While you'll see plenty of kátâw and football, the sport you'll most likely be able to actually play is petang. Introduced by the French, petang is obviously a local corruption of pétanque. All over Laos you'll see small courts made of packed dirt or gravel. There's usually a certain level of improvisation with the 'playing arena'; the backboard might be a length of coconut trunk, and the throwing circle is usually a bike tyre.

While it's been around for decades, on this trip we noticed many more courts than in previous years. It turns out that Lao involvement in international competition - presumably televised - has sparked a renewed interest in the game. In the 2005 Southeast Asian Games Laos won gold in the mens singles and silver in the mens doubles, quite an achievement for success-starved Laos.

As you travel around you'll see games are usually played in the afternoon and the players are usually men. If the game doesn't look like a life-and-death battle it's fine to ask to join in. The aim of the game is to get your boules (steel ball) as close to the cochonnet (piglet) as possible. Petang is supposed to be played between teams of two or three, though in practice it depends on how many boules and bodies are available. For technique, just watch and learn - and be careful not to injure any passing child or chicken.