Today was our sleep in day – no tour activities were planned for the morning so a group of us has had decided to meet at 10am. After getting up at 8am to write a blog and having a late one the night before… well, didn’t seem so much like sleep in.
This morning was a time for catching up on the things we hadn’t seen yet. First this meant a visit to the Royal palace, with a very shiny throne room and a museum with rooms set up just how the palace used to look. I love these sort of things, bit of a trip back in time. What was surprising about this place was how bland and simple the Royal bedrooms and dining rooms actually were – nothing like the shiny grandeur of the public rooms.
I also enjoyed looking at the blue tiled people all over the walls (I couldn’t take photos). They look pretty and happy until you realise half of them have had their heads chopped off.
After the palace we walked down to Wat Xiang Thong, which was meant to be the best temple to see here. It took a long time to walk to and really wasn’t very impressive in the end, although, to be fair, we are all templed out and it takes a lot to impress us now!
A tuk tuk back to the hotel – Kelly, Kersten and I had all signed up for a three hour Lao cooking course (a little steep at 200,000 Kip but how many chances do you get to cook Lao cuisine??). We had to go sign in with a mean fat Australian lady with short hair, hmmm.
The cooking class was really good! We watched two men make five dishes, then we got to choose which three we wanted to make. The men didn’t say much, except name the ingredients, and it was all a bit too soon that we were sent to our tables to cook! We were allocated two to a wok, grabbed our ingredients, read our recipes and off we went. Kelly and I decided to make Chicken Lap, Fried Eggplant with Pork and Red Chicken Curry.
Somehow we actually did ok. There was only one mishap with curdled coconut mil that sent us running to the chefs. I was really surprised when what we made actually tasted like Lao food, even with my bad chopping skills - including having no idea how to attack lemongrass. We were given recipe books – some of the dishes are really easy and don’t use crazy ingredients…may have to try them at home!
A quick freshen up at the hotel afterwards and then off to climb Phou Si, the main hill in the middle of the city (including a temple on top of course). It is the touristy place to go watch the sunset. Our sunset wasn’t that great but the view from the top was beautiful.
For dinner we had pizza – general group craving. I didn’t have very much due to consuming our cooking creations earlier but I did enjoy a glass of Chilean white wine. And then back to the night markets – again, so much I could have bought. In the end I purchased a couple of little gifts… as well as two embroidered puppets. I tried to convince myself I’ll use them in therapy, but I just really wanted them because they were cute. I spent 166,000 Kip which seems excessive here but was really only…$19? Splashed out.
Back to the hotel afterwards to write a blog, pack our bags and go to sleep. Vang Vieng tomorrow!
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