Hi guys,
I know I've been a bit remiss in keeping things updated lately, so I thought I'd give you the story on Lao. When last I posted, we were in Luang Prabang, up in the northern part of Laos. It's a hopping place, but very clearly geared toward tourism. We ate some awesome street food and shopped in the night market and otherwise touristed it up. We woke up early on our last day in town to see the daily march of the monks around town to collect alms from the citizens. The monks walk down the street and kneeling citizens place food in their baskets for them to eat that day (they donate any extra to needy kids who bring baskets for their families). Unfortunately it's turned into kind of a camera-snapping nightmare as opposed to a form of religious devotion. There were more tourists than locals in some spots, and a lot of them were pretty vulgar, pushing their cameras right up in the monks' faces and joining the observance while obviously having failed to read the signs posted all over town that gave the procedure for doing so respectfully. It kind of grossed me out, and I headed back to the hotel room so I wouldn't have to be part of the scene.
We then took a surprisingly long but really scenic bus ride to Vien Viang, which was quite a scene. The place is a backpacker mecca. And by "backpacker" I mean "year-round MTV spring breakers." Every restaurant in town had an episode of Friends on the bigscreen TV, which was kind of funny. We stayed at this cute little guesthouse with the absolute sweetest family running it. We were walking down the alley where the guesthouse was, and didn't see the sign so we walked right by, and they start calling out to us "do you have a booking? Are you Josh?" When we replied that we were, they were so excited. The younger sister of the owner in particular was adorable, and every time we passed by she's say, "hi, Josh!" even if it was just me by myself. If you're ever in town, stay at Le Jardin Organique. They're great people.
We took a tour that included caving and tubing, which was really awesome. The whole area is filled with these limestone mountains, which over the years have been worn away and have a network of caves in them filled with all kinds of crazy stalactites and stalagmites (spelling?). Uncle Rick, you'd have gone nuts in there. The highlight was a cave we had to go into while floating on inner tubes. There was no light, and we only had one flashlight between us and our guide, so the place was totally dark. We would occasionally get out of the tubes and crawl through these low, narrow passages. Just when we thought our guide must surely be taking us to the end of the world, we'd find ourselves in these huge chambers filled with crystals (and sometimes also guano...but did I mention sparkly crystals?). It was really cool. At one point our one flashlight got a bit iffy, so we were wandering around old-school style with candles! What a blast!
We then headed off on our tubing adventure, which would have been awesome...if I was 10 years younger. There were an assortment of bars that you could tube up to, with rope swings, water slides, and the like, which would have been fantastic were it not for the hordes of heavily intoxicated college kids running around going "woooooo!!!! Laos rules! Wooooo!" and dancing around in their skimpy bathing suits (Lao manners really require everybody to be covered from shoulders to knees) to the sound of blaring speakers. All I could think of was "we have just ruined this stretch of river for anyone who actually lives here." And also "I really want to go on that 5-story waterslide but I'm too terrified..."
Once we got out of range of the rather crass spring-breaker ambience it was gorgeous, though. The view was incredible, with the mountains rising up at these crazily steep angles from the river. By the end I was frozen through and ready to be done - next time I'll take a kayak - but what a relaxing way to spend a day.
Now I'm in Vientienne, the capital of Laos, which is a very chill town and has the benefit of seeming to go about its business without caring too much about the tourists (the moto-rickshaw drivers here often have to be awakened from their naps to take you places - a far cry from being accosted like in other places!). I'll be here a few days, soaking up the awesome street food and bakeries left over from the French colonial era while I wait for my Chinese visa to come through. Not a bad way to wait! Josh has headed back to the States and the real world, but Chris will still be in Vientienne for another day or so before he heads back up north to go trekking to visit some hill tribes. I'm not sure what I'll be doing yet, but I do know I've extended my stay here, so I'm not flying out of Thailand until New Year's Eve. That gives me tons of time to find a project to volunteer on, play with some elephants, and heavens knows what else. Yay!
I know I've been a bit remiss in keeping things updated lately, so I thought I'd give you the story on Lao. When last I posted, we were in Luang Prabang, up in the northern part of Laos. It's a hopping place, but very clearly geared toward tourism. We ate some awesome street food and shopped in the night market and otherwise touristed it up. We woke up early on our last day in town to see the daily march of the monks around town to collect alms from the citizens. The monks walk down the street and kneeling citizens place food in their baskets for them to eat that day (they donate any extra to needy kids who bring baskets for their families). Unfortunately it's turned into kind of a camera-snapping nightmare as opposed to a form of religious devotion. There were more tourists than locals in some spots, and a lot of them were pretty vulgar, pushing their cameras right up in the monks' faces and joining the observance while obviously having failed to read the signs posted all over town that gave the procedure for doing so respectfully. It kind of grossed me out, and I headed back to the hotel room so I wouldn't have to be part of the scene.
We then took a surprisingly long but really scenic bus ride to Vien Viang, which was quite a scene. The place is a backpacker mecca. And by "backpacker" I mean "year-round MTV spring breakers." Every restaurant in town had an episode of Friends on the bigscreen TV, which was kind of funny. We stayed at this cute little guesthouse with the absolute sweetest family running it. We were walking down the alley where the guesthouse was, and didn't see the sign so we walked right by, and they start calling out to us "do you have a booking? Are you Josh?" When we replied that we were, they were so excited. The younger sister of the owner in particular was adorable, and every time we passed by she's say, "hi, Josh!" even if it was just me by myself. If you're ever in town, stay at Le Jardin Organique. They're great people.
We took a tour that included caving and tubing, which was really awesome. The whole area is filled with these limestone mountains, which over the years have been worn away and have a network of caves in them filled with all kinds of crazy stalactites and stalagmites (spelling?). Uncle Rick, you'd have gone nuts in there. The highlight was a cave we had to go into while floating on inner tubes. There was no light, and we only had one flashlight between us and our guide, so the place was totally dark. We would occasionally get out of the tubes and crawl through these low, narrow passages. Just when we thought our guide must surely be taking us to the end of the world, we'd find ourselves in these huge chambers filled with crystals (and sometimes also guano...but did I mention sparkly crystals?). It was really cool. At one point our one flashlight got a bit iffy, so we were wandering around old-school style with candles! What a blast!
We then headed off on our tubing adventure, which would have been awesome...if I was 10 years younger. There were an assortment of bars that you could tube up to, with rope swings, water slides, and the like, which would have been fantastic were it not for the hordes of heavily intoxicated college kids running around going "woooooo!!!! Laos rules! Wooooo!" and dancing around in their skimpy bathing suits (Lao manners really require everybody to be covered from shoulders to knees) to the sound of blaring speakers. All I could think of was "we have just ruined this stretch of river for anyone who actually lives here." And also "I really want to go on that 5-story waterslide but I'm too terrified..."
Once we got out of range of the rather crass spring-breaker ambience it was gorgeous, though. The view was incredible, with the mountains rising up at these crazily steep angles from the river. By the end I was frozen through and ready to be done - next time I'll take a kayak - but what a relaxing way to spend a day.
Now I'm in Vientienne, the capital of Laos, which is a very chill town and has the benefit of seeming to go about its business without caring too much about the tourists (the moto-rickshaw drivers here often have to be awakened from their naps to take you places - a far cry from being accosted like in other places!). I'll be here a few days, soaking up the awesome street food and bakeries left over from the French colonial era while I wait for my Chinese visa to come through. Not a bad way to wait! Josh has headed back to the States and the real world, but Chris will still be in Vientienne for another day or so before he heads back up north to go trekking to visit some hill tribes. I'm not sure what I'll be doing yet, but I do know I've extended my stay here, so I'm not flying out of Thailand until New Year's Eve. That gives me tons of time to find a project to volunteer on, play with some elephants, and heavens knows what else. Yay!
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