Day 40-41 Seeing sights in Vientiane

Day 40 cont.

so after updating the journal and interneting it was time for lunch! so we went to joma and got eggplant spinach lasagna, greek salad and a mint lime freeze. it was all wonderful!

then we looked for a scooter but they were all manuals so we gave up on that idea :o/

we got a tuk-tuk driver to take us to two sites. first we went to "that luang", a huge golden stupa with lots of other golden stupas around it. it was pretty impressive! then we looked at the temples buildings near it. the main one was under construction so we couldn't go inside but we got a good look of the outside. then we saw this huge open air gathering hall that was covered in colorful paintings- it was awesome!

after that we tuk-tuked over to patuxay- a replica of l'arc de triomphe in france, except loas-ified lol it has buddhist figures on it and shops insides selling the usual souvenirs you find in laos (silk scarves, figurines, purses, weird pipes, jewelry, etc.) we went to the top to see the view. there's one nice boulevard leading out from it to the presidential palace. on the opposite side there's a nice park and fountain that wasn't flowing at the time. overall pretty cool but when i heard the story of it i was kind of depressed lol turns out the u.s. gave laos money in 1960something to build a new airport and instead of doing that they built patuxay...useful! laotians call it the world's tallest runway lol meanwhile, laos doesn't release the safety information of it's airline...which worries me. we're flying with them to cambodia!!

after seeing those sites we went back to joma to eat amazing mulberry pie and apple crumble! yum!

i think we just hung out in the hotel after that til dinner which was at a loatian place. we got another set meal because we still weren't that familiar with loatian food. it was fresh veggie spring rolls, the famous green papaya spicy salad, a sour fish soup (lemongrass makes it sour), and ground chicken with tons of herbs (which i think is called laap). it was all really fresh tasting and delicious! after having those two set meals i think what quantifies laotian food is spicy salads, sour soups and herbed meats.

i bought this book called ant egg soup, travels of a food tourist in laos. i'm currently reading the satanic verses by salman rushdie but since we're in laos now i wanted to read a bit of the laos book, which i did last night and i really like it so far. before the book was written there was only ONE book written about laotian food in english! when the author of ant egg soup found that out she knew she had to go to laos and write about its food because she loves traveling and trying new foods (just like me! ;o) anyway, she said laap is the national dish of laos and they do, in fact, love their herbs and spicy salads. i haven't read much but i'm eager to read more.

aaaaaaaanyway

Day 41 - randomness

breakfast at joma - i got a mulberry scone (pretty good) and plain yogurt (weirdest yogurt i've ever had and it wasn't that good :oP) and then i shared a fruit bowl and cinnamon roll with jens. the cinnamon roll was really good and i wanna eat another one tomorrow!

after breakfast we headed to the post office to send a bunch of stuff to the texas that we bought yesterday. we found a store that sold laos honey so we bought 3 jars of it! that stuff is amazing! we also got some coffee, green tea, 5 paintings (bought from the side of the road really cheap!) and some handmade house shoes that are really cute!

i just want to take a moment to announce that laotian postal workers are THE BEST packers in all of s.e. asia! (or at least the s.e. asian countries that i have been to and from which i have sent packages lol) every other time i've sent something from s.e. asia they've just thrown the stuff in a box with no padding whatsoever and something has always gotten broken. laotion postal workers though- omg! they're so thorough! they spent like 30 mins,. meticulously wrapping and taping each item and fitting them perfectly into the box with lots of air puffy things. awesome! thank you guys!!!

unfortunately the whole thing cost $60 to send! but we sure as heck weren't telling them nevermind lol after all that packing!!! plus it's either send it now or send it from korea later. and it's stuff we really wanted and will enjoy and plus it was all super cheap! so it's worth it!

jens went to an atm to get more money and i waited in the post office...FOR AN HOUR! i got SO worried! i thought for sure he had gotten hit by a scooter or a car or bus or something and had been air-flighted to bangkok or something! i didn't know what to do. i had no money or anything on me. he had taken the entire bag and all i could do was sit there and wait in the post office lol FINALLY he returned (5 mins. after the post office had closed for the day) and said he had to try 8 different atms before one would work lol

we finally paid and got the heck outta there. it was lunch time but jens wasn't hungry enough yet and i wasn't THAT hungry so i got a fruit shake to tide me over til jens was hungry. i got a mango, papaya, sapadilla shake. what's a sapadilla you ask? well here you go: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapadilla

then we went to the national museum where we learned a lot about the tumultuous history of laos, including that fact that it is the most bombed country in the world!!! good going u.s.a.! >:o(

then we went to a late lunch at le bannetone and got a salad and a quiche. it was weird but good.

this internet place is closed so i have to go! until next time!