River Runners

Despite the long day on Friday and desperate need to sleep in on Saturday, it was not going to happen.  I was wide awake and ready to roll by 9 and my mission? Find a french press coffee maker.  

I went downstairs and stopped in at Noy's Fruit Shack, where Brad and his Aussie friends Brad and Teagan were enjoying breakfast.  I declined the offer to join them for fruit salad and rented a bike from Noy, leaving my license as collateral.  Little does she know it expires on Wednesday.

I biked across town to the tailor, who has had by sinh collection since before I left for XK.  Luckily the shop was open and I was able to try on all of the sinhs, only to determine that they needed to be taken in 5 inches.  I swear I'm eating, they just don't know how to fit "curvy."

Dissapointed that I couldn't take the sinhs home, I hopped back on the bike and headed to the Chinese Market to barter for a coffee maker.  I didn't find the maker per say, but what I got will make due.  I rushed home to try it out.

I spent the rest of the morning catching up on some reading and laundry before Terry, one of Nancy's friends, picked me up for Dragon Boat Racing practice.  Nancy had decided to kayak to the village, a distance of about 20 km.  She's amazing!  We picked up Kiki on the way and I caught Terry up on all my XK happenings.  We arrived at the village an hour early and despite the villagers attempts to get us to eat pho, enjoyed watching the men's team come in from practice and realizing that they were the reason we always had to practice in a half-sinking boat.  

Practice was hard and the direct sun on the water didn't help.  This time Kibu had us doing sets of 150+ sprint strokes which was more than we had ever done.  He still threatened "you stop, I kiss," but I was in the clear.

By the time practice was over, we were all dripping in Mekong water and exhausted.  Kiki and I got rides back into town and decided to meet up with Brad (x2) and Teagan after much needed showers. 

We all met up at Aashifa, our favorite Indian restaurant and Kiki and I split the usual vegan fare.  No surprise it tasted  even better after boating!  While the rest of the group headed to bowling, Kiki and I went towards the night market, which was more hopping than usual.  We realized that the crowd of people was gathered around a bumper car booth! We will have to give that a try before it moves on.  

On our way back home, we stopped and bought the outrageous Lao popcorn, which we quickly found out was not vegan.  We strolled home and eventually called it an early night.  With Kiki taking the Sunday shift at the paper, we had breakfast plans and both of us were dying for a good nights sleep.