Wednesday, December 19, 2007

leisurely breakfast at resort. The fried noodle with egg and peanuts was good.
Free transfer to airport at 9am. 40 min flight on lao airlines with its neon blue patterned seats. Served a bun with preserve and yummy tamarind paste sweets.
35K kip a person for taxi transfer to green park boutique hotel. Layout a little reminiscent of santi but bathroom much nicer. Free internet access a plus.
K decided to lounge by pool first so took off in search of lunch. Kua lao was closed so ended up at one of the fruit shake places across from asian pavilion hotel. Shake (6K kip) and satisfying toasted bread pockets filled with cheese, ham and pineapple (15K kip).
Oddly enough, prices here in the capital seem to be lower than in LP. Entrance to wat sisaket was merely 5K kip. Murals in the sim definitely in need of restoration though.
Bumped into K here and we went for a stroll along the river. he had a pancake with apple and honey but couldn’t eat much. Fruit shake no. 2 for me.
Met T, as arranged, at inter hotel and passed her her books and clothes.
Had drinks next to the river. The river bed was quite a sight as kids played soccer under the evening sun.
Fruit shake no. 3 and then on to dinner at french restaurant la terrasse. Shared carafe of red wine (65K kip) and had the onion soup (28K kip) which was not robust enough. The duck in cherry sauce (70K kip) was quite tasty but the meat was a little overdone.
T’s enjoying herself in laos and certainly taking the less travelled path by doing research on the mekong river commission.
She’s staying in a studio with a kitchenette (US$180/month) across from wat ong teu and is wary of novice monks and their amorous ways. Recounted her american friend’s experience with them, concluding that normal rules of behaviour with regard to monks (for women to keep a distance away etc) did not apply in that instance.