It was unbelievable how much we liked Lilith's grandmother. Actually, we got off to a bad start. We were told last night to be ready by ten this morning. Try more like seven, which is when her grandma showed up. We received seafood pizza for breakfast along with chicken and sticky rice, a favorite among our group. We were then whisked away from the main house to a branch of the families house so they could take pictures with Lilith. She decided to wear her hooker shirt today to meet her dad's family for the first time. Hope she doesn't regret that later on.
The first real stop today was at a temple. Part of a temple. Just the jeeti. Needed to pay to get into any other part but you already had to pay to get into the jeeti part. Plus it was hot. Not just hot but genetically mutated hot. Maybe it's because we are fresh out of Northern Vietnam where it was as a reasonable temperature but today was stifling. Another strange thing today was how many tourists there were. Vietnam doesn't have that many tourists, especially white ones. I kept commenting on how weird it was to see so many of them but Niko told me they were all German. Also stopped at the Asia Arc de Triumph. Got plenty of stares there. Thought that would go away once we left Vietnam.
Next stop was a long drive away. Thankfully we had a Chronicles of Narnia marathon going on today to help with the long drives everywhere. We were brought to a Buddha park. It was a statue garden but all of the statues were Buddhist themed. Some stories I recognized but some were either stories I did know or were some of the weirdest statues I have seen. One was a man throwing a hatchet at a woman while a bunch of onlookers did their audience role. Very strange. A man was playing a flute with his nose (not the oddest thing we have heard about since coming here) but he climbed up into a tree before I could see him. If you listened too long he threw leaves down at you.
Our final stop of the day was at Lilith's family BBQ. Everyone ate goat. (unknowingly at first) and then they served us beer. Now, they told us it was rude if we didn't finish our glasses. The problem: they kept filling them up even if it was empty or if we had only taken a sip. We were then forced to sing and dance. The van stopped at a grocery randomly on the way home and bought us all coffee. Not sure why but hey, coffee. Who doesn't need more of that?? Too bad most of our time here was taken up with this. It would have been nice to travel around and see some more of Laos.
Really missing my host family today. It was so weird not to ride around on a motorbike. Plus, their food was much better.
Picture Count: 50
Lizard Count: 32 They are everywhere in Laos...
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