More temples and more

Most of the hotels on this trip have provided some sort of breakfast. In fact, I can't remember one that didn't include breakfast. Some have been much better than others, with the three that stand out being the one in Taiwan on the first night of the trip and the two in Java.
I am in a fifteen dollar per night place called the Vientiane Star. Decent sized room with a queen size bed plus a single bed and an efficient, quiet air conditioner. The bathroom is like most hotels in this price range, with the shower in the open. Functional, but the bathroom floor gets wet when one takes a shower. The hotel in Luang Prabang was thirty-five dollars a night and the shower there sprayed the whole bathroom and part of the floor in the bedroom almost every time I showered - the bathroom door wouldn't close all the way and the shower head had a mind of its own.
Washing is on my mind because I just washed my hat for the second time today, along with the neck pad on my camera strap. I washed my feet, too. It's amazing how filthy they get when I wear flip flops all day. Sorry if all this is too much information, but I was thinking as I started this post about how easy it is to spend an hour or two just doing little chores like washing clothes or sorting stuff in my pack.l
I ate breakfast with an American man named Eddie (I think) who lives in Bangkok. He spent fifteen years living in Kashmir helping to manage an orphanage and searching the mountains for precious stones. I didn't quite catch why he left Kashmir except that he got flesh-eating bacteria in one of his feet and it sounded like that happened due to some altercation. Now he cuts stones he found in India and takes them to the States to sell every few months.
He told me the coral in the Tibetan ring my grandfather bought near Tibet was almost certainly from the Mediterranean Sea near Italy. I was surprised because I always thought it was from Tibet since Tibet used to be under the sea. I looked it up, though, and he knows what he is talking about. So, the ring is Tibetan but the coral in it is Italian.
After breakfast I went to Pha That Luang, which is billed as the top Buddhist site in Laos. Supposedly, Ashoka sent an emissary to Laos around 300 BC with the breastbone of Buddha and that was the origen of the temple. It has been damaged and rebuilt several times since. For such an important temple, it is not very ornate or particularly big and my 70 cent entry fee didn't get me in the base of the stupa. It always galls me when I am charged a fee to visit a religious site, but I guess they have to raise money for paint and electricity to keep the place up.
I much more enjoyed seeing the big reclining Buddha near Pha That Luang and even more than that a pavilion with newish looking paintings depicting the life of the Buddha. I was surprised to find I could follow most of the story. I didn't realize I remembered that much of it. I realized later in the day that it would have been a good place to do a photosphere. Oh, well.
After that I went to Wat Si Saket, a two hundred year old temple. I will post a picture I took there separately - I have trouble attaching photos after I have started a post. I couldn't take photos in the Wat itself - there were many notices warning against that, including threats of being arrested for disregarding the rules.
Last night I met a young American man, his young son and an older guy from New Zealand. I saw them again today and this time the American had his infant daughter with him as well. They had spent the day today working on the motor bike with sidecar the American owns. I don't know where they plan to go on the bike. Interesting group, though. The American (Alec) is a long hair and his kids are named Rabbit and Sparrow. Friendly guy, full of energy.
There is a bustling night market near my hotel and I walked from one end to the other this evening. They sell mostly western style clothes and cellphone cases, but there are a few stalls with tourist attracting trinkets.
I stopped by a convenience store on the way back to the hotel to buy drinking water and when I came out there was an older (about my age) American man with a woman who I think was American, too. He was quite forcefully asking a couple of men for a dollar for beer. I have seen expat beggars before and always wonder about their stories. If they are so broke they have to beg, how did they get to Laos? How and where are they living? It is always sad to see that.