more from Vientiane

3/11/11
-forgot to include my hospital adventure, all the days blend together and i rarely know what the date is, not to mention what date i did things in the past, anyways, i was having ear troubles, couldn't hear fully out of my right ear, i was pretty sure the problem was just impacted earwax, so i went to the Lao hospital to get it dealt with, went into the ER and they sent me to what i guess was the ear doctor's wing, in a different building and upstairs, when i went up it was seemingly empty until i found a nurse sleeping in a room, i woke her up as nicely as possible and mimed the problem. she phoned the doctor, who had just dipped out (i guess), and he came with the head nurse who spoke a tiny bit of english. i explained the problem, and he started rooting around in my ear with big picks and a little suction vaccum thing. it was pretty painful, but he pulled a big wad of black shit out of my ears with assorted steel picks, and suddenly (30 mins later) i could hear fully out of my right ear. which made me realize i am not hearing fully out of my left ear. walked down by the nurse to pay, wound up costing 170,000 kip or slightly more than $20
3/12/11
-tried to go to the immigration office to extend the ol' visa, but forgot that it was saturday, so was of course sent away.
-walked down the street to the Lao Arc de Triumphe, which was built from concrete donated by the Americans to build a runway during the Secret War. some quality signage:

 hey you! no passing a grass!

-wandered around some more, not much exciting, saw all the gov't offices
-Went to the Lao national Museum, that was interesting, a lot of weaponry and pictures of the "American imperialists" and their "puppets" also a supprising amount of ancient "tobacco" pipes, i think using tobacco in the same sense headshops in the states call bongs tobacco pipes. some incredible old buddhist relics and an extensive section on the various gov't offices and what they are currently doing.
-headed to dinner, there were huge fireworks on the Thai side of the Mekong, not sure why. had dinner at a weird bar/restaurant, five stories up overlooking the mekong, populated about half and half Falong to Lao. ordered dinner and Beer Lao Gold, which was in no way different then regular Beer Lao, except slightly more expensive. Had a weird weird conversation with the people sitting across from me, they were three laotians, with not much in the way of english, a girl who was apparently celebrating her birthday, who told me she had a husband from england, a man around her age and an older woman who spoke no english. I think she (the older one) was trying to sleep with me, there was lots of suggestive gesturing, they kept suggesting that i come out dancing and poured me tons of beer. lots of toasts later i was drunker then i wanted to be and bid them goodnight and went to bed.  
3/13/11
-after my morning tea, went to a Wat known for its hundreds of unique buddhas stored in specially made alcoves all through out the inner sanctuary. very impressive, especially the inner room you're not allowed to photograph, about 25 ft walls with 14 foot wraparound murals done in the 1800s, and more alcoves where another large grouping of two-by-two buddha's sit. lots of pictures:

-wandered around to two more Wats, no pictures but saw lots of incredible architecture, murals, Stupas, wood carvings and sculptures.
-went to dinner at this wonderful indian/malay restaurant on the river and main road, i had been to a few nights before. got a delicious dinner, but while i was eating there was an awful motorcycle crash involving two teenagers. they were both going pretty fast, with no helmets and collided front to front. Both were out for a minute, while everybody around gathered, it was crazy to watch the sudden appearance of hundreds of people on the street, gathered around the crash, people rushed to help, pulling both kids from under their bikes. One kid was passed out cold, a group of other teenagers shook him vigorously after extracting him from the bike, and dragged his still unconscious body somewhere up on the river walk after a good deal of shakings. the other accidentee was conscious but struggling to walk, bleeding from his leg, and holding his shoulder, he was supported off by a middle aged falong and a few twenty something Lao, presumably to go to the hospital.
-The bikes remained where they had fallen surrounded by maybe 40 people, traffic started moving and just skirted the motorbikes which took up a good third of the two lane road. although the right and left lane could not both fit on the road, there was surprisingly little honking or anger. the police showed up maybe 30 minutes later, interviewed one witness, measured the distance across the road and the distance of the motorbikes from the curb, spray painted around the bikes and left.
-beer garden then balcony time...
more soon, have wifi in the current guest house.