Laos- day 66

Day 66 Thurs 11/1
Never having spent a constant few consecutive months with one person 24/7, we decided that we needed the day to ourselves. I spent my time at the spa and got a little culture in talking to Pai, who spoke a little bit of broken English. Maggie might have been a tad more productive than me and volunteered at the library for the day and explored the city. She talked to a monk and learned about his life and said that he was from a small town, so committing his life to seven years as a monk was a beneficial choice. Some of the monks are just little kids, seven and eight years old, and its sad to see them commit to such strict rules as they grow up: Bare feet, two hour walk to and from the city every day, no sports, lots of worship, no food after 11am, and no physical contact. Maggie touched his arm when they were chatting and learned that rule quick. Alot of the locals are Buddhists as well and really support the monks. We met back at the room and went to a cute bar/yoga place/restaurant called Utopia, that had been written up in lonely planet. It had a great environment and I hung out while Maggie did sunset yoga on the river. As we walked around the city, we must have seen twenty people we knew and it's really cool to run into people in different cities. We've even been running into people we met two months ago in Bali, and even though it takes five minutes for us to figure out who they are, we eventually always do. Lots of wine here, best wine Maggie's had in a year and a half.