After resting, relaxing and freshening up at the hotel – we are ready to make our way back into town – and across the Bamboo bridge once more for our burger fix! We’ve checked, and this time it appears the Boss Burgers will indeed be open, so we meander up the road, pay our 5,000 Kip each and retrace our footsteps from last night.
The bridge is still there, the Hen and her chicks are still there, the TV corner is still there…
…and we have the bonus of finding another great bizarrely translated sign.
Onward we stroll down the same little streets, arriving at Boss Burger a little before opening time. We cool our heels walking up and the down the street a bit, then realize the gate is open, at last! We are, as usual, the first customers, and are greeted by a very friendly waitress, Steve, our burger-meister for the evening, and the cutest little dog, who can’t decide whether he’s going to bark at us all night or cuddle up for some love! Fortunately he chose the latter, and we had a best friend with us for the entire evening.
The Boss Burger dining area is on a lovely, large deck looking out over the Nam Khan river with Mt. Phousi in the distance. While there are a variety of comfortably appointed seating options, from tables to little couch/settee areas, we chose to settle into a table between the grill and the river, with our faithful companion laying comfortably at our side.
Funny enough, when we were atop Mt. Phousi this morning, we had actually taken a picture of this exact house and deck, not realizing we would be coming here this evening.
We spent a wonderful evening chatting with Steve and his wife Meryl, exploring their decision to move here from Great Britain, the challenges, the rewards and most of all how the move has changed their life for the better. (Their main occupation here is actually running a charitable foundation they created to help provide necessities to rural villages in Laos – we only know this from research we did previous to coming here for dinner. Steve and Meryl never mentioned it. Boss Burger is a sideline that Steve wanted to do because he saw an opportunity – and loves to grill!)
We talked about the food, and that they sourced their meat from Vientiane to be able to get quality beef (not the mixture of buffalo and whatever else is used in other restaurants), how great the morning market in town here was for produce, and how Meryl hand makes the tater tots (which were fantastic – I could have eaten a whole plate of those alone!). As we talked, Steve cooked our burgers to perfection – my cheeseburger and Ed’s cheese and bacon (real bacon) burger – and we chowed down while continuing our conversation with our lovely hosts.
Chatting about accommodations, we found that Steve and Meryl rent out rooms in their house for short stays, a possible option for us in the future. Shortly, as another group arrives for dinner, we say goodbye to Steve and Meryl, and of course our 4 legged best friend (who has now jumped up on Ed’s lap!), and turn our attention to walking back across the Bamboo bridge. Our last night wouldn’t be complete without a stop at the Icon Klub, where we spend the rest of the evening in enjoyable conversation with Lisa, the owner, our Singapore guys from last night, another guy who lives in Hong Kong, but came here to get away from Chinese New Year (ha!) and another newcomer, Anthony, who is American by birth, but has been living in Australia for most of his life and works as a reporter for a newspaper in Brisbane. Now we are even sadder that we have to leave in the morning. What a great place (the Icon Klub and Luang Prabang!) and what a great way to end our stay here.
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