Vat's Up, Doc?

Thursday, November 1

Today we pretty well saw all of the "official" tourist sites in Vientiane, including a host of vats (that's pronounced wat, by the way). It still astounds me that people in all of these countries, no matter how poor, spend so much money for garishly ostentatious temples. Still, they're fun to visit, and each one is different from the others in some small way.

We also went to a wat where there is a sauna and massage for a grand total of $4. We couldn't find the place, but stopped to ask for directions and some incredibly nice guy got on his motorbike and gave us an escort there!!

Never having been in a sauna before, it was a new experience for me. Imagine stripping down to a sheet of cloth wrapped around you, then stepping through a wooden door into a stem-filled room where visibility is zero. You grope your way to a bench, and then sit down to realize that there are two big holes in the floor of this raised building, with steam coming through the holes from open wood fires and vats (not to be confused with vats) of herb-infused water below. Within 2 minutes, I was wondering if I was going to faint. But oh, between the wood smoke and the herbs, the smell was heavenly. I braved it for about 10 minutes before bailing out. Then, a cup of herbal tea and a one-hour massage high up in this stilted building, overlooking dense growth. In the middle of it all, rain began pouring down, and the whole thing was heavenly. I have gotten used to getting massages in cheap places where who-knows-what (who-knows-vat?) has been lying on that table before me. In this case, it was just a mattress with another piece of cloth on it. Ah well, who cares. I'm not sure I'll be able to get used to clean sheets and fresh towels when I get home! (Speaking of clean sheets, Jacqueline, they're in the blanket chest under my window, if you stay at Hotel Janine this weekend).

The rain was soothing to listen to during the massage, but then we had to deal with the fact that we were on a motorbike and 2 inches of rain had just fallen. Hmmm.... It took us almost 30 minutes to get back to the hotel, but I noticed on the way that we passed the same place three or four times. After returning to the hotel, I looked in the Lonely Planet book and realized we had only been about 2 miles away! Needless to say, Val was cranky at getting lost over and over. Hilarious.

Friday, I am off to a one-day textile class. more on that later....

--Janine