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| LAOS |
| Taking the 'slow boat' from the Eastern border of Thailand down the Mekong meant one nights stay in a very very shady village. It turned out to be alright, it was only a semi-rush to find a hostel spot amongst all the other travellers. The best part was meeting Paul and his friends - they took the room that Robin and I had originally had our eye on. Paul was going to give it back but I declined, having a beer instead and then Robin and I will find another place. The best part was - Robin and I found an even better spot right next door! Sure, there were bars on the windows, but that meant it was safer! |
| My absolute favorite place EVER EVER EVER!! |
| It was a great, lazy boat ride down to Luang Prabang. The best part about the slow boat was seeing over and over again the familiar faces you spent two days cramped into a tiny space with. Luang Prabang - great people, great place, great friends. I loved it. Loved the $1 beers and delicious Tom Yum soup. My routine every day was waking up, getting a coffee, smoking cigarettes and writing in my journal. Then it was a nice bike ride around town and along the Mekong to the various open air "resteraunts". It was dollar tom yum and a liter beer. Then back to my 'posh' hotel room, a splurge at $6 per night, to take a cold shower and a nap. Nighttime brought the 'night market' and a fabulous assortment of handcrafted objects and opium-related paraphenalia. The side alley was my absolute favorite place to eat and for the first and only time ever, I would buy a whole fish that was salted and grilled and skewered between two bamboo poles. It was a dollar. Then I'd eat it with chopsticks and have a few other items on the side. Beer too, of course! |
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| The panic was tangible...the boat was overcrowded! |
| Robin was mugged! |
| Water Hippos! |
| Waterfall near Luang Prabang... |
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| Robin taking a little rest...after a few beer laos... |
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| The 'posh' hotel room at $6 a night! I LOVED IT!! |
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| Robin and I met just before going on the slow boat...we decided to make a pharmacy run just to cover the basics! Then we became roomies! |
| Neighbors and now established gangmembers - Keeli, Robin, Armon and Lukas!!! LaoLao whiskey shots. Ugh! |
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| The Sweatiest Millionaire...or should I say 'Thrillionaire?!' |
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| Then it was off to Vang Vien where Paul and I got wraaaaassssted with a group of Brits and went on a Mekong tubing excursion that would DEFINITELY BE OUTLAWED in the United States. The tubing day came, it was still raining. Hard. But the humidity is intense so it didn't really make a difference. Met up with the group- Me, Paul, Kat, John. Rented our inner tubes for a whopping $5 (!) then headed down to the river. Launched ourselves in and floated for about five minutes before we rounded a bend and saw a few Lao guys with long bamboo poles 'fishing' other tubers out of the water. We all grabbed hold, hauled ourselves up onto the banks and sat down in one of the small bamboo shelters they had made just for such an occasion. We ordered 5 Lao Beers (1 liter each) and promptly got to drinkin'. Then it was time to hit up the very scary, not safe metal 'zip-glide' swing. You climb up a crazy wire ladder and zip line down into the brown Mekong. Too bad there was so much slack and once you hit that portion...it's all you can do to keep your shoulders in their sockets! I got all brave (coulda been my 2nd liter) and did a flipy thingy...felt like I hit concrete! Didn't quite make the full rotation and landed on my shoulder. I felt that the next day. But not at the time because the next few hours were spent drinking more liter beers and drifting down river and stopping at every little riverside bamboo bar there was. We almost missed the last stopping off point, BECAUSE OBVIOUSLY THERE ARE NO SIGNS OR ANYTHING INDICATING THERE IS NOTHING BUT VOID but didn't and I proceeded to stumble back to my hotel room for a shower and long nap. Met up later on for dinner at the 'Friends' cafe for a green curry and lots of water. They played nonstop Friends episodes on all the t.v.s in the open air bamboo mat resteraunts. Other places had Simpsons, but usually it was Friends. Ah the good life. Then the next day it was a 15 hour bus ride to Vientienne to meet up with Celene! |
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| How Construction Work was Done |
| Paul on the go |
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| 'Friends' Resteraunt..this one had tables and chairs! but we preferred the cross-legged bamboo platform tables. |
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| The Streets of Vang Vien |