Going to Thailand just for a Movie and Starbucks

Laos has no fast food restaurants, Starbucks or movie theaters, and every once in a while we all want those things. So today we went to Udon Thani, which is an hour into Thailand. 

The most painful part of the process is clearing Customs. You have to do it when leaving Laos (painful), arriving in Thailand (not awful), then again on the way back when leaving Thailand (OK), and arriving back in Laos (really easy when done late at night and no one is there).

There were four of us so we tried to implement the "Divide and Conquer" mentality. It didn't always work. Here are Wes (white guy on the left) and Nick (white guy on the right) who are in the same line. And only one person needed to be in line. 

Also at the Lao / Thai Customs windows (there are three on each side- 4 times going through Customs x 3 windows = 12 windows you have to visit) people cut in line ALL THE TIME. And I get angry about it. Hulk-like angry. In the culture here it's totally socially acceptable to cut in line, but it's also incredibly non-confrontational. I struggle.

Anyway, after getting past Customs and driving an hour to Udon Thani, we finally reach our final destination : Starbucks. And the best part? They had HOLIDAY DRINKS. First time I've seen that at a Starbucks Asia-side. 

But they didn't have eggnog so my excitement was a little diminished. "Eggnog chai latte hold-the-water" is the best drink Starbucks can make :( 

One of the main reasons I wanted to go to Udon Thani was because Hunger Games 2 just came out, and Laos has no movie theater. We got tickets to the English showing- awesome movie. Also, we bought from the concession stand. 

They were having a special- a massive bucket of popcorn plus two sweet Catching Fire thermos full of soda- 300Baht (or $10). I'm going to have a hard time when I go back to the States and have to pay $5 for a small Coke.

Nick attempted to buy a ping-pong table. He spent about an hour looking at ping pong tables in different sports good stores in the mall and measuring the trunk to see if it would fit. But as the ping pong table would be going into our apartment, and the table was much bigger than I expected... we did NOT get a ping pong table.

There are a dozen restaurants in the mall, and all but one are hot-pot. As it was Jesse's birthday, he chose the one Western restaurant. And I went to Sizzler for the first time! 

At the Central Plaza parking lot, it is apparently totally fine to block cars in, as long as you leave your vehicle in neutral. The truck to the right is ours. We had to call a security guard to roll back the other truck to get it out. Super annoying. 

The three guys, for all their shopping, didn't get much, but I spent a lot of money getting clothes, baked goods (brownie mix! Canned pumpkin!) and hair conditioner. 

It's the little things. 

Bananas roasting on an open fire

About two blocks from our office is a street vendor who sells fruit and veggies that he roasts. He speaks no English, and is under the impression that my Lao is much better than it actually is. 

Discreet sneaky shot of the man'a roasting table. 

Usually I buy five bananas (tiny ones) - a couple to eat, the rest to share. But today I thought I'd get extras and hand them out around the office. Unfortunately, he didn't have twelve bananas ready, so he talked me into nine bananas and a sweet potato.

This is what a Lao sweet potato looks like 

It's purple.

Standing desks

Today I joined the ranks of office workers who have standing desks- a bunch of us ordered custom desks for work. My back is aching but it's supposed to help with posture. I've had it up for 3 hours and I'm already tired.

Wes and Nick got theirs first, from a different carpenter. Theirs are a lot prettier :(

Katie the Conversationalist

For the last three months or so, a group of us from the apartment have been taking Lao classes. Our teacher Nou is amazing, even if some of us are really slow. Lao is hard!
(And I'm sure it will be plenty helpful after we move back to the States... Not.)

The most useful things we have learned are how to purchase things- numbers, haggling, ordering food, that kind of thing. But we've also learned some really basic phrases.

10 basic Lao phrases:

"Sabaidee" - hello
"Sabaidee bo" - how are you
"Khop jai" - thank you
"Hong nam" - bathroom
"Kah tote" - excuse me, sorry
"Koi seu Katie" - my name is Katie
"Jao dee" - and you?
"An nii maaen yang huu jak" - nice to meet you
"Tao dai" - how much?
"Jao wow paa saa ang git bo" - do you speak English?

Anyway, since I'm finally able to string words together into super basic sentences, I've started using my Lao more. More often than not this results in me screwing up in Lao, getting embarrassed, then pantomiming what I really want (lots of pointing and head nods or shakes).

But today I got a massage at Champa and speaking a little Lao to my masseuse.
How it went down:
I got confused on the way up to the massage room and went the wrong way.
Me: "Oh, kah tote!" (Sorry! /excuse me!)
Masseuse: "(Something something something) jao wow paasaa lao" (Something something something do you speak Lao?)
Me: "Uh... nyit noi" (a little) [This is where I screwed up. I don't really speak lao. I should really just say no.]
Masseuse: (Something something something for about 5 minutes. I understood none of it)

Then later, at the end of the massage in which I had fallen asleep.
Masseuse: "(Something) may bo" ("bo" means "yes?", and is asked as a question.)
Me: "Uh... may bo?"
Masseuse: "(Something) may bo"
Me: "Uh... [in English] yes the massage was very good...?"

And then there was an awkward silence for three minutes as I tried to figure out what she said.
And then I figured it out.
Me: "OH MY GOD! Muuay bo! Tired! Yes! Jao! I was tired! Muuay bo!"
Masseuse: *Awkward laugh*
Me: "Uh... (pointing to door) Aa jan goes muuay... jao says may" (My teacher says "muuay", you say "may")
Masseuse: "Jao (something) aa jan" (are you a teacher?)
Me: "What? No. Bo."

More awkwardness. She tried to say goodbye to me later but I was still flustered from the earlier mix-up.

Comic 2

I bought a book, specifically for my comic doodles. 

"Friday Night 6pm"

Festival That Luang

The That Luang Festival is Vientiane's biggest festival, which means that the entire week is the loudest, dirtiest and busiest time I've seen in Vientiane. 

"That Luang" is a stupa (like a steeple) that is gold plated and close to our workplace, North of town. It's a religious event, so there are Buddhist ceremonies like almsgiving and prayers, but in Vientiane it's also an opportunity to get together, buy or sell clothes and food, and to visit concerts and beer gardens.

The group in white (I didn't get a very good shot) is a Lao pop band. There weren't any people following them or taking pictures - just me (and the only reason that I did that was because someone in our group pointed out that they had performed at the Boating Festival)

The Beer Lao beer garden

A picture of That Luang on Sunday, the last day of the festival

Eye mucus

So I'm not entirely sure how we ended up with this in our shopping cart (did someone put it there ? Did we steal it accidentally?) but at home Nick and I realized that there was sonething in our shopping bag neither of us wanted to get ... 

It's called 'Eye Mucus', and I have no idea what it does 

I know what you're thinking : 'if you want to know what it does, just read the back!'

Nope. Tried that.