a hell of a lot of brand new cars on the roads. Old cars are a pretty rare sight as most people cruise around in a giant Landcruiser or Hilux. I asked a local about this and she said some families will invest in new cars with the view that it will last for years, that their children and then grandchildren will all be able to use the car, passing it on to each generation. In some cases, the cars are purchased with the help of a bank loan - which have also recently been made available to the public. I can imagine this debt must stay with some of these families for years as well.

Really, the shower drama was nothing. Actually, we are pretty lucky that dirty shower water is the worst thing that's happened to us since we've arrived and I'm sure this isn't the only time it's going to happen over the next few years. I have already heard a few horror stories from other expats about snakes slithering into their bathrooms while they've been in the shower (!!), power going out for days at a time and elusive giant Lao rats living in roof cavities, keeping people awake all night with their rat parties.

I have no doubt we'll get a jolt of reality when we move into our own place and no longer have the daily housekeeping and driving service to which we've become accustomed. Not long to go until house times and to be honest I can't wait. This tiny apartment is starting to make me a little stir-crazy!

And oh... the power literally just went out, then kicked back in. No joke.