To think, it all started with a day out with Dave (the American I met at the airport) and Tony (the guy Dave's crashing with). We had planned to explore the city and go down to the Mekong to watch boat practices for the upcoming festival.
We ended up having early refreshments at Joma bakery cafe and then tuk-tuking to the Morning Market (outdoor stalls) and Talat Sao Mall (shiny, indoors with A/C). The bargaining here isn't as intense as in other countries, which is great for me since I'm horrible at it. I got two plain cotton/silk sinh, the traditional Lao skirt, to get by for the week since I didn't bring enough clothes. These two will be my rompers, and later I'll get nicer ones for work and official meetings.
When electronics, clothing, and jewelry couldn't quite satiate our hunger, we walked down to the Mekong Riverside Restaurant patio for a lunch of larb (minced meat w/ stuff), stir-fried morning glory, steamed fish, and sticky rice. Afterwards, while Tony tended to some business, Dave and I got 1-hour full body traditional Lao massages (bendy and stretchy; niiice after the long travel) for about $5.
We then met up with two blokes, Steve and Pat, who work at the Vientiane International School with Tony, at Mekong Deck for Sunday afternoon Beerlao.
Things went downhill from there.
When Dave and Tony left for a dinner engagement, Steve and Pat "took care of me" at several more expat hangouts -- Bor Pen Nyang, Khop Chai Deu, Jazzy Brick -- looking for port and teaching me all sorts of questionable Aussie/Kiwi humor. Pat says my nickname is now whatever "cat" is in Vietnamese. I don't remember anymore how we came to that, but I think I'm part of the expat family now.
1 comment:
Ell
Love your blog! I am smiling cause you have all these friend so fast, very cool! Hope you are doing well :)
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