July 16,

Up at the normal 0700. We set about to having our Javas and had made some guacamole. On our way back from pizza last night we saw a lady selling avocados, and we bought two of them for 5,000 Kip – only 23 cents! Anyway, we had that on some bread we toasted. We have a toaster oven in our place! It turned out pretty good! We were sitting on our balcony and enjoying a nice breeze! That will probably mean rain.

Jeff was working on our website. It keeps showing 503 or 508 codes, but he cannot figure out where we are maxing out our site, or that we are maxing out. He fiddled with it much of the morning and thought it was fixed. So we went out for a walkabout while we could. We walked to a part of town we hadn’t been to. We went about 1.7 miles and arrived at a couple of monuments. The first was a monument to President Kaisone Phomvihane. The placard states that he was the first Prime Minister of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic in 1975, and then elected as a President of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic in 1991. This monument is right along the Mekong River in a park type setting. Across the street is the second monument – to an unknown soldier. It is also in a park setting, but no placards describe anything else. It started spitting a bit more so we walked back to our place. We received a text from Jeff’s sister –  the website is still not working. 

It was lunch time, so we made a kind of Greek salad – no black olives, but we had goat cheese in it and some curry powder, which we are really getting low on now. Gonna miss our Sri Lankan Curry!! It was around this time that the heavens opened up and stayed open much of the afternoon!!! I don’t know how much rain we had… but it’s what I think monsoon season must be like. So Jeff worked more on the website.

It stopped raining and we went out for supper. We struck out on our first choice, as it was closed. So we just walked on. We came across Phonheuang Cafe. There was a table with three older ladies and a table with a family of six. One of the older ladies was from Nashville, but has been living here for 17 years – I think she said. She was of Asian descent, and spoke to the other two ladies, and staff in Laotian. The family of six… he is from Illinois, and his wife is of Asian descent, but I didn’t here where she is from. She spoke English very well, so probably also American. This family has four young children from like 1-8 years old. We were last to order so we talked with them while we waited. We ordered Thai Holy Basil Chicken with rice and a fried egg; and Pork Belly with rice. We got our food as take away and Jeff gave them 100,000 LAK ($4.64), but actual price was 87,000 (just over$4). We took the food back and had a lovely supper with a bottle of red wine, then watched a movie.

     July 17,

Up at 0700. Both slept well last night until 0400… the drums played for like 20-30 minutes straight!!! That was a first. We both went back to sleep – me longer. We had our Javas and breakfast of Muesli and yogurt out on our balcony. We actually had some comfortable weather again this morning.

Around 1000 we getting around to go to the Luang Prabang Museum. But they close at 1130 for a two hour lunch, so won’t be going to that today. At 1230, we went for lunch. It was raining – we had to wait about ten minutes until it turned into just a fine mist, then headed out. We went close by to a local, no name, Khao Soi place. We got one Noodle Soup and one Khao Soi. Both were tasty.😋😋 We paid 100,000 LAK total, which is $4.64. Then we walked further to get a lemon tart take away. It cost 55,000 Kip by itself, which is $2.55.

Back at our place we ate the tart and had adult beverages – me an Apple Somersby and Jeff a BeerLao. I blogged, Jeff read. Afternoon gave way to early evening. At 1600, we heard the drum and cymbal at the Wat right across the street from us, we went and checked it out. Don’t know why they are drumming so long – lasted around 20 minutes like this morning. It’s not a Buddhist holiday that we can find. As always… Questions???

For supper we went to the night market and got Chicken Satay skewers, a Spicy Sausage, and a Sun-dried Jerky. We also bought a Double-chocolate Brownie and a Banana Cake piece taking it all back to our place, having the first two with some left over veggies and some Lao bread. We also had the Brownie.😋