Quiet Days in Vientiane

Monday, Aug. 16, 2010--Vientiane

This was a slow day for me. After going for a morning sandwich, I stopped at two temples to read and ended up visiting with monks at both. One was Khip whom I had met yesterday--a delightful young man with such a positive attitude toward life and such an interest in improving his English.

I also met a young Lao man who is in marketing for a travel agency and conducts tours to Cambodia, Malaysia, and other neighboring countries. He was quite stylish for a Laotian with frosted tips to his hair which was styled with heavy use of gel.

Had Phad Thai for dinner and ate pastries afterwards.

Tuesday, Aug. 17, 2010--Vientiane

I picked up my laundry this morning and was pleasantly surprised with how clean it was. So often in the past I have gotten it back with shirts still having collar rings and socks still looking dirty. That's one reason I've been doing my own laundry. But everything looked fine this time around.

I returned to the place where I have been having morning sandwiches lately and tried a tuna one this time. I sat with Fabio, a young Italian, to eat it. We visited a long time. He is one of a group of 4 people who have been living in Thailand at its border with Myanmar and providing arts programs for the children of the Burmese refugees. Fabio himself has a degree in theater and likes to do sculpture. The job they are doing is a paid position that is dependent upon funding through external agencies. He is here because they have just gotten funding for a project in Pakse with a women's shelter to provide a similar program. Unfortunately, they have about a 3 month gap between when the Thai project ends and the Lao project begins, so we talked about his need to find a way to make money during this time and what his possibilities might be. It was fun hear about the projects and to observe how dedicated he is to trying to do good in this world.

I visited with the monk Thip again this afternoon at his temple. He asked me if I would go home with him this weekend to visit his family. It would be a wonderful opportunity to be in a local home, eat local food, see how the family members interact, etc. But his home is too far from here. It is east of Savannakhet which would involve an overnight bus trip to Savannakhet followed by a 2 hour tuk-tuk trip to his town. I told him I needed to check to see how long I am allowed to stay in Lao in my passport. But tomorrow I will tell him I cannot go. I will stick with my plans for returning to Thailand on Thursday. It's all worked out in terms of spending the last of my Lao currency tomorrow and on the bus trip across the river, too. Changing my plans would just complicate things. It's too bad it couldn't have been last weekend which would have given me a nice way to leave Vientiane for a few days and still have let me depart for Thailand on time.

Before going to dinner, I was sitting in the yard of Wat Inpeng reading a book. Just as it started to get too dark to read anymore, the monks entered the temple building and started chanting. I walked over and looked into the doors. It was such a magical moment. The lighting was low--a combination of giant candles and two multi-globe light fixtures. There was a giant golden Buddha. The monks sat on the floor facing the Buddha chanting. It was truly something special to see and hear.