I woke up at 7 and checked my sleep score on WHOOP. As I had anticipated, it was not great because of the alcohol I had consumed. I felt a bit tired, too.
I started writing my personal journal in French in the living room. The reason I started learning French again was that I have met quite a few people from France, which made me want to communicate with them in French. I think I stopped learning French a couple of months ago, but I still remembered the words and vocabulary pretty well. My goal is to be able to speak French and Spanish as well as English, which I can already speak at a decent level.
I believe that the fastest way to learn a language is to go to a country where it is spoken. This belief comes from my experience in the U.S. If I had not gone to the U.S., I would not be able to speak English no matter how hard I tried to study. In other words, the fastest way for me to learn French is to go to France or another country where French is spoken as an official language. However, it might also be possible to achieve that goal by finding a friend who speaks French and spending time together. Either way, I need to put myself in a situation where I have no choice but to learn it; otherwise, I will fail. During this trip, I would like to take advantage of my free time by learning French on my own, and if I have opportunities to speak French, I will take them.
Back to blogging. After writing my journal, I went to a laundry shop to wash my judo uniform and clothes. I found one just five minutes away on foot from the hostel. At the entrance, there was an older woman who looked to be in her 60s, and she recognized me immediately. I asked her about washing and drying my clothes. She agreed and weighed them. It was about 3 kg in total, so she told me it would cost 150,000 LAK ($6.80).
I thought, “That’s too expensive for just washing.”
I asked her if she could do it for 120,000 LAK ($5.40), and she nodded. Then I asked when I should come back to pick everything up, and she said, “Tomorrow morning.”
I was like, “What?” wondering why it would take so long. Seeing my facial expression, she changed it to 5 PM that same day. I agreed and left the laundry shop.
I went downstairs to have breakfast. Since I had gotten Set A, a Western-style breakfast, the day before, I ordered Set B, Lao noodles. I was surprised by both the quality and the portion size. Again, this was included in the $5 room rate. It makes sense, though, that local homemade food would be better than food from other countries.
While I was eating, I listened to a French podcast, and then I left the hostel for the coffee shop that I usually go to in the mornings. I assume the workers there remember me by now. I ordered an iced Americano. Since I had discovered that the second floor was much more comfortable because there were very few customers and it was easy to access the bathroom, I started writing a blog post upstairs.
Every time I write, it takes longer than I expect. As I write, more things I want to include come to mind, which makes the process take even longer. It eventually took a solid couple of hours to finish the update, and then I went to another coffee shop, Starbucks, immediately afterward.
The reasons were:
- I was not hungry at all after having dinner with my judo friends the night before and eating a decent breakfast.
- I wanted to update my YouTube channel.
- I had nothing else to do.
I ended up staying there for a few hours, organizing videos that I had taken with my camera and just relaxing.
After I went back to the hostel, I published a video that I had filmed a month ago on my YouTube channel. I still have a lot of videos that need to be published. I need to catch up on that as well.
It was already after 5 PM, so I went to the laundry shop to pick up my clothes. The woman immediately recognized me again and handed me my judo uniform along with the rest of my clothes. Everything was folded neatly.
For dinner, since it was my last dinner in Laos, I wanted to go to a slightly fancy restaurant. I had 200,000 LAK in cash and another 100,000 LAK on deposit at the hostel. I calculated the remaining expenses for the rest of my stay in Laos. The only thing I expected to pay for in cash was the bus fare of 40,000 LAK from the city to the airport the next day. That meant I could spend up to 260,000 LAK (about $12).
I went to a restaurant called Khop Chai Deu, which had been recommended by the judo sensei I met during training. It was just across the street from the coffee shop I always went to. Before entering, I checked the menu to make sure it was within my budget.
Since it was still early evening, there were only about five people drinking there. Every customer I saw was a tourist enjoying cheap beers, which reminded me of my concern that Laos might be losing some of its identity.
I ordered butter chicken curry and naan, which cost 155,000 LAK ($7). I would definitely not pay that much for a regular meal. While waiting at a corner table outside, I found myself thinking about how unequal the world is.
Since it started raining a little, I moved to a different seat. As soon as I moved, the food arrived. The portion was very disappointing. I could not believe it cost $7. However, the taste was excellent. It might have been one of the best meals I have had recently in Southeast Asia, even though it was not traditional Lao food. In the end, I was satisfied with the portion as well because of how rich and filling the curry sauce was.
After finishing my last dinner in Laos, I returned to the hostel. I relaxed there for the rest of the night. Since I started staying at the hostel, I had noticed a strange guy, whom I assumed was from China, constantly going back and forth between the room and the living room. The way he walked made so much noise that it annoyed me a little.
I went to bed at about 9 PM, wanting a proper night’s sleep to prepare for leaving Laos for Indonesia the next day.
