Bon Appetite!

I arrived in Vientiane looking for a bit of alone time after the booze based debauchery with Team Laos. I headed for the Wat in the forest and attended a freebie meditation class led by a couple of the monks. This included the usual: focus on your breath and clear your mind tricks, then we moved onto some meditation I hadn't tried before: walking! We got up and walked around the hall using the slowest and smallest steps of your life. It helps to concentrate the mind on your feet when previously you've been concentrating on your head and it really worked. Unusual technique but a winner for me. Next door to the Wat was a herbal steam bath so of course I had a few rounds in this rickety wooden steam bath wrapped in a Laos sarong with breaks to drink herbal tea to rehydrate after sweating out all of the Beer Laos.

The meditation session was held here...

Unfortch I undid all of this cleansing and purification and went for a huge steak dinner!! I, accompanied by a French girl and Belgian woman, treated ourselves to a huge steak, with creamy mushroom sauce, avec chips (not fries!) with my fave and absolutely most missed condiment mayonnaise, fresh salad drizzled in vinigarette, and a little bread bun, accompanied by a little Beer Laos, naturally. I splurged a little here and spent 75,000 Kip on this meaty, European feast. The French and the Belgian were happy with this dish so I was relieved to know that my British palate, which had known virtually nothing but Indian curries for four months, could still appreciate a French meaty dish and that it wasn’t just cravings for European cooking that made me gush over this meal! 

So much GOLD!! It looked even more sparkly and ridiculously lavish in the crazy sunshine.

The next day we went cycling in the midday sun around clean and easy Vientiane. Everything seems so fresh and refreshing after India! Vientiane oozes the European, especially with the mountains of French and Belgian restaurants and a good dose of café culture dotting the streets. 

After a tough admin day of going to the post office and sorting out my visa for Vietnam I treated myself to a gloriously cinnamon spiced apple pie and iced coffee at JoMas as an extravagant treat (yes, I have many a food based treat) made even more luxurious by the near-lifesaving aircon.