That Luang

   Yesterday we went to the That Luang Festival with our friend Mina and her two boys. The That Luang festival is celebrated among monks and laypeople all over Laos. It is a time when the Buddhists burn incense and give alms to gain merit for the afterlife. It lasts for several days. It was similar to a fair in the states. There was lots of food and other vendors selling all different kinds of things.
  When we first arrived, everyone was making a big fuss over something we couldn't understand, but it turned out that the president of Laos was passing a few meters away from us. How exciting:) 
  We walked around, Inom on Michael's shoulders, checking it all out. Then the boys rode bumper cars - which Michael compared to an actual head-on collision, and he has the bruises to prove it. We ate dinner together, which consisted of lots of sticky rice, grilled chicken, and some other dishes I can't say. Mina and the boys ate one of the foods we read about before we came that we said we'd rather not partake of. It is an egg with a somehow cooked baby chicken inside of it. Isaac seemed to enjoy it. Mina ordered one for us, but she sent them back when she correctly read our body language and facial expressions.
  It was a fun night to top off a pretty hectic day. We relocated to a hotel yesterday, which involved repacking and unpacking a lot of stuff. Baw pen yang..... Lao for no problem:) The place is very nice, but we already miss our surrogate family.