Last Day in Vientiane

Saturday, November 3

It's hard to believe this has been my last full day in Vientiane. Tomorrow morning, I am off to Chiang Mai in the northern part of Thailand. I am SO glad that we decided to make a detour into Laos - it has definitely been my favorite stop so far.

Today was spent tooling around on the motorbike checking out different places and buying a few souvenirs. But the highlight of the day was a trip to Papaya Spa for a 3 1/2-hour extravaganza of pampering. For $30, I had a one-hour papaya body scrub, 90-minute massage, and 1-hour facial. I could really get used to this.

As I was undressing for the body scrub, the scrubber came in and handed me something. Ah, I thought, how nice. She gave me a throw-away shower cap, so my hair wouldn't get all gooped up with papaya scrub. Wait a second, this thing had holes in it. Hey, I thought, I got a defective one. Hmmm...at closer look, it turns out she had given me a pair if disposable underwear. I had a good chuckle to myself, wondering what she would have said if she'd come back into the room to find me there with nothing on but a pair of disposable panties on my head! Gadzooks.

Anyway, the scrub was ok, but the massage was great (although I fell asleep three times during it all, and I may have been snoring one of those times, given the look on her face when I looked up). The facial, though, was beyond compare. Now I am feeling like a rubber chicken, totally zapped and ready to hit the sack. But first, I have to try to pack up all my souvenirs and shove them into the available space I have. Hmmm.

New great food: deep-fried sticky rice. Hey, don't knock it til you've tried it - it was great!

I can't believe I've been gone three weeks already. I wondered today whether I'll even remember anything I was working on, when I get back to work in a week and a half. Heck, I won't have to remember anything for a couple days - it'll probably take me 10 hours to wade though my email. Ah well, no sense worrying about it now; I have another week to go, and lots still to see and do.

Be well,
Janine