Weekend Fun

So our weekend was chock full of fun and work and naps.

Friday after work we went to OASIS spa and got massages. Full body for me and a foot massage for Katherine. I had a very small Lao woman just beat the living hell out of me. It's a bit emasculating to have to ask not one, not two, but three times to lighten up on the massage strength a bit.

Later we went to the Full Moon Café (“breakfast available anytime”) with Erin and Mary (the Embassy nurse). Our timing was perfect, as we just missed the end of happy hour, but the German couple next to us had already availed themselves of the ‘buy one, get one free’ happy hour special for pitchers of beer but, (and here, what were they thinking??) they only wanted one, so they gave us the other one.

Saturday morning Katherine left early to help out with a huge auction that the Embassy held to get rid of a ton of old furniture, electronics, appliances, etc. I think they had something like 260 lots. And everything got sold. They made it a silent auction, so that people didn’t have to wait in the hot sun while some cowboy hat and bolo-wearing auctioneer sold off scrap metal and finally got to the used cell-phones (or whatever). One Falang guy had bidder number 80, but for some unknown reason thought he had number 100, and bid on A LOT of stuff. As it turned out, a nice Lao woman had bidder number 100, and was surprised, and horrified, to find out that she had won about 10 times the stuff she actually bid on.

Anyway, while Katherine was slaving away in the hot sun, I was in cool, air-conditioned splendor proctoring the Foreign Service exam. I had a whopping 1 person take the test, so I REALLY kept my eye on her. I take my oath as a proctor seriously.

So we had grand plans to go out to Café Europe (best burgers in town, I’m told) then on a pub crawl to BOTH pubs in town. The first pub, Kope Jaii Due (“thank you very much,” strange name for a bar) we’ve been to, but have yet to get on the pool table. It’s a popular spot with tourists…I’m sorry, travelers, so the local Falangs tend to stay away. But it’s a good spot with nice outdoor seating, so we’ve gone a few times. The second bar, Samlo Pub, has a decidedly different clientele. It’s a bit of a seedy place, filled with scallywags, rapscallions, no-goodniks, crumb bums and ne’er-do-wells, which in Laos means illegal loggers, smugglers, black marketeers, and generally shady dudes who like the shadows of dark bars.

We hadn’t been there yet, and Saturday night was going to be our night. But, alas (and many of you will know the song I’m singing) Katherine decided she was tired, and Erin did too. I mean, god, you spend 7 hours in the sun and you think you have the right to say you don’t want to go out to seedy bars? B.S. So, instead we went over to Erin’s and hung out for a while, then came home, where Katherine promptly went to bed at 10:30 pm. Now 10:30 isn’t exceptionally early for Katherine to go to bed, and she did spend some serious time outside yesterday, but hey, what happened to my pub crawl? I guess I could have gone alone, but who would I have high-fived after downing a beer and screaming “THIS IS AWESOME!!!”?

This morning I got up and played an hour of tennis with my new friend and torturer That (like Tot, but with a softer t). Torturer because he makes me run my ass off in the hot weather, and it’s very mean of him. He is (by his account anyway, and by others too) the best tennis player in Laos, and he is also involved in a project supported by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) where he travels around the country to places that have tennis courts (there aren’t many), delivers tennis equipment to schools, and teaches Lao children how to play tennis. He invited me to go along with him sometime in the future, so that would be very cool. His trips are usually 2-3 days and he goes to places that I may not visit otherwise, so I’ll definitely try to go with him sometime soon.

Then, I played some squash at the Australian club for a while before meeting up with Katherine and taking a long swim. Now we’re home, we watched a really dumb movie on television, then Katherine took a long nap. I guess the sun really did take it out of her yesterday.

While Katherine napped, I walked down the street to a barbershop, or what I thought was a barbershop. Instead, it’s a place where you can get your hair washed and dried, and you can get a manicure/pedicure. I think the women at the place thought I was a bit odd…here’s how it went.

Me: I’d like a haircut.

Them: what?

m: I’d like a haircut, how long until I can get a haircut?

T. here?

m. yes

t. we don’t do that.

m. okay, then I just want my hair washed.

t. you do? But this is a women's salon.

m. yes I do...how much?

t. (the Lao kip equivalent of ) $0.40

m. yes, I believe that will be fine.

Anyway, for about $0.40 I got to lay down on a type of padded table, and got a 20 minute head massage, hair wash, hair condition, face massage. Long ago my sister Sarah and I were talking about what one luxury we would give ourselves if we were multimillionaires. I said I would hire someone full time to wash my hair whenever I wanted. I think I’ve found the next best thing. I mean, you lie down on a comfortable table and get your hair washed for 20 minutes, and it’s a 7 minute walk from my house.

I’m back now and Katherine is up. We’ve got a new pope (well, I’m not Catholic so to me he’s just an old guy in a dress and a funny hat), Ecuador has a new president, and the Palestinian Authority has new senior security officials, and the world continues to spin on its axis, unless the new pope has declared the world flat again, then I don’t know what the hell to believe.

We’ve been assured that our car and stuff arrive tomorrow, so all will be right with the world then.