Date Day in Vientiane

Unsurprisingly, the Monday after Christmas was not a national holiday here in Buddhist Laos. But as Lori works for a Belgian organization, and Belgium is one of those wonderful Western European countries that believes in giving their workers a day off for national holidays — even if said national holiday lands on a weekend — she and her coworkers got the Monday after Christmas off.

Hmm… A day off that the rest of the country doesn’t have off… Banks open… Restaurants open… Schools open… Baby schools open… The baby school — where your son occasionally attends that you pay a flat monthly fee regardless of how much or how little he goes — is open… You and your wife just spent three solid days with said bundle of joy who is getting bored of your attempts at infantile entertainment…

I think it’s pretty clear where this is going…

Date Day!!!

And we couldn’t have asked for a better day for our Date Day. The sun was shining, the morning was crisp and the midday temperature hovered around 80F — not bad for late-December.

Lori spent some time the previous evening picking out a cafe in town that we hadn’t tried yet. Like many restaurants, bars and cafes here in Vientiane, City Cafe is an old house converted into commercial space. It’s got a funky vibe and some great seating options. The food and coffee were nothing to write home about, and it isn’t particularly convenient to where we live. But it was fun to try a new place together — and sit and chat for as long as we wanted, a luxury we haven’t had in over six months.

I naively presumed that we had already found all of the landmarks, monuments and temples worth seeing in town, but Lori proved me wrong. Lori’s been proving me wrong in this department for as long as we’ve been together, in fact. DC, Belize, Portland, and everywhere in between, Lori has an uncanny ability to sniff out interesting little gems not commonly found in guidebooks. This Vietnamese pagoda hidden down an alley in central Vientiane is one of them.

Now how they managed to obscure a seven-story pagoda just blocks away from one of the most popular centers of tourist activities is beyond me. But they did.

We had the entire Phat Tich temple to ourselves, on this lovely morning. The temple is chock full of fascinating rooms and nooks worth exploring. Some of the accoutrement, however, border on the downright creepy…

The best feature of Phat Tich, though, is the climb to the top!

Looking back towards our neighborhood, about a mile that-a-way.

This crazy looking guy tried to get fresh with me during our visit. He’s about three inches from antenna to toe and flies around like a bee. Lori and I were standing out front of the pagoda taking pictures when he came and hovered in front of my face and landed on my shirt. I later learned that this is some sort of Asian Long-horned Beetle and isn’t as exotic as I originally thought. Apparently they are a common invasive species in North America. However, I can’t say I’ve ever had one land on my shirt in the States. Brazen little fella.

Yep. We broke out the selfie stick. Only the second time since moving to Laos, but what Date Day would be complete without one?

Next, we visited Wat Si Muang, one of the most well-known Buddhist temples in the city. Despite having done the tourist thang four years ago and having lived here for three months, we hadn’t yet visited Si Muang.

The temple is significant for housing the sacred City Pillar (viewed above, lovingly wrapped in sacred cloth), which is said to house the guardian spirit of Vientiane. The city was established here in 1563 on the site of an ancient Khmer Hindu shrine.

Lao people also come to this place to visit the little Buddha-shaped stone on a pillow. They believe that lifting the Buddha three times off its pillow has the power to grant wishes or answer troubling questions.

Behind the main structure lay what appears to be a pile of rubble surrounded by offerings and artifacts. In fact, these are the ruins of a 1000-year-old Khmer stupa that still holds significance for the locals.

Lori’s been wanting to go to Flavours & Spices for a while now, ever since she heard about their dosas, particularly their apparently unrivaled Masala Dosa. We arrived arrived around 3pm only to discover that the dosa grill was only fired up for lunch and dinner time. So we had to settle for their tasty pakora, samosas and chai. Better luck next time.

Lori’s also been wanting to visit Love Life Ice Cream, so we finally made it happen. Apparently, like Red Bull, the ice cream gives you wings…

After a lovely, relaxing day of hanging out together (certainly the longest stretch since Noe came along), it was time to go get the Mister. It was definitely surreal not having him around, and by the end of the day we were really missing that little mug of his.

It’s pretty evident he didn’t hold our day without him against us.