AC set at 27'C and not hot???

So even though it sounds like we are getting aclimitized, we definetly have a long way still to go. We leave our comfortable 27'C in our room and are instantly sweating at whatever the temperature is outside, (much in excess of 27'C). I think the malaria pills are giving us strange very vivide dreams. Crazy, good thing we are almost done taking them, but that also means we are nearing the end of our trip. Ho hum..

Well today we slept in. We really did. We got up at around 9am, I didn't even hear the alarm go off today. Did it go off? Sara says yes. So we slept in, then had to pack our bags as we had to move rooms again, this time upstairs. After that we headed off to breakfast. Cheese crossiants, and fruit. We keep getting this green sorta cantalope tasting thing that isn't very good, but we eat the banana, watermelon, and the very delicious but painful to the sore on the inside of my lip pineapple. After that we did the great money trick. The money trick is where we take kip out of the bank machine then walk 2 blocks up the street to the fairest money exchanger where we change to kip to US dollars. The dollars we use to pay for the hotel which charges in dollars and gives a terrible rate for kip. It really doesn't take all that long, but it is a little annoying. Basically anything here over $20 is told in dollars as to not scare away the purchaser. As $20 dollars sounds much smaller than 173000 kip. After that we headed south to the silver smith recommended in the travel book. Normally I wouldn't go out of my way for such a place however they said the princess of Thailand made sure on her trip to here to visit the shop. So we went in, the place looked like any shop, except for the business cards showing the past patrons, the embassador of Mexico, the US secretary embassador, and a bunch of big corporation CEOs and regional head managers. We looked around, saw some things we liked, but decided to check out another shop we saw in the lane before, before we bought. The other shop, was the same looking, and we ended up getting a very nice elephant ring for Sara, after waiting a long time for service. We're just standing in the living room of someone's house, with the kids watching tv, looking at silver, with no assistance for a long time. Then we went back to the first store to get a really nice bracelet, the old woman in the shop did not budge a penny on her price. I guess when you are buying one bracelet and are use to dealing with some big wigs, prices don't move. The thing was nice, and the price affordable, so we walked away with it.

We then went through a temple to another market, looking for artwork. There was no artwork to be found, and the place was set up for Thai or Chinese tour groups as well as locals (hardware stores etc.) We did end up finding birdies to replace the birdies Sara had earlier lost. After that we walked back towards the really touristy part of town, stopping in a number of boutiques on the way. They call them boutiques, not that they are really any different from the boutique next door, but the quality is higher than in the markets, but the price is also ten fold higher.

We walked back and since we had a late start decided to check out the old royal palace, now museum before going for lunch. The palace was like any other palace, with meeting rooms, throne rooms, bedrooms, etc. It wasn't overly large or over-the-top like one has seen in St. Petersburg to say. The place was rebuilt in the 1930's about and then renovated in the 1960's before the monarch was finally ousted at the end of the second Indo-China war.

After that we had an only sorta okay lunch, and watched part of a terrible HBO movie with the owner. (In english with Lao subtitles.) We thought about heading off to see the remaining Wats on the list, but Sara was tired, and I wasn't full of energy so happily agreed to have a relaxing afternoon, (from 3pm-6pm). On the way back to the hotel we located the kids who were missing their original birdie and replaced it with three new ones (good ones with real feathers), which they were very happy to recieve. I relaxed by starting the "Life of PI" and Sara read too before falling asleep.

At a bit after 6pm we headed for the market. The kids where in the street trying to retrieve one of the birdies from a tree. Good thing we got them 3 replacements. We hit the market hard, but fizzled out after spending a bunch of money, making it only halfway through, but crossing a number of items off our list. We were bargining over a coconut wood serving dish with this woman, who child was having a temper-tantrum. Sara was not impressed, and I think that is when she decided she had had enough for the day. I was trying to get the best price, (Sara: the kid was screaming his cute little head off for like 30 minutes and the mom was trying to bargin and calm him down... i just said pay whatever so she can tend to her child!). It is what she said. We do have to return to the market at least one more time, but we're almost done, I think....but just when you think your done you see something else... Anyways, we gave up before crossing everything off our list, and went for dinner. Sara had Pasta, Tyson fried beef in ginger and rice.

Tomorrow we are going to go up to the buddha caves, and maybe to a waterfall.(Sara: the water is not exactly pretty right now since it is rainy season and flowing fast and is high it is not sparkling blue but dark chocolate mud colour... makes swimming seem unappealing unfortunantly).

Tyson and Sara