Look who decided to drop by for the holidays! Seven weeks later than expected, but better late than never, I suppose.
We were quite fortunate that Lori’s employer covers freight to the post country, and fortunate to have family friends in Portland willing to store our freight two months longer than expected.
I strongly recommend these Sterilite footlockers. Made in USA and measuring 31.1 x 17.5 x 13.9 inches. They’re certainly the most durable thing you’ll find for the price to ship your stuff across oceans and continents. They’re also much more useful as long-term or everyday storage containers than suitcases or boxes. I had originally come across a few recommendations for a similar footlocker made by Contico. My understanding is that, while the older models were durable and reliable, the current models are not.
In other news, Lori found this in a Chinese supermarket.
Sunrise over Phontan village.
One of our new favorite places, Kung’s Cafe near Wat Si Muang.
Noe liked it so much, he decided to take a nap in my arms among a group of a dozen Aussies. Now that’s talent.
It is the weekend, after all.
Restocking…
I finally found a nursery where the prices weren’t exorbitant. Had to drive halfway to Thailand, but coming home with seven plants. Now all I need are pots. Yay, new friends for Noe!
Can’t say I’ve been to too many nurseries in the States that look like this at sunset.
Speaking of sunsets, taking Noe out in the stroller to one of our favorite local watering holes — essentially three tables and some lights a family set up in front of their house. We shared a beer here on our first day moving to Laos in September, so it also has that going for it.
Ladies entertaining Noe (or is it the other way around?) while Lori waits to get her nails done. Took her two hours combined (including waiting) this time. Lori keeps saying she wants to try another place, but US$2, “childcare” included, and only a few doors down from our house, it’s hard to complain.
For three months, we’ve passed this concrete monstrosity of a Chinese hotel in our neighborhood, very curious about the rooftop deck but never visiting. Given that it is literally right next to our favorite little local eating place in our neighborhood (and perhaps all of Vientiane), it was hard to justify passing up a sure thing.
Finally, one day at sunset, we bit the bullet and headed up — right at sunset too.
We were only there for a drink, as we had already committed ourselves to eating at the place next door. We ordered one large (640ml) beer to share (our usual), and as is frequently the case in Vientiane, the barmaid hovered nearby with the sole objective of ensuring we never saw the bottom of our glasses while keeping the beer carefully guarded on a BeerLao-branded stand against the wall.
At one point — long after the sun had set and Noe had drifted off to sleep — we both noted that we were feeling the beer a bit more than usual. I looked at my watch and it was evident we had been there a while. How could we possibly still have beer left in our bottle, I thought. Then, it occurred to me that the barmaid had opened another bottle at some point. We looked over at the bottle and realized that there were indeed two empty beer bottles standing on our rack. Just then, the barmaid emerged from the floor below with another bottle and a bottle opener. “Bo, khop chai! Bo bia! Check please.”
I later joked throughout the week that that little excursion cost us $2 and we really need to be more vigilant at those places, because it easily could have cost us $3. More importantly, I’m not sure how we would have made it down the four flights of dimly lit stairs if they’d managed to sneak another one in. Next time, we’ll keep Noe up so he can keep an eye on the staff.
In addition to great food and the friendliest staff ever, our favorite place has one of the more unique residents that roams around the restaurant yelling things at you in Lao while you’re eating.
We went downtown Christmas Eve morning to try out a cafe we’ve been wanting to visit for a while. On our way out, we ran into a wedding that had spilled out into the street, joining forces with a nearby construction to completely wreak havoc on cars getting in and out. Guess we’re walking around downtown a bit.
That street may have been hopping with Johnny Walker flowing freely at 10am, but the waterfront most certainly was not. I almost expected to see a tumbleweed roll past, or at least tumbletrash.
By the time the road cleared, Noe obviously wasn’t ready to get back in his carseat yet. Sorry dude, but we can’t stay here all day.
Conveniently, our power had mysteriously gone out the night before. Well, not all our power, just about half the house including our water pump, water heater, downstairs AC unit and a random assortment of outlets and lights. Looking around the neighborhood, we initially thought it was part of a wider issue, but it’s often hard to tell.
In the morning, it was evident the problem was not going to fix itself, so we contacted the landlord (who lives across the street). By the time we got back home (4-5 hours later), our landlord’s son had arrived to see if he could fix the problem by repeatedly flipping random circuit breakers in the house. As crazy as it may sound, this did not fix the problem.
About an hour later, a couple of men from the local power company came and fiddled around in the rusty old box in our front yard for a while. I once made the mistake of opening said box and wish I hadn’t. After peaking inside, it was evident our entire house was hooked up to a rusty box full of spaghetti held together by electrical tape, which shouldn’t have surprised me, given that the power lines above don’t exactly inspire confidence either.
Finally, the familiar chime of the downstairs AC unit sounded, and power was restored to the house. The upside to all of this is that, while the rusty box remains, it’s contents now resemble a bit of organization connected to a brand new main line circuit breaker. Very cool, but not as cool as seeing a power company worker come by hitting the transformer outside our house with a long wooden stick to restore our neighborhoods power. Noe and I got a good chuckle out of that one a couple months back, but Lori missed it, sadly.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Laos!
