lost in laos

i never imagined that i could ever be this smitten by a country so...so...landlocked. but what laos lacks in surf and sand, it more than makes up for in complete and utter tranquility. this is possibly the chillest country on earth, where even the longtail boats and motorbikes - constant sources of cacophony in thailand - seem to float silently by; the place where the mighty muddy mekong, in its long ineluctable flow to the south china sea, realizes that it isn't
really in that big of a hurry after all, and decides to linger in endless bends and eddys, smoke an opium spliff or two, and take in the breathtaking scenery of verdant valleys and brilliant sunsets that last for hours. this is one of the few places on earth that has remained relatively unscathed by the runaway freight train of globalization; where water buffalo
outnumber cars, dirt roads dominate paved, and cow poo kicks the living shit out of sidewalk. i made the crossing from thailand into laos thinking that it would be a quick two-week sortie to check out a few spots that i'd heard about from fellow travelers. now i'm wondering whether i'll ever leave.

of course, an inevitable consequence of lao's pristine status is the challenge involved in getting from one place to another: hellish 10-hour non-airconditioned bus rides through bumpy dirt mountain roads that leave your face caked in a delightful orange dust-sweat
compote; mad scrambles through the jungle constantly dodging thorns and picking evil bloodthirsty bastard leeches off various parts of your body; dirtbike rides through sopping muddy road-cum-rice paddies where you arrive at your destination exhausted, exhilirated and
covered head to toe in doo doo. all of this, though, well worth the trouble, because your destination will invariably blow you away in one way or the other, whether it be endless limestone cavern, breathtaking waterfall, rustic village filled with beautiful curious smiling children, or vast mysterious rainforest with the other-worldly songs of black gibbons echoing through the valleys.

i've seen and done too much over the last month or so for me to bother to try to describe it all in any kind of detail...in a very small nutshell, i've lived in a treehouse atop the jungle canopy zip-lining from one mountain ridge to the next and chilling with an endangered orphan black gibbon; gotten lost (like seriously no-joke 'holy shit, are we going to die?' lost) in a vast limestone cavern only to be rescued after 5 long pitch-black hours; jumped into endless
rivers and waterfalls all over the lao countryside; stayed in traditional lao villages and gotten drunk with the villagers on lao lao - local moonshine made with sticky rice - while teaching them to play asshole ('xai-kee!!!' in lao); and caught one of the best live shows i've seen when i rolled into vientiane and serendipitously discovered that sergent garcia was putting on a free concert at the cultural hall.

now, i'm on my way south from vientiane, armed with a rented 250cc honda baja dirtbike, a one-month visa extension and an irrepressible sense of wonder at all things alive and not. may god help me.

despite the crazy slow connections here, i've managed to upload a bunch of pics - they're under photos.yahoo.com/chansoobak under the following albums:

luang prabang
gibbons
vang vieng
vientiane & south

sorry to have been so out of touch. i'll try to write
more often. love and miss you all.

csp

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