Hanoi: very simple but they have to setup extra tables to handle the lunch rush

Hanoi: our first good pho ga

Hanoi: water puppet show

Hanoi: statue inside Ngoc Son Temple

Hanoi: a stuffed turtle that was found dead in the lake

Hanoi: there is a giant turtle sticking his head out of the water

Hanoi: cool fisherman statues at Ngoc Son Temple

Hanoi: McDonalds of pho even with wilted produce

Hanoi: the one on the left is mine with meat and eggs and the other is just a plain bun

12-26-10: Hanoi, Day 1

Our first full day in Hanoi started with a search for an Internet cafe
for Christmas calls home. Finding Internet can be very challenging in
a new city, especially one as crazy as Hanoi. It takes a while to
acclimate to the look of shops in a new place. What does an Internet
cafe look like in Hanoi? Our guide book said that Internet cafes were
"ubiquitous" along two streets, Hang Bac and Hang Be. Since we can
read street signs here, it is much easier to find ourselves and
locations from a map. We quickly found the first street, but we didn't
see a single internet cafe. We went to the second street and found
exactly one sign advertising Internet - good job guidebook. The sign
was above a narrow passageway leading into the bowels of a building.
We didn't see any computers, but the woman we asked pointed down the
hall, indicating that we should go on in. Basically, it was a house.
We passed bedrooms, a kitchen, an ancestor shrine. Finally we got to a
stairwell and electrical tape had been used to write the word Internet
on the wall with an arrow pointing up the stairs. As one of our first
experiences in the city, it was a trippy experience. Thankfully, the
second floor was styled like an ordinary Internet cafe. It showed us
that in Hanoi, you have to know what you are looking for if you want
to find it - a lot can be hidden in a city this dense.

Tamarind Cafe

We headed for some long overdue lunch at a vegetarian place called
Tamarind Cafe. It was a strong example of how there are protected
eddies of calm within the bustle of Hanoi. This place was quiet and
still and slow moving. The menu was interesting, including my
favorite-titled dish: veggie coffin. We got the eggplant claypot, a
tabouli, and a pot of jasmine green tea. Later we enjoyed a mango
sticky rice, the best we have had in a long time.

Walking Tour of the Old Quarter

Next we decided to take the self-guided walking tour as described by
our handy dandy guidebook. Thanks to Robert's crack navigating skills
and the roman lettered Vietnamese street signs, we were able to easily
navigate our new city. We started the tour at a restored old Chinese
merchant's house called the Memorial House, which is actually right
across the street from Tamarind Cafe. I was told I could take pictures
and started snapping away, but when I got to the traditional opium
pipes and pottery, a woman appeared and told me in surprisingly good
English that I could take pictures of the structure of the house, but
not the individual pieces. Robert told me they were for sale - oops. I
spent the rest of our visit asking before taking each picture. The
woman practically was rolling her eyes at me by the end, but I didn't
want to be inconsiderate!

The rest of the tour is best shown by pictures. The most striking
things about the city are the amount of traffic and the organization
of the shop locations. There are millions of motorbikes and cars and
taxis and bikes and these things called cyclos, which are the
offspring of wheelchairs and bicycles. The driver sits on a bike seat
and pedals a wheelchair attached to the front. They are popular with
tour groups and sometimes you will see long lines of them all
together. Cyclo drivers are infamous for ripping you off and it seemed
like a poor way to see the city - if you are too scared to walk in the
street, you shouldn't have come to Asia. You can tell the visitors who
just arrived because they are passed out in the middle of the day,
being driven around he city in a cyclo. Seems like a waste, but it is
awfully amusing to see. We also saw a parent-aged couple sitting on a
park bench, heads resting on each other - fast sleep; I'm glad we dont
have to deal with jet lag anymore.

The other striking thing about Hanoi is that the shops are grouped by
type. This was one of my favorite aspects of the tour. The book would
say, "along this street, you will notice several fancy jewelry shops,"
and lo and behold, fancy jewelry shops! We also saw mirror shops,
blacksmith shops, tin box shops (we didn't know what a tin box was
until we got here, but they look a lot like tin boxes!), buddha statue
shops, straw mat shops, silk shops, toy shops...the list goes on and
on. Basically, you can do your shopping easily if you know the street
you are looking for. If you can't find the right street, you won't
find what you are looking for.

Bach Ma Temple

We also went to the Bach Ma Temple, which was supposed to have
white-haired guardians, but alas, that was just a figment of the
guidebook's imagination. In comparison to Thai temples, temples here
typically are organized into a series of rooms, one leading to the
next until you get to the central chamber. Each doorway has an
elevated threshold requiring you to step over and into the next room,
bad spirits are apparently flummoxed by this system and can't move
around the temple. The statues are completely different here, too. The
central statue is usually of Confucius, not Buddha, and there are
always statues of a crane standing on top of a turtle - not sure of
the significance of that one. In addition to the straight incense
sticks, they have clever curly ones that burn forever (sort of like a
mosquito coil). Also notable are the offerings: canned goods, fresh
produce and fake money! There was a wad of $500 US notes at the Bach
Ma Temple. It is called "ghost money" and it is printed just to burn
in ceremonies. I'm glad we went to a few temples here because they are
so different, but I'm sure they will start looking the same here too.

Dong Xuan Market

We went to a great big market on the tour as well, called Dong Xuan
Market. Markets are challenging to photograph because they are full of
people, most of whom scowl when you photo bomb them (reverse photo
bombing, really, for those of you familiar with the term - basically
stealing their picture). This market was three stories tall and huge
inside and out. There was an extensive dried foods section, full of
mushrooms and beans and spices and shrimp, and delineated by narrow
aisles that necessitated backtracking if you met two-way traffic. The
clothing section was vast as well, each stall stuffed more than the
last. Vendors use these hook/grabber tools to hang things high up in
their stalls, basically they are just a broomstick with a U-shaped
metal piece on the end. Some vendors are really skilled with it and
can hang or unhang their hooks with finesse; other vendors just unhang
things and let them drop like coconuts on the passersby. All the
products for sale are shipped in giant, sturdy plastic sacks. I bet
you could fit four or even six people in one sack.

Finally, as we were leaving the market we happened across the hardware
section. This was much more interesting than clothing: knives and
tools and scissors and who knows what else all the gadgets did, but
the displays were great to gawk at. Some were even selling giant
silver water pipes that are used everywhere around the city. Lots of
cyclo drivers have one stashed by the axle of their buggy, for easy
access between passengers and every little corner store has a communal
pipe sitting out front, where you can smoke your own tobacco if you
dare. It seems like you would have to be quite skilled at and
accustomed to smoking if you were going to survive a hit from one of
these gargantuan pipes, but people here manage. Robert is on the hunt
for someone who will let him take a picture of the pipe in use, so
stay tuned!

Beer Ahoy!

After such a long perambulation, we rewarded ourselves with some bia
hoi. This is not to be confused with Bia Ha Noi, which is bottled and
ordinary, yet still quite tasty. Bia Hoi, on the other hand, is a dirt
cheap local microbrew, distributed daily to lots of little shops
throughout the city. Most real establishments don't sell it, you have
to look for a sign advertising bia hoi and lots of plastic stools on
the sidewalk, but the most important and failsafe indicator is a
silver keg taped out front. If you are in the know, you can go the the
bia hoy intersection, where each corner of the street has a different
bia hoi joint. You go and sit outside and stare at the patrons of
other, lesser bia hoi joints. Clearly the green-signed place is
superior to all other corners. It is also a great place to photo bomb
people passing through the intersection, but I am getting ahead of
myself.

Our first experience with bia hoi was not at the bia hoi intersection;
we went to a very small place down the way. There was a white guy out
front having his picture taken while trying to hawk roasted corn from
the back of a bike powered cart full of the stuff. As we got our
glasses of light-colored brew and arranged stools for us to sit on, we
enjoyed listening to this guy banter with the corn seller. The corn
seller spoke little to no English, so the guy was doing all the
talking, inventing a conversation as he went. He was quite a character
and we befriended him after the corn seller realized he wasn't buying
and moved on, ironically only after forcing the white guy to take an
ear of corn for free.

His name was Jason and he taught us a few bad habits that we now enjoy
dearly. He is traveling alone and is friendly to everyone who passes
by. Case in point, there was a tiny girl, maybe two?, who kept passing
by with her dad. On each pass, she and Jason high-fived. He had given
her a sticker on a previous pass and they had become life-long pals.
Eventually, we too received a shiny Ben-10 sticker and became BFFs!
More amusing than his interactions with two year olds were his
interactions with the million street sellers of donuts and bananas.
Pre-Jason, we would say no once and then ignore the street sellers
until they moved on. Now, we have fallen into the terribly ineffectual
habit of chatting with them. This inevitably prolongs the attack, but
it is so much fun, it is worth it. Jason will get into full-blown
conversations with each one who comes by.

Example: Woman offering day-old, deep fried donuts of death
approaches. Jason says: oh no, I couldn't possibly eat those! They
make me fat. See this belly? If I eat those, I will surely blimp.
Donuts are bad for your health, didn't you know? The whole time the
poor seller, who has no idea what he is saying, gets ever more
hopeful. Once he even tried to charge the seller for a picture she had
taken with him! One picture, one dollar! Oh look, see -we took two
pictures...TWO dollars! You give me. It seems a little cruel, but also
a taste of their own medicine. They are extremely persistent here,
which I guess you have to be if you are ever going to sell even one of
those mealy donuts. (I know they are mealy because I bought two sticks
of them, against Robert's better judgement. Never again.)

We had several rounds of drinks together and eventually decided to
move on to a proper bar - the bia hoy keg was tapped out. As we were
leaving, a banana and pineapple seller approached us. Thanks to
Jason's steady banter, she followed us for three blocks! Jason
eventually negotiated to buy her knife from her, which he managed for
30,000d - $1.50US - far cheaper than our knife! Asking directions from
everyone on the street we eventually found the bar he was looking for,
Temple Bar. Here we had a few more rounds, danced to the terrible rap
that Robert had never heard of and tried to help Jason pick up a girl.
Despite the backpacker spirit of the place, no one else was dressed in
tech fabric and hiking pants; not a big deal if you are a man and
pointedly not-dancing, but mildly annoying if you are a pretty girl
trying to get her dance on in a club. It didn't slow me down for long
though, thanks to all that bia hoi we had already imbibed!

Finally it was time to go, so we said our goodbyes and went out into
the deserted streets, roughly in the direction of home. On the next
street corner, who did we meet? Jason. We were both a little lost
getting home, but took some time out of our busy schedule to say hello
again. The other thing that you are constantly offered on the streets
is motorbikes. I don't know who would buy a motorbike from some guy on
the street, but someone must. (ok, maybe they are selling rides on
their motorbike taxi, but all they say is, "motorbike!" so how are you
to know the difference?) We got offered several motorbikes as we stood
on the street corner chatting. Eventually, we counter-offered,
"opium?" Amazingly, the next motorbike passing us was flagged down and
he was the guy. "he. Opium," we were told. How convenient! First we
were shown some mangy weed, but we weren't suckers - we are too close
to the golden triangle to fall for the low hanging fruit - we wanted
the good stuff. Then girls were discussed, myself being the example.
"Do you have any of these?" I was horrified, but it was all in good
fun. And then, like magic, the next motorbike was carrying girls! It
was a crazy night.

Hanoi: our friend Jason on our first Bai Hoi night

Hanoi: inside the steam buns I'd get at least 3 times a day

Hanoi: tapas

Hanoi: mirror shops

Hanoi: tin boxes

Hanoi: Jen--"are these for food?", spice man--"no", "are these for medicine?", "no", then she just takes a picture

Hanoi: one direction has a red light

Hanoi: it's a knife and pipe shop

Hanoi: they tie the crabs up while they're for sale

Hanoi: inside an old oven

Hanoi: stacks of noodles

Hanoi: the Cua O Quan Chuong can be used as a urinal

Hanoi: I like these incense better

Hanoi: they give and burn fake money at the temples here

Hanoi: a whole bicycle load of fuel for the ovens

Hanoi: a little different oven/stove thing that uses the black thing on the bottom left as fuel

Hanoi: they have cyclos here instead of tuktuks

Hanoi: lots of motor bikes here

Hanoi: an old style Vietnamese bed

Hanoi: can you find the opium pipes for sale

Hanoi: very old squat toilet

Hanoi: Chinese chess

Hanoi: very tasty mango sticky rice

Hanoi: clay pot tofu and eggplant

Hanoi: tea

12-25-10: Vientiane, Laos to Ha Noi, Vietnam

Today we flew from Vientiane to Ha Noi; a new country, very exciting!!
Our flight wasn't until the evening, so we had the day to kill. We ate
breakfast and got some Internet, catching up the blog and searching
for good lodging for the next few cities. The best meal of the day
though was lunch. We found some hotel that was serving soup, Robert
got a Lao style soup and sticky rice while I got standard noodle soup.
He was excited because his soup was similar to the one he really liked
in Nong Kiaw. The Nong Kiaw soup was called Khamu soup, but we
discovered that Khamu isn't the name of the dish, it is the name of an
ethnic group in Laos. We were worried that we wouldn't be able to find
it again because we didn't know it's name, but this was close. As for
my soup, I enjoyed the giant bucket of greens, herbs, green beans and
peanut sauce that accompanied my soup. They gave me so many greens
though there was no way I could eat them all, let alone fit them all
into my bowl. I wondered if they reused the leftovers or just threw
them out, composted them rather. I saw them tucking trash into the
leftovers, so at least they aren't reused. Souper tasty!

Next we went to an Internet cafe to print out the e-ticket for our
flight. The errand was ho-hum, but as we were leaving, the guy said
something to us. Our brains went click, click, click...trying to
translate it into english. It took a while, but we finally recognized
the phrase: Merry Christmas and happy new year!!

I have been struggling with liking Vientiane I think because I wanted
it to be like Thailand, but it isn't. It is so undeveloped, even the
two biggest cities are tiny towns. The roads are atrocious and there
isn't much to do. Sometimes the scenery is breathtaking, but it is so
hard to get to, so how can you really appreciate it? As for Vientiane,
it has taken me days to find any charm in it at all. It is so
important to keep an open mind and just keep trying to find the good
bits of the city. Robert, however, seems to like it here, not as a
travel destination, but if he was going to live somewhere, he thinks
Vientiane is quit livable. He likes that there is good western food
available here, so if you were here for a long time, you can get
western food that you miss. Also, the streets are clean and the city
is big enough that you escape the touristy bits pretty easily. There
is more begging here than in Thailand, probably because it is poorer
in Laos. Several times while we were eating at a sidewalk cafe, little
kids or adults came up to ask for money or pointed to our drinks for
us to give them. One really interesting experience was when a guy who
we think had polio because his legs were all messed up came up to us.
We turned him away, but a guy at a nearby table tried to give him a
500 kip note. The guy didnt want it. He just crawled back to his
wheelchair bike contraption and left it there. 500 kip is very small
money, but why wouldnt he take it? The bike he was riding had a hand
pump handle to turn the wheels, a very clever contraption we think was
built by a group called COPE that works with people injured by
unexploded ordinance. Anyways, two opinions of Vientiane.

We visited a Lao Starbucks knock-off, True Coffee. The list of drinks
was considerable, but Robert liked his espresso and my iced peppermint
peddy latte was okay. They charged for wi-fi though $&?! capitalists.

Flight

Then it was time to fly! We got a fair fare to the airport and made it
there three hours before our flight left, maybe a little overkill. We
exchanged out Kip, which is all but worthless outside of the country,
turning it into bahts. We forgot about snacks though and when I tried
to buy snacks with Bahts, they quoted me four times the price. Oh
well. We will eat in Ha Noi. Finally we were boarding. Our seats were
in the exit row, so they didn't recline, but for an hour flight, we
would survive. The first thing we noticed though was that there were
mosquitos on the plane! A lot of them. The second thing we noticed was
the chic uniforms worn by the flight attendants. They were elegant and
flowy, linen pants with a long sleeve tunic that dropped all the way
to the ground. I later read the airplane magazine and learned that it
is traditional Vietnamese dress, called an ao dai. Flying made me feel
so normal - we were escaping the undeveloped country of Laos into the
"real" world. The one problem with flying is that we have been
struggling with a sinus cold and the pressure on the plane wreaked
havoc on our sinuses, soon enough though we were landing.

Getting to our guesthouse

We were quite nervous getting off the plane in this strange new world.
We were the rattiest looking people at the airport, apparently our ilk
all opted for the cheaper transport - the 24 hr bus ride - suckers! We
made it through customs and then went to wait for our checked bags,
which we did at the wrong turnstile for a whopping 45 min!! We started
to get worried when the throng of people cleared out and still no
bags. Then we located our sad, lonely bags left strewn on the airport
floor at the other turnstile that we didn't even know existed. If
that's the worst mistake we make in Vietnam, I'm okay with that. The
airport is 45km from Hanoi and getting into the city can be quite
tricky. We read about the numerous scams that happen at the airport
and decided the safest option would be to take the Vietnam airline
shuttle. It has a fixed fare of $2 usd or 40,000 dong, which as it
turns out it's better to use US since the exchange rate is 19,500 dong
for $1usd and it's very easy to use 20,000 for the conversion on the
street.

So once on the shuttle, it's always a trick to figure out where you
should be getting off the bus, but this shuttle stopped running at our
destination, so it was pretty easy this time. It was after 10pm when
we finally arrived in Hanoi and now we have to find a guesthouse
amongst the crowds of people on the streets. The guesthouse that
Robert wanted to go to described itself as difficult to find and it
really was, but for the first time in SEA there were addresses on the
store fronts, which makes things much easier. Even with addresses
though, the store front was only a doorway. We missed it on the first
pass, but the second time around, his very keen eyes spotted it!
Thankfully, it was still open with the family that owns and runs it
sitting in the lobby watching tv. The old man showed us up three
narrow flights of spirally staircases to our room. He was very nice
and was probably alive during the Us war here. The room is very large
with one double bed and a twin bed so it could easily sleep 3 people.
There is also a small tv with English channels and a mini fridge. I
like these beds better than any that we have had yet and Robert says
we should get a Temperpedic when we get home.

Dinner anyone?

So now it's about 10:45pm and we haven't eaten since 1:30pm, so we
went out to find dinner in our new home. At the very frigid tempature
of 62 deg F, we decided that a big bowl of pho was in order. Right
outside our guest house there was a very tasty steamed bun seller, two
in fact, but we each got one of those to stave off the hunger demons.
They really hit the spot and then on to the crazy night streets of
Hanoi. We went to the first sit down restaurant that looked alright,
named Bia Minh Restaurant, really the first one we saw and got two not
so great bowls of pho. After that we tried to walk around the walking
street that was lined with vendors, but at 11pm everything starts
shutting down. So we just procured some much needed water and tried to
find our way home. We flip on the tv which is very novel and reminds
us of home and watched some tv before bed. We found this great
televised circus that was all in French, but it was the most
entertaining tv I have watched in a long time!

Obseervations

One aspect of being in Vietnam that we are truly excited about is that
we are literate here!! Thailand and Laos have their own scripts, whose
letters look like swirly-curly ques to us. Vietnam on the other hand
uses ROMAN LETTERS. This means we can actually read street signs and
menus! We can't pronounce anything, but we can use a map with ease.
Not trying to compare squiggles on a map to squiggles on a sign, which
if you haven't tried it before is damn near impossible.

Another aspect of Vietnam that fascinates us is the traffic. Hanoi is
busy. I mean, every street is used above capacity. The best metaphor
we have thought of is that the traffic is like water. It flows
seamlessly and constantly. If you want to cross the street, you do so
by very slowly and steadily walking out into traffic. If you don't
make any sudden moves, the motorbikes will TRY not to hit you. What is
most crazy about this system is that it works. We can cross the street
whenever we want without waiting for lights, just cross. Another
traveler also described to us that here, "they drive by the horn." It
is a good phrase. If you don't have a horn, you basically can't drive.
If anyone tries to cut you off or doesn't see you, just honk, Honk,
HONK, until they heed your right of way. It is crazy and wonderful, it
might be worth coming here, just to see the traffic!

Hanoi: the entrance to our guesthouse, just a little hard to find

Hanoi: I can't walk by this steam bun lady and not buy a steam bun

Vientaine: how we spent Christmas

Vientaine: Jen trying to pose like a Christmas tree by the giant blue Christmas tree

Vientaine: what came with the pho

Vientaine: pho

12-24-10: Vientiane 2

Today was another day in a city. Nothing special. When the best thing
you have to say about your day is that the Vietnamese Consulate didn't
steal your passport, it wasn't that great of a day.

We ate very tasty rice soup and noodle soup at a small shop next to
our wi-fi joint, Vista. Then we went to Vista for more internet. We
have basically given up on Vientiane as a city and we just spend all
day doing internet chores. Our waiter asked for help with "factbook,"
which we eventually understood to be FaceBook. Robert helped him
install Firefox and the FacePad add-on so that he could download
albums of pictures from Facebook. The guy was very thankful and Robert
was glad to help.

We still had hours to kill before we could pick up our visas, so we
went for lunch. See how exciting Vientiane is? We did find a good
lunch spot though. The place was called Makphet and it was a charity
organization that trains former street kids for the hospitality
industry. It was a little pricey, but for a good cause. We got a three
dip platter (Jeow Maklen, Jeow Head and Jeow Mak Keua) and Lao style
buffalo and potato stew (Op Sin Kwai). Robert really liked the stew,
which reminded me of goulash and we ate a fair bit of the dips, but
they were a little too exotic for my taste buds - they seemed
well-prepared and gourmet though. The parent company is called Peaun
Mit ("friends" in Lao) and they also have two restaurants in Phnom
Penh, Cambodia: Ramdeng and Friends the Restaurant). Interesting
organization, if you want more info about them:
friends-international.org

Next we collected our passports, yay! We holed up in our room for a
while, watching TV and washing the dust off while avoiding getting
mosquito bites on the delicate places. We barely made it out for a
late Indian dinner.

Overall, we are excited to move on to Vietnam and we splurged to book
a flight there tomorrow. The alternative would be to take a bus for 24
hours, the drivers of which are purported to stop in the middle of
nowhere to renegotiate the fair that was already set and paid for
before the bus left. It didn't seem like the most enjoyable way to
spend 24-hours. The flight was $200 US each, which kills our budget
for a few days, but I think it will be worth it to get out of Laos and
into Vietnam quickly and with as few hassles as possible. That being
said, the hassles in Vietnam are supposed to be monumental. TravelFish
said, "you will get ripped off. Don't take it personally, budget for
it." sweet!

Vientaine: wheelchairs made from bike parts

Vientaine: Lao style water buffalo and potato stew

Vientaine: very good restaurant

Vientaine: some noodle soup

12-23-10: Vientiane 1

It seems like we have been in this city for a very long time, but we
haven't really - three nights.

The first day our goal was to get a Vietnam visa. This was a chore for
a multitude of reasons, the first being that the embassy was a fair
walk from where we are staying. We chose to walk though because we
didn't want to haggle with the tuk-tuk drivers and we hadn't seen any
of the city yet. Then the building was under construction, gutted in
fact and full of scaffolding. Where do we go now? We walked the whole
way around it and found a sign for the consulate - would they give us
a visa? Who knows - they were closed for lunch. See what I mean? It
was a chore.

We killed time by walking to the Talat Sao Market, also under
construction, but the old market was in full swing. There was a giant
maze of covered stalls. We priced sarongs, but they wanted a lot for a
six foot length of fabric, unhemmed - 95,000 to 120,000 for a
patterned piece of fabric. We also saw the school uniform sarongs, a
black piece of fabric and the patterned band that could be sewn on at
home. Interesting that that is a school uniform. We also looked at
more sticky rice containers and a clay cooker oven - could I get it
home?? The wheels are spinning. Basically, you can get anything at
this giant market, but we bailed when we got to the fresh meat and
fish sludge section - entirely too smelly for our delicate sniffers.

We wanted to grab a bite to eat, but we couldn't find anywhere and all
the places nearby that were in the guidebook were closed! Worthless
book. We found the US Embassy though and that was comforting, even if
they wouldn't let us take a picture of it. Nearby was That Dam, the
Black Stupa, not sure what it's significance is, we just used it as a
landmark for navigational purposes. Instead of food, we got a beer for
the Robot and a lime Ginger ale for me.

Back at the consulate. No one was behind the counter, just a lot of
people waiting and working on forms. We took two forms and began
filling them out. To do this, we had to reach through the glass
partition to a counter on the other side. I got yelled at for this
later when I turned in my completed form, but the guy's English was so
bad that he couldn't really say anything, he just made
incomprehensible angry noises at me. Then I was told that I had to go
to another room to fill out my form, the chair I was sitting in was
not for me! Whatever, angry consulate man. Finally we turned in our
forms, our passports and $50 US each to be picked up the next day.
Every visa or border crossing fee has to be paid for in US, isn't that
strange?

The rest of the day was uneventful. We got indian food for dinner,
probably watched TV in our room. We only get two English movie
channels and the movies are quite terrible, romantic or slapstick
comedies invariably. We have watched several by now though, just for
something in English and something to do.

A word about our guesthouse: we are paying 90,000 K for our room, one
bed, fan, tv, shared bathroom. The bathrooms LOOK nice, but in fact,
they are infested with skeeters. I accidentally sprayed the whole room
when fumbling with the shower head that does not stay in it's hanger
notch when turned on and I must have sprayed their nest. Suddenly they
were everywhere!! I tried to spray them with the shower head, but this
just made them stronger. It was a nightmare. I streaked down the hall
and they followed me in a dark cloud. Where is Sai and his bug
zapper?! This happens every time we use the bathroom. Fun times.

Vientaine: flower

Vientaine: containers to make sticky rice are also on our list

Vientaine: another oven

Vientaine: we both want o e of these ovens but can't figure out how to carry one home

Vientaine: the USA donated the cement to build a new airstrip but instead the communist decided to build this statue

Vientaine: hey look it's the airport