The Little Things

I arrived back in Vientiane the end of January and had a little less than a week to prepare for LaoTESOL.  It was a 2 day conference for English teachers in the country.  It was a lot of fun.  English teachers from all over the country came to the city for the U.S. Embassy sponsored event.  I was able to present and had a very full room.  I had a chance to meet many teachers and it was interesting exchanging stories.

My sister was set to arrive the following Tuesday.  I was really looking forward to spending the weekend mostly relaxing with a little bit of housework to make the place presentable.  Instead, I work up Saturday morning very sick.  I think it must have been the flu.  I managed to make it ok, but had a little mishap on Sunday evening-which is the point of this post.

I met my friend Julia for dinner Sunday evening, came home, was feeling particularly weak and ready for bed.  I decided to take a shower before calling it a night.  I had done some laundry throughout the day and mopped a little, so my water use was unusually high for one person.  I was in the shower when I heard the water pump making some weird noise(it is normally noisy, but it was different this time).  I thought, "I wonder what is wrong.  Maybe I should make sure the soap is all off."  Well, it was a short time later that the pump came on, stayed on, and the water went out.  YIKES.  It was about 8pm on Sunday night.  I went out to look in the tank. I stood on my tip toes and used my little flashlight to see what was going on.  Sure enough, no water.  I had to call my landlady. 

Calling my landlady is always kind of fun.  She speaks about as much English and I do Lao.  I tried explaining and soon found myself talking to a younger woman(her daughter?) in English.  I explained the pump made some strange noises and that I didn't have water.  She told me to wait.  A few minutes later my landlady and her husband (who speaks a great deal of English) showed up.  We investigated the problem, discussed the possibility that the water company had shut off the water, dismissed that, talked to the neighbors, made some phone calls, did some yelling across fences and determined that nobody had water.  They saved my night by putting a hose over  the fence and partially filling the tank.  I went to bed wondering how many days I would need to be careful with my water consumption.  I went out the next morning to a full tank.  I still go out and check every once in awhile before doing laundry or taking a shower.  I don't want to take that water for granted anymore.  Enjoy the little things.  Love, M.

Fun in the Sun

I had a few days of work in Bangkok the end of January.  Kyle and I took the opportunity to go to Thailand early and relax on the beach for a few days.  It was wonderful.  Here are the pics.

On the night train to Bangkok

Beachside restaurant

Ready for a day of adventure exploring the island  

Delicious looking fruity drinks...check

 

 

Snorkeling with TONS of fish

Sunset

Kyle Snorkeling

Fishing at Sunset

 

 

The happy fishing guide

Kyle swimming in the ocean

Holding out high-dollar "fishing poles"

Me and my "fishing pole"

Happy New Year

Outside the gate before the trip

We didn't go on an elephant trek, but we did get out of town.  We decided to go to southern Laos to a place called Si Phan Don, or 4,000 Island.  It is an archipelago on the Mekong between Laos and Cambodia.  I had seen some pictures of it and it looked beautiful.  Kyle and I decided to take advantage of the long weekend and go on an adventure.  It was pretty fun.




We actually spent New Year's Eve on the night bus to Pakse.  We left around 8p.m.  The night bus is a pretty good idea.  You get on the bus, go to sleep, and wake up at your destination.  The night bus is not designed for tall people, at least not tall people who share a bunk.  Even though it was a long night, it was still better than taking a 10 hour bus during the day.  We arrived and had some trouble figuring out where we were supposed to go next.  We got on a bus, went two blocks, got new tickets, the bus driver took us back to where we were and told us to go with another driver in a minivan.  We said hello to the new driver, gave him our luggage to put on top, he strapped everything on and said, "Wait here" before driving away.  It was a nerve racking 20 minutes. He did finally show back up.  We were put in the very front row, which wasn't secured to the floor so it was a wobbly 2.5 hour ride to the island.  We took a little boat (ferry) to the island and had a little time to say hello to our friends Matt and Nicole before they headed back to Vientiane.  They did give us a good recommendation on a place to stay and some good ideas for dinner and entertainment while we were there.

The King of Bus...still too small

Happy New Year-on the King of Bus

Ferry to Don Khong-the BIG island

Evening view across the river

A shot of our hotel from the river

The second day we went on a tour.  There are a couple of famous waterfalls and some endangered dolphins we wanted to see.  It was a nice day.  It started off cloudy and cool.  We took a long boat ride, a long bike ride, another boat ride, more bike riding, another boat ride, a van to and from another waterfall, and finally a boat ride home.  By the end of the day, the sun had come out and I was fried-on the tops of my arms and face-a serious farmer's tan.  Kyle was fine, but I was crispy.

Kyle on the bike ride

Getting "life-jacketed up" before looking for dolphins

The Irrawaddy Dolphin-this is a picture from the internet.  I was too slow

The first waterfall of the day

The second waterfall of the day

That is a LOT of water

There were many other tourists around

 We ended up heading back to Vientiane the next evening on yet another night bus.  This one was even smaller than before.  It was once again, nice to be home.  Enjoy the pictures.  Love, M.

Houston, We Have a Camera

It was finally time to bargain like a pro and get a camera.  Too many experiences to let the time go by undocumented.  We picked it up the day before getting out of town for New Years (More on that later).  Here are a couple of shots for now.

Kyle rolling Spring Rolls like a Lao lady-like a champ

Kitty Kitty-the kitten Kyle talked me into buying actual cat food for

Fixing the Yincin

Skipping Christmas

Kyle decided he wanted to see what it would be like to skip Christmas this year.  It seemed like an ok plan.  At least it would be easier to avoid most things Christmas because this is a place that doesn't really celebrate the holiday.  Well, the Lao people are starting to catch on to the idea that money can be made at Christmastime.  But, it was still relatively mild.  I heard Christmas music in a coffee shop back in October and didn't hear any more tunes until today.  I purchased a string of lights before Kyle arrived thinking we would get a tree once he got here.  They are still on the bookshelf.  Overall, aside from calling home Christmas night, we managed to avoid the commercial-ness of the holiday.

Friday morning we decided to get out of town, do something fun.  I had to take a quick trip to Thailand that morning.  When I returned home, I threw my stuff in the bag and we left.  We were talked into taking a minivan to Vang Vieng because it is supposed to be an hour shorter(we were on the bus on the way home and didn't seem to take an hour longer).  Before we even got out of town, the driver decided to move us to the front row and stuff 4 Lao people into the row built for 3.  So, we got to ride shotgun.  It was so nice to see something new.  The road was very bumpy and dusty, but it was different.

We arrived in Vang Vieng shortly before sunset and managed to find a decent place to stay.  Actually, it was pretty good-except for the loud neighbors.  It was right on the Nam Song river.  We went out to find a place for dinner.  We walked through town before deciding on one of the first places we glanced at a menu.  After dinner, while strolling through the supermarket,  we discovered a bottle of mystery alcohol containing a cobra with a scorpion in it's mouth.  Kyle asked the woman if people actually drink the stuff. She replied, "Yes.  It's for stronger."  Of course it is.

Most people(backpackers) go to Vang Vieng to tube on the river and/or party.  It is clear that most of the town is accommodating.  So, I thought that even though it has been a little cool, we would go tubing or kayaking-because that is what people do.  Christmas Eve started out cool and overcast.  Kyle said it would burn off soon.  It didn't.  We ended up renting motorbikes and exploring.  We paid money to go into the Tiger Cave (no idea why that is the name).  It was ok but a little bit snug.  I guess neither one of us are really cave people.  Plus, there was a huge spider the guide pointed out to us and some crickets.  I don't really like either.  We got to drive around through a dried up rice field.  It was really bumpy.  That evening Kyle decided to try fly fishing in the river.  I went to see how it was going and discovered him surrounded by 4 local boys wearing little more than their underwear checking out his process.  They stood around discussing what he was doing, the fly rod, reel, float line, and his bait-or lack of it.  They were cute.  One of them even jumped in and helped him reel it in.  It would have been a great picture.

Sunday morning, we got up after another night of pretty loud neighbors.  It was actually sunny, but still pretty cool.  The clouds and fog did actually burn off.  But, we were done and ready to come home.  We took the bus and it was long, bumpy, windy, queasy ride home.  When we finally got home, it felt great.

Overall, it was great to get out of town for the weekend and see something new, and great to be home.  We are trying to watch all of Lost before he goes.  It is a big project, but we are committed.  I have watched bits of it here and there and had forgotten about how engrossing it is.  Stay tuned for news about New Years-I want to go look for elephants.  Lots of Love, M.

Happy Happy

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  I know it has been awhile since I have written, but better late than never.

Kyle is here visiting.  He is starting to get over the jet lag.  It has been nice having someone to hang out with.  He visited my class on Thursday evening and a couple of my students said that he looks like a movie star.  They couldn't say which one.  Definitely not Tom Cruise, but someone who could have been in a movie with Tom Cruise at some point.  We can just call him Hollywood.

Well, I will write again soon.  I hope that wherever you are during this Holiday season, you are enjoying it.

Interesting

I saw this online somewhere earlier this week or last week.  I thought it was interesting.  I was reminded of it tonight when I picked up this edition of Time from one of my favorite markets.  Makes you wonder why in the US, Time readers are being told anxiety can be good for you when there is so much more going on in our world.  I am going to discuss this with my class this week when talking about audience.  Should be a fun discussion.  Remember, it is good to have a variety of news sources.  Love, M.

UPDATE:  Ok.  I actually looked through the magazine after my post and to be fair, the anxiety story is in the issue I have.  I guess it is just the cover that is different.  But still, why?