lot of wandering. The map in our big guide book is all but worthless,
containing only half of the actual streets and most of them are
incorrectly named. Wandering appears to be the best method for us.
Robert learned a new word today, so I will pass it on to you as well.
The word is "nagas" and it refers to the dragons that frequently
follow staircases at temples. I'm sure there is a picture of them
somewhere. Sometimes there are more than one dragon on each side, one
eating the others tail. They are pretty cool looking and we found a
few shops named after them (3 nagas cafe, 15 nagas boutique) so maybe
there are a few interesting ones around here.
Wi-Fi
Next we went searching for wi-fi. This is typically a challenge in a
new city. All the books say that wi-fi is ubiquitous, but I am here to
tell you that it is not. If you want it at a particular time, say to
check on graduate school letters of recommendation that need to be
submitted before a fast approaching deadline, then it can be damn hard
to come by. We started chasing down suggested places with wi-fi from
the guide book, but they either didn't or didn't exist. We finally got
to one place, JoMa Bakery, that looked like a knockoff Starbucks. They
had Internet, but their apple pie and coffee left something to be
desired. As I was checking my email, something hiccupped in the Pad.
My inbox flashed with new emails, whose subject lines I could read,
but then they all disappeared and my inbox had to completely reload.
This is no small task mind you since I shamefully run a 3000 unchecked
messages inbox. They point of the story is that I had two emails that
seemed to be inviting me to interviews, but it took another thirty
minutes before my email would load and display the actual message!!
Ever Wandering
Next we food a small cafe and had our first bowl of pho! We just
ordered noodle soup, but the script on the menu board said "pho"
complete with the tonal mark that I cannot add with this keyboard. It
was so tasty and complete with limes, lettuce, baby green leafy
things, fresh chilis, mint and basil. This is what we came here to
experience.
Post office to buy expensive stamps (12,000kip, 1.50$) and use their
horrible squatter, bucket flusher monstrosity of a water closet as
they are called here, when marked in English.
Next we just wandered around town. Should we go left, right or
straight? Left looks interesting. Okay then. We found a cool
pedestrian and bike bridge over the Mekong and lots of school children
going home for lunch.
Finally we meandered back into the old part of the city, which we were
more familiar with and got a bite to eat. Robert made a good selection
and had green curry. I opted for cantonese fried noodles to try
something new, never mind that I can't find Canton(?) on a map and
know nothing of their culture. This turned out to be ill-advised
because what I got was basically perfectly good pad Thai drowned in
catsup sauce. Drowned. It was terrible. I wanted to wash the noodles
and have them try again. Then the couple sitting next to us, who we
have run into before on some part of our journey, started playing with
a stray cat. Robert tried to chase it off with his ugly mug, but they
started cooing at it, feeding it, even going so far as to pick it up
and take each others pictures with it. Stray cats and dogs are
everywhere here, none of them should be encouraged to beg inside
restaurants (although they all could probably use a hand out). Home
for a nap.
Hmong Market
When we ventured out again, we wanted more pho. That stuff is
addicting, not that we haven't been eating noodle soup for weeks now.
It's just somehow different when they serve you a plate of fresh
greens and have five kinds of seasonings to add. We found a good place
next to the Hmong Market. The Hmong are an ethnic minority here and
many support themselves by making all sorts of handicrafts to sell.
Knowing little about the Hmong culture, the market looked very similar
to many other markets we have visited. This one was all things, very
little food. Common things for sale were: t-shirts, linen clothes,
woven scarfs, sack purses, slippers, baby bibs, Kleenex box holders,
opium pipes, silver jewelry, antique looking old nick-knacks, and some
bilingual books you can buy and donate to village children, among many
other things.
In a bold move for us, we decided to shop! We set our sights on three
things: a sack purse for me so I can carry the guidebook and camera, a
gift souvenir for Robert, and a knife to cut fruit. They key word to
securing these items is "negotiating." Knowing we were not so good at
this, we tried to negotiate for each other. Robert was able to secure
me a very lovely bag for...damn, now I've forgotten! But the price was
really important at the time. Then I turned around and agreed to the
gift and the knife with very little negotiating. Offer, counter,
offer, okay.
Robert says we paid more than he wanted to pay for his items, but I
eventually got him to admit that it is about winning for him. He gets
his price, he wins. Anything else and he loses. He doesn't like
losing, so he was sore for a bit. At the other extreme, I feel bad for
not buying everythin. I feel bad for walking away when they are
lowering their price to get us to come back, but really we don't want
it. I feel bad for trying to get a lower price at all. 300,000 Kip?
Okay, if that is the price, I will pay it. We both have a bit to
learn, but we didn't spend too much and we came home with three new
items to add to our already heavy packs!!
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