Thanksgiving

The health care system here is apparently horrendous and I saw a flyer yesterday afternoon soliciting blood donations. I stopped in at the red cross to leave them a pint - definitely different than doing it at home. I was satisfied that the needle was new and sterile although there were no latex gloves in sight. The guy washed his hands with alcohol and was very by-the-book so I was pretty comfortable with the whole process. I got a really cool t-shirt too - probably my best souvenir to date.

I went to dinner and met up with another single woman sitting alone at the next table. We decided to eat together and it was a really enjoyable evening. Her name is Leslie and she is from southern California and travelling for a year. She had also just been in Bhutan and her experience was very different from mine (lucky thing!). Given that it was American Thanksgiving, the restaurant had a barbeque turkey special, which Leslie ordered. A tile was removed from the middle of our table, revealing a hole in the pedestal underneath. A bucket of coals was brought and placed in the hole with a dome-shaped grill for the top. There was a trough around the edge of the dome which held broth. The turkey strips were grilled on the sides of the dome and the vegetables and noodles were poached in the broth. Apart from the fact that she had trouble eating as fast as things got cooked, it seemed pretty cool.

Today was spent seeing the last few wats in town and getting myself ready to leave Luang Prabang. I also met up with one of my lecherous monks and took a ferry across the river with him to visit a very simple rural Laotian village and wat there. It was really nice but he kind of gave me the creeps as he was very persistent in his advances. I'm not sure if he was hoping for sex or money (or both) but it was just weird. I did, however, learn from him that many families bypass the alms ceremony and take their food donations directly to the temple. I was unable to discern if this is a result of the overzealous tourists or not.

I'll be leaving tomorrow for Phonesavan where the plain of jars is located. Coincidentally, Leslie will be on the same trip, so it will be nice to have her company again. In three days time I'll be in Vang Vieng, just north of Vientianne. I'm not sure if I'll be able to touch base before VV so don't be worried if there's no post or e-mail for a few days.