Phase II

Today we left the beautiful beaches of the south and headed north...ish....I think.  I really need to look at a map! We are in Nong Khai.  We're going to spend a few days here before we head to India. Tomorrow we're headed to Laos, to do what you ask? Beats me, but enough of the future events. So today..... We woke up early and caught our taxi the airport.  Took a couple short flights and taxi ride and here we are.  A friend of Jordan's that he knew on his mission picked us up.  Riding side saddle on the back of a scooter in a dress, now there's something I've actually never done in another country.  It was kind of fun though.  We dropped off our bags and had some lunch. I was becoming more comfortable with the food....until tonight, but more on that in a minute. Then we went to a statue garden.  It's this huge garden, filled with Buddhist and Hindu statues.  They're beautiful, and intricate.  I wish that I had more knowledge of these cultures so that I understood the scenes and symbols that I was seeing.

You could spend hours there. Next, it was off to the market.  The only way I can even think to describe this, is like a huge swap meet.  I remember when my Grandma Holgate lived in California.  Whenever we'd go visit her we'd go to the swap meets on the weekend.  Rows upon rows upon rows of people selling things.  Anything from underwear to food.  A bit of overstimulation for this quiet Wyoming girl.  I didn't buy a single thing. I'm a very poor shopper. I've been told I have the opposite of buyers remorse. Instead of buying and later feeling bad about it, I DON'T buy, and then later feel bad about it. I'm trying to overcome this horrible problem :D

So tonight, I had my first "food scare." Some members of the church invited us out to dinner.  It sort of in the form of a melting pot type dinner.  Bunch of raw ingredients thrown into a pot, simmered and stirred.  Other dishes were served as well that were already cooked.  One of the dishes brought out was a fish carcass with squid and other types of sea food and lots of vegetables.  It actually looked quite delicious. One of the women dished me up a nice big spoonful of it. I was in the process of trying to eat something else.  Just as I was headed for this particular food, Jordan stops me with, "Umm...there's cashews on top of that." There weren't any in the portion that I'd been served but Jordan had seen them. So then he had to proceed to explain why I wouldn't/couldn't eat this particular dish.  They felt horrible, I felt horrible that they felt horrible. But, everything else was good :D Someone up there's lookin out for me.