Any time we want to go to Udon Thani, there is a massive process to go through:
1. We drive 15- 20 minutes from our apartment to the Lao Customs/ Friendship Bridge.
2. We spent about 30 minutes going through Lao Customs. This is an incredibly painful process, because (A) there is little to no organization on how this process is done, (B) you have to go to three different booths to get different documents signed/ verified/ paid for, and (C) Lao/ Thai people are really, really bad about cutting in line. It's freaking awful. When someone cuts in front of me in line (and it's never a Westerner; always an Asian person), I will usually mutter under my breath and glare at them until they clear the line and are out of eye-sight. Nick gets more creative: he likes to give them "flat-tires", which means he scootches up to them, lightly stands on the heel of their shoe, and when they move forward, their shoes fall off. It's immature, but frankly, it's hilarious.
3. We pay our 8,000kip/ $1 to cross the bridge
4. We drive across the bridge. Because Laos drives on the right and Thai drives on the left, there is an intersection on the bridge where you switch sides of the road. It's cool.
5. You get to the other side of the bridge and clear Thai Customs. This process is usually much shorter, since the Thai side is more organized and there are only 2 windows to visit, but there are still a lot of people cutting in line, and it still takes 20, 25 minutes.
6. From the Friendship Bridge, you have to drive an hour to get to central Udon Thani, home of the Central Plaza Shopping Mall.
(To get back from Udon to Vientiane, the drives are just as long, but the Customs clearance processes don't take as much time- especially since we have work visas and don't have to do the lengthy Lao visa application process.)
Anyway, the point of all this is to demonstrate how freaking annoying it is to get to Udon. And there are only two reasons we go to Udon:
1. Shopping (especially for a white female above 130 lbs/ 5'5"- pretty much NOTHING in Laos fits me)
2. The movie theater.
So unlike in the States, where our default Friday date night activity is going to the movies and we end up seeing tons of movies, both good and bad, going to the movies here is a long, annoying, arduous process for us.
But X-Men: Days of Future Past was a movie totally, 100% worth the trip.
Love me some mutants. Love me some Wolverine. Love me some Professor X, Magneto, Mystique, Storm, Iceman, Kitty.
Also, I bought the X-Men Mountain Dew Package, which was 239 baht/ $8 for an XL caramel popcorn, a shake tumbler (with a shaker ball so it can be used for really shakes!) and a Mountain Dew. Gotta love Thai concessions prices.
In the Central Plaza mall, they also have Robinson's, which is an enormous upscale department store for Nick to buy some new towels and bedsheets. There are a bunch of Western brands like Mango, Body Glove and Esprit; there are two big athletic apparel stores where I got some new Merrell hiking shoes.
For me, buying shoes in Asia is an awkward and complicated process. I'm a size 10.5 (womens)/ 9 (mens) and there are no stores in Udon that carry a woman's size 10.5. Buying professional or cute shoes is out of the question, unless I'm in Bangkok (where my chances are slightly higher, but not by much). Luckily I was looking for hiking shoes, so getting men's shoes weren't as big a deal. But still.
This is the conversation I had to have at "Super Sports"-
Me: "Hi. I need shoes for backpacking."
Saleswoman: "Uh?"
Me: "You know... hiking?" (pantomiming hiking, pointing at the North Face ad on the wall)
Saleswoman: "Oh, okay" (shows me to the small selection of shoes)
Me: "Okay, these are good. Do you have big size? You know, BIG" (stretching my hands far apart)
Saleswoman: "For lady- big size, size 9."
Me: "Okay, I need to buy men shoes. Size 9."
Saleswoman: "No... lady size 9, men size 8."
Me: "Yeah, no, I get that, but I need men size 9."
Shows me to men's shoes.
Me: "Yeah, these ones- can I try these ones?"
Saleswoman: "Okay but no size 9. Size 8 OK?"
Me: "No... only size 9."
Saleswoman: "You can try?"
Me: "No... let's just move on."
(This times eight)
To be fair, when the saleswoman insisted on my trying other sizes, that might be a consequence of working with Asian brands. In the States, sizes can vary a bit, but here, a size 7 and a size 9 can be totally interchangeable- there are really no regulations/ standards.
Also, this is what parking at Central Mall looks like: double-parking everywhere, but you're supposed to leave the car in neutral so that parking attendants can move the cars as needed.
McDonald's Cafe menu: doesn't the purple gingko pie look delicious?!
