Too many pictures at once.
I love when you post these photos. Keep them coming! Should the title say Laos?
Chère fermière;
Hum… I thought that Laos (this country name in French) translated into Lao in English… Now I’m not sure anymore… Lao or Laos? I need somebody’s help! Marc
Shame on me… You’re right It’s: Laos. Marc
It is Laos. I grew up with many people from this country and can even speak a little of the language, basics, of course.
Laos is what western countries call it. The people call themselves Lao and call the language Lao. In English, you may see Laotian is used.
I love seeing the smiling faces!
Snake bats and rats! Wow, so different from here. Amazing.
Yes, this is what my friends say… that they are Lao and speak Lao, but in American we call the country Laos and the people Laotians, just as you have said.
Such a variety of different food! Maybe not for me but very cool to see pictures of it 
Thanks for sharing
That sure was a potpourri of pics…but awesome shots.
I seriously hope they arent eating rats and bats… 
I’m sure they are…and such, along with pigs, is the origin of most (non-laboratory) occurring pandemics.
Rats are a delicacy in Vietnam, was just reading a economist article about it. They carry lots of coronaviruses.
Between western factory farms cramming birds and swine together and African/Asian markets for wildlife/bushmeat we can expect more pandemics in the future.
I read that same Economist article too and was telling my wife about it as I looked at the pics in this post! Here is a link to it (registration required, sorry):
Apparently you can’t walk across a farm field in Cambodia these days without tripping over loads of rat traps. People out of work from pandemic effects are freelancing as rat trappers. It sounded like farmers let these freelancers place traps at will; fields then have less rats so good for the farmer, and the trappers can sell the rats in Vietnam. They interviewed some city folk in Vietnam and they said field rat is the best - those rats grew up on a wholesome diet with fresh air and water, not like city rats eating toxic garbage.
I can’t see any reason not to eat field rats, except maybe viruses. I feel squeamish thinking about it, but it is just because of my preconceived notions about what is decent food and what is weird. My mom eats squirrel and I’ve certainly thought to myself that it is a waste to just be tossing out all those squirrels I trap every year.
@Shabou - awesome pics in this post. Thank you very much for sharing with us. I love to visit this kind of market, which we don’t really have at all in America. Closest thing is a farmers market. My two younger kids were traumatized by visiting open markets in Asia; middle child went vegetarian after first visit to a big market in central Kuala Lumpur. It wasn’t even that extreme - pretty tame compared to some I have visited in China. But again, not like anything you see in the US.