The weekend and back to work - January 22-23 Blog

Saturday morning we left the hotel and walked into the colonial city center.  As we explored, we found the open air farmers market abounding with fresh produce-full of color and excellent quality.   Overwhelmingly, the people are gentle and content-there are no vendors hawking their wares or any constant nagging to buy anything.  This is very refreshing after traveling thru Egypt, China, Mexico, etc where the vendors are relentless. 

So we continued our walk, exploring the little avenues lined with shops, we finally reached the river and walked along the Mekong for a mile or so.  A modern park has been built along the banks-as it was Saturday there were many families picnicking end enjoying the company of family and friends.  Vendors were selling balloons and ice cream for the little kids.  Street cart vendors with barbeques were grilling meat and wrapped rice-the smells were great though we opted to eat in an Indian restaurant that was air conditioned.  After a late lunch we headed back to the hotel by tuktuk.  Jet lag finally hit, so we pretty much slept thru until dinner then early to bed.  Sunday was a great day, finally having enough sleep we ventured out to rent motor bikes for our transportation for the duration of our stay.  Traffic is crazy here, so we need to be focused and very careful.  But it is so much fun to buzz around on the bikes-no one goes very fast so that is a good thing.  Ed’s chest cold got worse, so we went to the Pharmacy and bought a Zpack.  It has helped, but will take  few days to clear.  Sunday dinner, we joined two DDD managers for dinner at the French restaurant by Namphon fountain. 

Monday, we rode our motor bikes to the office.  I was asked to get involved with writing/editing their business plan.  So that is my initial task.  Reading their 40 page document gave me a sound understanding of the business and its mission.  Leaving the office, I was following Ed and I was not clear when to make a right turn.  We were stopped at a red light, but there was a green arrow for a right turn, as I indicated to Ed that he could go as the arrow was green, he proceeded straight into the waiting police.  Not one word did the police understand of English and not one word of Lao did we know-BUT it was clear when the police man wrote $10 US on paper did we understand each other.  I apologized to Ed-I owe him $10 (at least)!  We went out for Thai food in town in the evening with the ex-pats from DDD.  We are settling in.