The Big Comfy Couch!

Do any of you remember the Big Comfy Couch? It was a show with clowns on PBS or something. I'm so happy to have our own nice big comfy couch!

Jane's still here! She leaves tomorrow. We went to Vang Viang this weekend, which is a little town 4 hours north by bus. Here's some of our happenings of the past week!

 Jane came to class with me a couple of times.

 We bought new furniture!!!!! It is so nice! Jane thinks its too hard... but so much better than wooden kitchen chairs or the floor! and it's orange and just great! It's a sectional - 2 couches and 2 chairs. I LOVE it!!

 Jane wearing my sinh to school. She also got one made which we'll pick up tomorrow.

 We have two rugs. One looks like a slice of watermelon and one looks like a car. They're cute! Our adorable neighbor boys always come and "drive" them around. They also always kick start them. So cute! PS, they're semi-clean... We just washed them this week... but they're having fun!

 Jane at That Luang, the symbol of Laos. Some Buddah's hip bone (I think) is buried here.

 In Vang Viang, we got massages! and facials and pedicures :) It was COLD and rainy! We were going to go tubing down the river, but it was too cold! So there wasn't a bunch to do, besides pamper ourselves! It was nice and cheap.

 We saw two caves. This was the easy cave to see. We asked these guys to take our picture, but he joined us!

 We rented bikes! It was fun to go to the caves and just ride around. The road was kinda bumpy...

Vang Viang is in a valley kinda. It's really gorgeous! And also has some nice rice fields.

 This is the other cave we went to. We had decided enough riding, let's go back. I had seen a sign for a little cave with fish on the way, so said, hey Jane! Let's stop and check this out... so we did. We paid our $2 and were handed two little flashlights. The guy told us to go. So we followed the arrows and rode our bikes through a dry, sandy, rocky riverbed. He followed on his motorbike. The riding was a little rough. Jane wasn't having much fun. I kept assuring her it was fine to turn around! But she said that since we started, we had to finish! So, we kept going...

We enter the cave with our little lights. After going in 15 feet, we have to squeeze through a small opening... a little scary. But, Jane wanted to continue. So, we followed the guide over bamboo bridges and under stalactites. It wasn't so bad. (I had been in another cave similar to this before, but Jane wasn't sure if she could trust our guide.) We followed him for maybe ten minutes. We get to a small opening and he stops. He shines his light at a small tube sitting in a little pool/river of water in the middle of this dark cave! Oh, no, I think we do not want to go! I tell him. He said he usually takes ten people a day and only one goes in the water! It was so scary! I can't imagine anyone crazy enough to hop on the tube and float to who knows where! In the middle of this dark and creepy cave! He just laughed and turned around to lead us back to safety. And we did make it out safely. It wasn't the most fun thing we did on our trip, but it made for a fun story!

This was the sign. It says, "Welcome to Bowl Silver Cave. Beautiful water for swimming and tubing (tube supplied) Many different fish to be seen.

A picture taken from our balcony of our hotel. (It's hard to have good pictures when there's only two of us) :(

 I LOVE our neighbors! Today, for the first time, the boys brought over their little brother. He is so stinking cute! I hope they all come over more often! I am so happy to have these little boys at our house! Makes me more excited to see and hold my little nephew(s)/niece when I get home!!!!

A bunch of my old students came over tonight! They taught Jane some Lao dance, and she taught them some American dance. They ate some chili soup. It was just fun to see them!!