Dungeons and Demons

Two weekends ago I decided to venture out a bit. Near Vientiane there is a sculpture park, known to Falang (the Lao version of Gringo) as Buddha Park. On my trip I met two Slovenian girls headed the same way. It was nice to have some company, and be each other's photographers. 

 This is probably the weirdest statue there, although it was FULL of crazy statues

 There were three levels inside the circle, each filled with creepy statues and scenes

At the top!

The reclining Buddha

The stairs to the top were really narrow!

The way home we hitched a ride with some UN workers, and then walked part-way across the bridge between Thailand and Laos to find the bus. An accidental adventure. One of the coolest things about being here is meeting people from everywhere. I rarely meet any Americans. I'll post soon about the awesome Chinese guys I made friends with last weekend!

Gettin' Fresh at Church

So I was standing there at church, going through introductions with a woman whose husband works at the embassy, when all of a sudden there are hands...running up and down my sides, and words...words that I'll never understand (Lao is hard!). I'm sure she was just being friendly, but man, her hands got pretty low.

And then somehow my wanting to help with English classes ended up with me being an English teacher today. I skimmed the workbook while walking into the room...ummm...hello class.

I Want to Ride My Bicycle!

When visiting places I love renting a bike to explore. So far I've gotten to do this on Coronado Island, Chicago, and it's a great way to see the monuments in DC. So when I found out I could rent a bike here for less than $2 for a whole day, you know I was going to take advantage of that.

So I loaded up with banana pancakes drizzled in local honey (So good!)

Then I rented a bike from the same place I had my pancakes, which is Noy's Fruit Heaven (they already recognize me here, the fruit smoothies are truly heaven).

My main destination was Pha That Luang. Here's the thing, Laos is not necessarily bike friendly...at all. I wanted to stick to sidewalks as much as possible, but you see the sidewalks double as parking lots, and often people with their pop-up markets are selling their wares, sometimes the sidewalks end with a high curb and it's either constantly stop and ease the bike down or take to the streets, and sometimes there are no sidewalks. And there are definitely no bike lanes. It was a lot of weaving, stopping, dodging, ducking. And even on a bike, I still got the usual question of "Tuk tuk?!"

But I made it without real incident.

I ended my exploration by biking along the Mekong. And then got some crazy fruit. There are lot of new ones to try here. This is called Rambutan. The outside is CRAZY! You pop the hairy looking shell off and inside is a sweet juicy thing, but you have to beware of the pit. I got a whole kilogram of these, since I had no idea how much that would be, and now I have quiet a lot of these. Good thing they're so good! 

A STUPAndeous Arch

So, the title is supposed to be punny...

Here's the Stupa-

Here is the Arch-

Both are in my area, so I went and visited last weekend. Here is the view from the very top window of the arch-

So I'm not one to take pictures of myself, and I've never gone anywhere alone where I would want pictures. So, trying to take pictures of myself somewhere cool is kind of a challenge. Here are my attempts-

 I finally asked someone to take a picture for me, it felt awkward...

I invested in ear plugs today, here's to hoping that it will keep the dog fights, cat yowls, and Buddhist chants from waking me throughout the night. 

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. 

Robert Frost

It is a poem referred to time and time again. I had to memorize it in middle school, and again in high school. But  tonight was one of those times where it rang with such clarity. Oh that first stanza! How I wish I could be in two places at once! To stand at the edge of decisiveness straining to catch a glimpse of what lies ahead. But there is no real knowledge, only hope that it will be a good trail that leads to a great destination. And unlike choose your own adventure books where I would try to place a bookmark at every turning point, and then go back to it after that trail ended to start down another path, we can never really go back to where we were exactly before. The path was grassy and wanted wear, so I took it.

Laos via Bangkok via Seoul

So I made it from one capitol to the next. DC to Vientiane. It took some doing. I have to say, I'm impressed with Korea Air, and very grateful for the toothbrush and paste they provided. I had expected that I would be getting my checked bags in Bangkok with my overnight and airline switch there-but they pushed them through for me. Which was convenient except I had checked ALL of my toiletries to make security easier. The little slippers they also included made me laugh, but people really used them!

My sense of time during that flight was totally off. All I know is we took off after lunch one day woke for two meals, neither of which was breakfast-y, slept most of the time, watched movies the rest of the time, and got to Seoul at dinner time the next day. I had a very short time in the airport there but learned some interesting things. First being the Etiquette Bell present in the women's restrooms. It looks like this:

                                           

I wanted to push it. I chickened out, but knew I would be Google-ing it later. It's pretty much what I thought it would be-it makes a flushing sound to mask any unpleasant sounds coming from your stall. Seriously, doesn't this tell you so much about there culture right there!

I also learned that neighbors who peek at your boarding pass can prove incredibly helpful. I knew I would be a little rushed to get to my next flight at the Seoul airport, but didn't expect to have to go through additional security! My neighbors pushed me to the front, cutting in front of a bunch of people (none of whom protested thankfully), and I made it just in time.

My overnight in Bangkok proved interesting. I knew the hotel had a shuttle, but to find it I walked around with my print-out from the travel agency who had claimed to book the place for me showing it to the masses of hotels and people searching for arrivals (this airport was packed!). Once I found the right man, I wasn't on the list, but he put me on since I had my print-out. The hotel didn't have me on there either -travel agency fail- Luckily, they had an open room for me after waiting while phone calls were made to make sure they hadn't received payment from the agency-which they hadn't. I did find a surprise in the Thai restrooms as well.

Luckily I found some toilet paper, but this is also the set up here in Laos, and I wasn't as lucky while out exploring today...somehow that wasn't mentioned in anything I read before leaving...ANYway, there was some funky food on the plane. Mostly meat and rice, but also a tub of tofu with some soy-based sauce, yeah, couldn't muster much of that. I had been seriously hoping it was a type of custard or pudding. I was so, so wrong. There was also this rice/gelatin based, bright blue with brown frosting topped with some stringy orange stuff dessert that looked like cake...but really wasn't. It was a fearful sight, and I could only get down a couple bites.

My apartment is really great. This is the view from my window.

And from my rooftop garden:

And my wandering today took me to these other cool temples.

There are two tiny Buddhas  in each of the little alcoves. I hope this satisfies you all for a bit. I'll try to keep this updated more!

Swing Away

I really just need to avoid swing dances at all costs. This time it was a church function, so I thought I would be safe. I just can't get over the awkwardness of it. I'm holding hands with some guy I've never met before. If I want to try and talk to him I either have to get real close to his ear and have no eye contact, or I try to make eye contact at kissing range. I can never hold a gaze for more than 5 seconds.

So, this time I danced a couple then graciously backed out of the room. I then proceeded to grab a cup of water and head to a loft area that overlooked the dance floor. I talked and sipped, and talked and sipped, and then talked some more. At this point I forget that there is still more water left in my cup that I've half crumpled in my hand (Yep, it's that obvious what is about to happen). So, as I'm leaning over the balcony, I let me hand drop, and that water drops down right onto some poor girls head. She got a good look at me and was able send one very nasty glare my way as I panicked and shouted 'OH MY GOSH, I'M SO SORRY!!! HOLY SOMETHING!!!' I then dived to the ground for cover. It took awhile for the witnesses to recover from the spasms of laughter that overtook them. So, yeah, I'm that girl who dumps water onto unsuspecting girl's heads. Her poor hair-do.