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sprained my ankle this afternoon. Not so happy - the pain is starting to subside - I bought a wrap and have it elevated. Trying to remember all the parts for RICE. Seems I haven't done it very well.
I rented a bike very early in the day in an attempt to mitigate the miles I was putting on searching for a Bank Machine that would accept the " Ïnterac" logo. Seems nearly everyone uses a Visa or MasterCard Debit system, not Cirrus and Interact. Remember the hassle in Cuba girls????? We seem so far behind in technology - you should see the cool techno gadgets the Dutch carry around allowing them to access their accounts from any computer. It is a little microchip scanner that resets itself every millionth of a second. Ok, maybe not that often, but I watched it change and change so you can't ever be hacking into the system. The only thing is you can't get cash from the Internet Café - unless of course you are an Internet Gambling Loser and I guess you might as well just glue the money to the screen and then walk away. Rode around very early in the morning, visiting all the other old people who were out wandering around while it was still quite cool. I hate not having cash and I had no Kips. So hard to keep up with the currency, the exchange rates, and then having to learn the 'goes in to's" in every new country. I miss the Euro. Time for an Asian Economic Union. Can you imagine the fight to run that? Me - no Kip, no ATM and no Banks open today because all the Banks closed to celebrate International Women's Day which was on Sunday and not today. I gave the country points for that even though I was very hungry looking at the Cinnamon Buns in the window.
I had talked the guy at the Bike Rental place into taking three dollars US and giving me a little bit of Kip back. Kip - $8500 Kip = 1 US dollar. It is easier that the Vietnamese Dong I just left as it was 17500 dong to the dollar. Even for you propeller heads, that is tough math when you are figuring out how much you just got ripped off.
So I gave up and went to a money changer and used some US cash to make it through the day. I rode into the country and back, to every corner of town, along the Mekong and the Khan Rivers and it was lovely. They have a market here for everything. I mean everything, specific. I twisted my ankle at the "Snack Market"- no kidding, a market selling fresh fruit snacks, shakes, treats and home made farm implements. Logical. It hurt when I did it around three pm and then it seemed OK for a couple of hours before coming alive. I had to return my Bike and walk back - pretty far and I was thinking of you Jackie and Les as I limped along, first to the pharmacy for a wrap and then back to the Guest House.
I am glad I didn't sign up for any treks today or for elephant camp. I don't think this is an overnighter. The really crappy thing is there is no wifi so I can't even surf the net and the TV is really bad. Oy Vey!
I shall just blab on my blog because I am bored. RICE - Rest - nope, Ice - Nope, Compression - Yup and Elevation - Yup. I hope the acronym was not in order of importance.
Now about Laos..... - What a difference two hours in the air makes. Daylight revealed a lovely quiet town - no horns honking and very little traffic. The traffic here is are mostly little open air overgrown tuk tuks - motor cycle front but can carry about 10 people facing each other - 5 a side. Obviously , especially when loaded, they cannot go very fast and that does not seem to be an issue here. No one is in a hurray and people seem to have what they need. It is very different - I was told that and again, I get it only by being here. Laotian architecture is a combo of French Colonial stone houses, South Sea looking stilt houses, Post and Beam Bavarian looking things and then your regular bamboo huts. Quite a combo when they are interspersed on one street. Throw in gigantic Wats - yup, back to serious temple land again, Thank Buddha!!! I am ready for a kinder, gentler time with people fighting for the chance to 'make merit' on my behalf. Bring on the good deeds. I am grateful and it is a win - win. There are serious consequences for bad deeds and I am hoping it spills over to the Vietnamese wife beaters.
The type of Buddhism practiced in these parts - and they do take it seriously in this town, involves the making of merit every day in an attempt to skip the reincarnation step and go directly to Nirvana. The better you are in this life, the quicker you get there. Not so good? Live a few more lives until you get it right. I am all over that and will be looking for some places to sign up. Problem is, I look absolutely horrible in orange and the orange here is very bright pumpkin like. You do get to wear a blue sash sometimes so maybe I could work with that. They also believe in celebrating when someone dies so you can cheer them on to the next level. They build little temples (think big bird houses) in the front of their homes to make sure the spirits of the dead (think genies or fairies) have a place to stay because the worst thing that could happen is the genies get trapped in your house and can't be on their way. I think once you are dead - time to go. And don't come back into the big house. You can stop by the little house for a rest but, on with you now. I like that part too. Celebrating the journey. Always a journey.......until the last train to Nirvana.
I hadn't figured it out myself but knew something was far different here than most towns. It seems, that as part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site designation, Luang Prabang has agreed to a number of rules - smoke free signage and no buses allowed in the 'downtown''. Not really very big but there are lots of tourists here so it does make a difference.
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