Gailmo- What a great report. Do you mind saying about how much the duvet covers were?

whoops...
My husband just informed me that I made an error on the LP report. We saw Lao soldiers....not Cambodian soldiers. Sigh--- guess my mind was just thinking ahead.

By the way, we just flew home to Hanoi after a week in Siem Reap. I am staying at a University campus and parts of the campus are totally under water. Taxi had to try three different entrances to campus before we finally found a clear route.

I walked to the Geography Department to reclaim my laptop--I left it locked up there while gone. The building has about a half meter of water in it. They have put boards, brick and blocks along the bottom floor so you can get to the upper floors. As I was walking along a wooden "gangway" above the water, I saw the Dean of Agriculture with his pants rolled up to mid-thigh and shoes held high. He was walking into his building--which is much worse than Geography.

The market where I get most of my fruits and veggies is gone.....nothing there! I read that the rural areas were hit very hard and the people cannot get into the cities to sell their goods. I looked in another location and a route that typically has 10-15 people selling fruits and vegetables only had two selling today. I didn't check prices, but I imagine they are very high.

Quite a change from LP and Siem Reap!

In response to the price of the duvet covers:

I purchased two white covers with blue flowers in the morning market. I didn't realize until the night market what a great deal I got. I bought another blue one with white flowers and a touch of red that evening.

Morning market: 2 duvet/bedspreads were 280,000 for two or about $32.

Evening market: 1 duvet/bedspread was 230,000 or about $28.

I tried and tried to match my morning price in the evening. I went beyond the typical eye rolling and calculator punching...and walked away twice. No go on a cheaper price. At that point my husband was the one rolling his eyes. He tactfully mentioned that I was only talking about $10 or so and that he would be the one getting nasty if I didn't just buy one. I did...and hindsight is that I am happy with our purchases and think that the seller at the morning market either made a mistake or was just needing the money.

glsd to hear that you liked the lotus villa. we are going to lp in march, and had just booked it based on reviews on trip advisor. although, i got a slightly cheaper rate through a hotel booking website than through the hotel itself.