Laundry just like "Little House on the Prairie".

This morning, I went down to pick up my bed linens from the laundry. The woman had them already to go. 5 bucks… not bad, but later today I will try my hand at doing a few things the old fashioned way. Should be an interesting leaning curve! If it doesn’t work out so well, I can always go back to paying for it. If it is not too bad, I’ll save myself a few bucks! It will also give me something to do every few days. It’s not like I am bogged down with important business or anything. As it turns out, the self laundry service worked out great. When Lek, the gal I had spent time with in 2006/07, had done my laundry, I paid close attention. I tried to replicate her technique, and didn’t do a half bad job! Laundry was 5 button up shirts, 5 boxers, 2 pair socks, 2 towels… and 5 “sweat” rags. I started off with the small things and had used a pail that was in the house. When I had finished, the young Burmese guy had come by, and I mentioned to him that Chiyoko had mentioned that she would supply my with a bigger laundry pail, should I decide to start looking after the washing myself. He said that he would run back and grab it for me. When he showed back up, I thanked him for the delivery, and started in on the bigger items. I paid extra attention to the neck, pits and back areas of the garments, and a general wash of the others. Washing took places in the big bucket, followed by a rinse and a ring in a smaller one, and then off to the shower for a final rise and ring before pinning them up on the line. The first batch was dry in about 2 hrs, then I hung up the rest of it. The young Burmese guy offered to take me up to the lookout area at 4pm, which I didn’t know existed. After he finished up cutting the “lawn”, I asked him to give my dry clothes the “smell” test, which they PASSED, and we headed up the mountain for about 500m(as the crow flies, but more like 1.5km) straight up. He made short work of it without breaking a sweat, but I sure felt how burned out my lungs are from smoking. Wheezing and sweating my ass off after the first 5min. After about 20min, we got to the spot, and man what a view! It was 4:30pm by now, so it was damn hot… even for him. We took in the view for about 20min, took some photos and caught our breath, and then headed back down. Mental note: wear running shoes next time, flip flops can be tricky business! On our trip, I learned of forest plants I could eat and cook with,Burmese will hunt a monkey with a slingshot and dogs on special occasions and that the sounds that I had thought were monkeys/Gibbons, were actually of a black bird that resembles a fat dove/pigeon with red wings in a similar colour to “our” rooster… We arrived safe and sound. I offered him some water, which he gladly accepted, and then he headed back to finish his last 2hrs of work for the day, while I got dinner sorted out. After eating, I was treated to another show by the eagles and a beautiful sunset.