She Got Low, Low, Low...
Vientiane, Lao Peoples Dem Rep
April 16, 2009
There are three songs that we have heard over and over again: The one with "she got low, low, low", the one with Ï wanna make love right now, now, now" and the one with "boom, boom, shake, now drop". I NEVER want to hear those songs again. I think we have heard them each 50 times in the last 3 days. In fact, everything is about repetition here. It is like ground hog day since we have been to Vientiane. You may not believe me, but we have already been splashed with water over 200 times and there is still one more day to go for this celebration. You would think that they would get tired of it, but they don't.
We were up late this morning. I had cereal and fruit again. Bill had fruit and a croissant. We went back to the room and watched the movie with Owen Wilson and Gene Hackman until noon.
We walked less than a block to the UXO - Unexploded Ordnance / MAG - Mine Advisory Group for a tour, but it is still closed for the holiday. So, we stood on the side of the road to put sunscreen on. A truckload of kids went by and sprayed us with pink water. Now I have pink sunscreen smeared on my arm!
We walked down the riverfront to Noy and had prawns, pork (they tried to give us calamari instead?), sticky rice, beer and soda. The prawns were very good, but the sauce was too hot to handle.
We went by the National Museum, but it is also closed still. What a bummer!
At the mall by the Morning Market we changed some Canadian into kip. We walked up to Nam Phou Square fountain. We have been near it many times, but have finally stopped to check it out. It is very pretty and is surrounded by some good looking restaurants that are all closed.
Of course there are many people out with water again today and we are getting wet. Freddie got in on the action and got wet too (our Grade 2/3 correspondent)!
We walked back toward the riverfront and stopped to buy a yogurt from a small store. I am starting to wonder if I need some good bacteria in my stomach, so I am giving it a try. Can't hurt right??? My stomach has been good and bad for the last couple of weeks and is getting worse. I am about to start trying local traditional home remedies soon...
We picked a bar in the middle of some good water fights, ordered some beer and an iced tea that did not taste like iced tea and had a string floating in it (gag), and watched everyone have some fun. The people near us on the street were drinking and having a great time getting people on bikes, motorbikes, tuk tuks and trucks wet. The African guys a few places down were doing some "extreme" splashing. They were winding up and letting the water fly, it looked painful for the recipients. The older lady at the spot next door keep coming over to everyone at our bar. She gave us sticky rice and coconut milk in banana leaves, then we had to down some beer, then she got us wet a couple of times and she also put talc on our faces. She was having a lot of fun! In front of us some teen-aged girls were splashing water while 2 toddler boys were playing in the bucket of water. At one point some people cleared out and put hoses away. Soon after military personnel went walking by, it was moments later that everyone was back at it.
We decided to go back to the Istanbul restaurant for dinner. I had a doner again and Bill had the beef kebabs. I ordered jajik (sounded like tatziki ingredients), it was a cold cucumber, oil and yogurt soup. I also had mango ayran (yogurt drink) and it was all very good. We were given pita with a warm spinach and yogurt dip and a warm salsa dip. We were not disappointed with our meal at all!
On the way home I did have stomach cramps again, but we did not get wet! The hotel gave us some fruit because we will miss breakfast in the morning. We watched Wild Hoggs and were up until after midnight.