Down south

Hi everyone! It's another day in the office - with one minor change. Chris is now working here! But only for the next month - he has been offered short term work sorting out a tender. The money will be very welcome :-) Also, we should have the internet connected at home tonight, so I will be able to Skype to my hearts content, hooray!
Just before I tell you about the weekend - you might have noticed that I'd added a little 'Lao Photos' slideshow to the blog. This is linked to my Flickr page (http://www.flickr.com/photos/susieblue) and will show the last 20 photos that have been posted there.
So about the weekend :-) I found out at 2pm on Friday afternoon I found out that I didn't actually have a public holiday on Monday - apparently the person who told me I did was wrong. That was pretty frustrating, but unfortunately how things seem to work here. Chris and I decided to go ahead with our plans anyway, and caught the sleeper bus to Pakse at 8pm (if you look at the map, Pakse is down south - approaching the border with Cambodia). It takes 10 hours. The bus was surprisingly comfortable and the next thing I knew, I was waking up in Pakse. Our fellow AYAD in Pakse, Julie, came and picked us up from the bus terminal and we went straight to her house. It didn't take long to fall in love with the town - Julie has made a lot of friends there already (and her Lao sounds great!). We spent most of the day eating, drinking, touring the town and meeting people. Keith, who has been living with Chris and I in Vientiane for the past three weeks, was also there on a stopover on a work trip to Cambodia.
Unfortunately an otherwise relaxed and enjoyable day was soured in the evening when we had to contend with a rather abusive and aggressive drunk. Alcohol turns people into morons and beasts - I'm sure you all know that, but it isn't any easier even when you know that a drunk person doesn't mean what they said.
The next day Chris and I got in a slow boat and travelled down the Mekong to Champasak, about 2 hours away (also on the map). The boat trip was lovely, although a little uncomfortable at the end after sitting on the wooden planks for so long. Nearly every kid on the riverbank was waving at us like crazy as we went past.
When we reached Champasak, we jumped in a tuk-tuk and headed to Wat Phou Champasak, which is a 1000 year old temple (originally Hindu, I believe, but eventually became Buddhist) and now a World Heritage Site. The site was beautiful - lots of intricate cravings in stone, frangipani trees lining a steep staircase which revealed the entire site and the surrounding plains once you reached the top. Chris and I spent two hours here before making our way back to the Mekong for the return boat trip to Pakse. We then got on the sleeper bus back to Vientiane - nowhere near as comfortable this time, Chris and I were squashed into a space that was really only meant for one person, and Chris' legs were hanging over the side the entire trip. Although I was pretty proud of myself for managing to squat in the moving bus toilet and not pee all over myself - but that was probably too much detail :-) We arrived back at 6am to a cold Vientiane morning, went home for a quick shower, and then came straight to work :-)
I've managed to catch up on my sleep now, but Chris and I are planning to do the trip again this weekend (since it is definitely a long weekend this weekend) - only this time a bit further south, to Si Phun Don (Four Thousand Islands) which lie in the Mekong Delta just before the Cambodian border. We might be doing it as a kayaking trip with the same tour company as Chris' previous trip, but unfortunately my arm is still not really improving - it might be time to go back to the doctor :-(
This week Chris and I are starting Lao lessons with a tutor from Vientiane College - it should be good, since I haven't progressed very far since my AusAID sponsored lessons ended about three weeks ago. There are a lot of Lao people in my office, so it would be great to communicate with them more. It would also be great to go to restaurants and be able to read the menu!!
In one last piece of news, Chris and I have booked tickets to Singapore for Christmas to stay with my friend Adra. I know that you are all thinking 'isn't she that girl who drove you totally mental in college?' but I'm a sucker for punishment it seems :-) Seriously, I am looking forward to it - it will be great to get away for Christmas, and spend time with Adra and her family. I'm also looking forward to visiting Changi Prison, where my grandfather spent time as a POW in WWII (before working on the Burma-Thailand railway for two years, which I also plan to visit).
I'll be back next week with news on our latest trip, and also to share my excitement about Rosie's impending arrival!! (she gets here on December 7 - her birthday!)

Sok dee,
Susan