Sink or Swim?

After a morning run along the Mekong, I came back to the apartment to shower and head out for brunch.  I had been invited by Laura, a woman I met through Couch Surfing, to a vegetarian buffet in town.  She was hosting two CSers this weekend and we met up with two others who were passing through.  The six of us had a great meal and lots of laughs.

From the restaurant, we wandered over to a local stupa, which is famous for the stork that is perched on top of it.  A stupa, unlike a waht, signifies the embodiment of the Buddha.  The legend has it that at this stupa, a pregnant woman fell into a hole and died, thus leaving her spirit in the hole.  The stupa was built on top of her and the stork now protects the sacred ground.  When Mark told me about it, I didn't believe that a real stork actually lived there, but when we got close, the stork actually moved--- it was huge!!!!

The Stork Stupa.  This is actually the smaller of two huge birds.

Leaving the stupa, Laura and I noticed a group of young monks trying to pull down a dead palm tree.  We couldn't help but watch as they struggled to pull- it definitely warranted this picture:

Rushing home, I threw on some work out clothes for our first boating practice.  Nancy and I met two other women downtown and took a tuk-tuk about 45 minutes outside the city to the village that hosts us.  The boat seats about 80 people and is shaped like a canoe.  Because it is stored in the village waht, the boat is considered sacred and we weren't allowed to wear our shoes inside it.  That was fine because the bottom had about 4 inches of water and I spent the whole time worrying about water snakes and leeches... the Mekong is one murky river!  While I struggled to understand our coach's commands and couldn't for the life of me count to ten in Lao in sync, the whole experience was a lot of fun.  We shall see how my shoulders feel in the morning.  The coach seemed pleased with everyone's performance and had some great one liners such as "paddle faster or I kiss," and "focus here" which sounds explicit with a Lao accent.  It was certainly a sink or swim type of practice. And I was not swimming!

Making our way home, Nancy and I cleaned up before Mark joined us to head out for pizza.  Vientiane definitely has some of the best food and this might have been one of the best pizzas I've ever had (Sorry Harry's).  I'm calling it an early night after what was another very long day.  Mark did buy me the second season of Downton Abbey, but I'm holding out to watch it next week in Xieng Khouang.