Thursday, February 28, 2013

Flip Flops and Dresses are not Ideal Hiking Gear

    Our first real trip outside Thailand was a shocker. We didn't know how to say hello in Laotian (In Thai you say 'sawatdeka/khrap (depend on your gender. Girls say 'ka' boys say 'khrap') while in Laotian you say 'sabiedee' which means 'fine' in Thai) and there was bread everywhere!! Thailand eats noodles and rice for their starch so getting a sandwich was a welcome bit of home. Plus, they drove on the right side of the street there and not the British side.
    So here is an all inclusive update of what's been going on here.
  • Friday
    • Had to go to class at 9. Ajan Boudin showed up with a plushie TARDIS that made sounds. So tempted to steal it.
      • Lilith's creepy horse message of the day was "Is the dance floor calling? No."
    • Thai airports are about 100x better than American ones. You go through security immediately upon entering, checking in takes a minutes, and there's a Dairy Queen right there. Why can't America be this easy??
      • Plus, at the duty free shop, you can buy most alcohols and candies. I bought this fancy smores stuff and have yet to regret it. 
    • Had to sit by Lilith on the flight over. Thankfully it was only 50 minutes and I spent a good part of it sleeping. Arrived in Laos somewhat late for once. After getting to the guesthouse we immediately went out for dinner to this cafe Drexler is obsessed with. My dinner was two strawberry smoothies.
      • Before we left Drexler divided Deanna and Karen with Karen in Alessa's and Lilith's room. When we got to the guesthouse, their room turned out to be a three person bed with two pillows. A switch was immediately done. 
      • Also made friends with a momma cat and was granted access to her kittens. They were so young and tiny!! I regret not taking any pictures of them but three of them looked alike so it would not have mattered. 
    • Explored the night market. Walked all the way past it to this abandoned looking temple where I picked up a fluffy friend I nicknamed Sweet Potato.
  • Saturday
    • We were allowed to sleep in!! Then we decided to visit a waterfall. The only drawback was that the Princesses (this is my nickname for the other half of the group since they require extra pampering) wanted to go to. With us. So we used an evasion tactic known as 'take a super long time to eat breakfast so they'll get bored and leave' which seems to have 100% effectiveness. 
      • Alessa has been going up to the Winos and stating she doesn't think I like her. Donna's response was to say "Okay" and walk away. If you're going for some emotional reassurance, don't go to Donna. 
    • This is when things got sketchy. We got into one song-tuk (it's like a tuk tuk, but different. So descriptive) which drove half a block to another one where we were told to get out and get in his. Then we drove around the block for him to talk to some people to go back to point B where our driver got out again. Then this girl came up and asked if we were going to the waterfall and asked if she could tag along. Our driver and us said okay so off we went on our hour long ride. There was a closer one but our original driver told us that there was no water there. 
      • We found out that she was an English teacher in South Korea and was spending her two week break back packing across Asia. 
    • The falls were amazing. You can see how they looked in my pictures post and since I covered most of the excursion there I will not repeat myself. I did go on the rope swing and there is photographic evidence of it. But we basically wandered around for three hours, went swimming in some super cold water for a bit. It was a nice break.
    • After everyone returned from their outings we went to the dance performance. Ballet performances are hard enough to understand and this wasn't even the full story. At one point I got that the Monkey General cut off the breast of the Demon ruler's sister and she went away weeping. 
    • Went to a fancy restaurant after the performance. Everyone got the set menu except Lilith. Summary: The food there was not that good. Some of it was, like the curry chicken, but they wanted you to combine it with another type of chicken, some fish, and black sticky rice. Niko and I spent a good part of the meal in the bathroom's (which had these funny comics about do's and do not's in Laos. Do: pay respect to the Buddha. Do not: get involved in the drug trade). He had water in his ear and I had eaten fish. Not my brightest moment since I know fish and I don't mix but carpe diem!!
    • By the time we left the restaurant I was ready for some serious shopping in the night market. Only to find it closing down. Went to bed grumpy that night. 
  • Sunday 
    • Woke up still grumpy. I missed the group going to see the most beautiful temple in the world so I wandered around a market, got my retail therapy, ate some crepes and was ready to face the day. All before nine in the morning. For once I knew what it was like to be a morning person. 
    • I tried to photograph some of the temples nearby but they required you to pay so I decided to find a free one. My search led me back to the temple from Friday night. I had missed so much. There were monks living there along with a whole temple on the side of the cliff. I did not get to explore there as much as I had wanted but I took many pictures. 
    • Returned to the guesthouse for the final time to pack and prepare to leave. Said good bye to the kittens and the mom then I was put in charge of getting Niko. Who was still in bed when we were about to leave. He was sick and when he's sick he sleeps all the time. Lilith, who's half Laotian and this was her first time visiting Laos, spent her time in her room on her computer. Again I wonder why she came on this trip.  
    • We arrived at the airport and cleared security and passport control super quick. Our reward was sitting around for an hour and a half waiting for them to let us board. Guess who my seat buddy was again?? On the in-flight meal she was chewing so loud I put my headphones in the ear facing her so I could eat. 
    • Donna and I spent the evening in when we got back. We were too wiped out to do anything but go out and eat. We had bread for the first time in a while in Laos but I was so happy to get some rice. I may be going native. 
  • Monday
    • We had the day off so Donna and I spent it relaxing around the guest house. Until eight that night. That's when all the trouble started. I got really sick and had a fever. The next day I was told that I started clenching and unclenching my hand. I then turned to Donna and said "Isn't this the coolest thing ever??" When she didn't immediately agree I gave her a look that said "What is wrong with you?? This is the best thing ever and since you don't get it, you're a freak" for about a minute. I then pronounced that I needed to drink more water, rolled over, and went to sleep. 
  • Tuesday
    • Decided not to go to school so I spent the whole day in bed until my fever broke. The cleaning lady was startled when she came in and I rose from my cocoon to greet her. I successfully ate half a slice of toast. Biggest accomplishment of the day. 
    • I missed the lesson where we learned how to say 'you have contracted AIDS and are going to die'. 
  • Wednesday
    • Dragged myself out of bed to class. Had our last lesson out of the book today. Then a review for our final on Friday.
      • Had to get up in the middle of class for a false alarm (you would not believe how often we sit around and talk about our bowels. This behavior would not be acceptable in the States). When I got back Lilith shot up from her seat and ran out the door then came back a few minutes later. Really not sure why since she's not sick (we would know if someone is sick, there is no privacy with Drexler involved). 
    • Barbara was not back in time to go to Tai Chi so I decided to go to a clinic with Drexler and Niko. I have something very run of the mill but have three different antibiotics to take for it. And they cost 160 baat ( less than six dollars. Why does American healthcare cost so much?!)(One of them looks like mini sandwiches but tastes like cinnamon). It was very awkward talking to the doctor with Drexler in the room. 
      • I am not allowed to have acidic fruit juices, dairy products, or some other stuff for a week to help my stomach calm down. So instead of the ice cream I was planning for dinner I got an apple smoothie. Close enough.
Lizard Count: 14              We've had this pair of tok-geh spending the night in our window the past few nights. 

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