living with the katang

caught a bus to savannakhet from pakse. all in all around 8hrs of travelling.
by the time we got there we were so buggered.

we went to savannakhet to do a trek with the provincial tourism office there in the dong phu vien national protected area.

one word: amazing

aiyah, went to visit all these tribes and hiked for 20k one day (reliving my duke of ed glory days), swimming in the river.... it was without doubt one of the most amazing things of my life. and often these treks to villages can turn into a bit of a circus but ours was surprisingly legit- there was an anthropologist in our village studying the katang ppl! all these little kids running around staring at us, communal shower (literally). everyone- boy and girl is standing around this open air water pump and you just...well wash yourself (while wearing a sarong). we hiked in gorgeous bushland/grassland/forest. bushbashed a good hour to try and see rare monkeys but no luck :(

also when we got there we managed to catch a major once-in-fifty-years festival where they sacrificed 12 buffaloes for their ancestors. amazing to see their belief system based on spirits of the trees/rocks/nature and ancestors.

aiyah words cant describe

and every night, we stayed at diff village (2 day three night trek) and wed have long candlelight conversations with the villagers about death/marriage/birth/politics anything (these villages are very basic- no electricity)

will need to post photos when i get back, never have enough time on the road

now we are in vientiene- capital of laos. arrived here by bus at 5.30AM in morning. got dropped off at city centre to... nothing. lol. there was literally nothing around. it was so depressing. and when we got off the tuk tuk some guy offered jase drugs. hahaah a big fat welcome to vientiene. wandered the streets (tried to sell jase's ass for 2000kip or some food at least) and ended up just watching the sunrise over the mekong river (along with randoms doing aerobics to loud 80s music hahahah)

now it looks like all our plans are fucked though- no buses tonight to luang prabang (wanted to be there for CNY). LP is a unesco heritage city, meant to be gorgeous. so yeah, see what we end up doing.

...

so when i last left you all we were stuck in vientiene with a good 7 hours to kill to catch a bus to luang prabang (that is after killing 3 hours waiting for anything to open and getting offered drugs. hahahha to prove what a dope jase is he had no idea what the dodge plastic bag was so ended up grabbing it to try and feel it and ai... *amy had a heart attack*)

to kill time we went to the wat sok pa luang to do a sauna and massage. absolutely fantastic. you go to this like forest retreat (authentic asian style ie ramshackle but nice) and get into their sarongs. no first class here. since jase and i hadnt showered for 3 days (other than riverside baths) we showered where the monks did. pretty much dunking water on yourself from a tank in the open with a sarong on. so used to cold showers now- 60% of our showers generally are in the river or cold water from a bucket. true lao style!

anyway, sit on this verandah, go into a 'not so hot sauna'.

holy mother of a cow. you walk in and you cant see 20cm in front of you. literally. and you could barely breathe. its this herbal sauna where they burn nice smelling wood and stuff (but wet sauna cause we were literally dripping after 1 mins no exaggerations). you smell really nice after. and there were all these old lao women in gossiping and this old monk. jase was the alpha male though- he loved it. it was ridiculously hot and after 3 rounds we had a massage. you have it just outside the sauna, still on the verandah looking out into overgrown garden all around you. best massage of my life- jase didnt cause he a sweaty bastard, lol. either way a highly recommended trip for anyone.

also if oyu get to the temple on a sat they have meditation classes which we, luckily, were there on a sat and did one. you sit in a sorta open air temple and this monk instructs you on vissapana meditation- sitting and walking. hahaha i know, you can meditate while you walk (talk about multitask) and theres lying meditation (we think its code for sleeping) and standing meditation.

so funny thoug, the walkin gmeditation- you walk around the small temple structure (liek a 20m route) and all these whiteys plus us (always the damn token asians) are walking around in circles. and the way you do it is just concentrate heavily on your walking. so everyones concentrating real hard and this one chick in front of jase and i is walkiong so damn slow there was seriously like a bnottleneck of 5 other ppl behind us. so jase, being jase, in meditation mode, starts 'revving up' his walking meditation and overtakes her. hahhaha. but the funny thing is hes gotta do it subtely so this overtaking takes about 5mins to complete. then he shoots off and before you know it hes 3m in front of her (10 mins later of course). even the monk gave him a dirty. hahahah. so hilarious. he has the need for speed.

in his defence she was walking freakin slow- i did overtake her too.

all in all both highly recommended! but the meditation class can get boring. you sit/walk meditate for 20mins each. after 10mins into the sitting meditation i ended up making funny faces at jase (we sat at the back)

either way after that we managed to get onto a bus to luang prabang around 7.30 after being chatted up by a drunk cripple (i shit you not) and then having a cat run into my legs.

the bus ride was pure hell. the worst windy, bumpy, dark, dangerous, narrow roads i have EVER EVER EVER been on. it was crazy. and on the way we saw like 3 upturned trucks. scary stuff. and it was so hard to sleep! grah! constantly waking up every hour. highly NOT recommended (but cheap cheap nevertheless). the scenery along the way is gorgeous- if you are in a calm enough state to appreciate it!

when we finally arrived at luang prabang we again, got there at 5.30am with nowhere to stay and nothing open. hahahh we never learn do we. when we finally got dropped off at city centre jase this time got offered food to give to the monks. hahahahha. what a diff from vientiene!

luang prabang gorgeous city, its a UNESCO heritage site... ie the whole city! gorgeous architecture- victorian, lots of restorations (jase is a smartass archi student) and so many temples. you can not beleive. hundreds of monks at 6am in the morning go to collect their alms (ie they can only eat food in the morning which is donated to them- thats their only meal and there is literally hundreds of monks cause theres so many temples, walking the streets to collect alms). its a really nice site and its become a major tourist attraction- a problem in itself- the women offering to sell us food for monks often sell food thats gone off and the monks get sick so you shouldnt buy that food. and the bloody tourists are really intrusive. some walk right up to them and take photos and its liek a religious ceremony they are interrupting. but the tourists in luang prabang are crazy. a monk doing anything remotely normal ie on a computer, riding a tuk tuk, eatin ga freakin ice cream its like SNAP SNAP SNAP with their massive slrs (fark i want an SLR).

like it was a novelty for me at first admittedly (hehehhe...) but yeah then you feel sorry for the monks. i think they really get sick of it. its seriously like papparazzi. but the monks themselves are badasses- i got chatted up by not one, not two but three monks. can you beleive it? i could not. these monks com eup to me, keep talking, ask me about bfs, one asked where i was staying and said he might see me around when he does his monrnng alms route! jase and i gave each other one of those... can you beleive it puzzled looks. so yes, monk flirt- readers beware!!!

ended up staying at the 3 nagas. without doubt the best hotel ive stayed in. at $105us a night it better have been (though a damn lot cheaper than most other places). gorgeous place with private balcony and nice modern/jap/lao design. loved every minute of it. unfortunately, we did not love the restaurant so much. the second day in luang prabang (first day spent looking at temples and the such) we rode our bikes (place is sooooo easy to ride around on bikes) to shops and then spent the arvo looking at all these charities.

good things happening in laos in regards to NGOs and stuff. still a long way to go but i think laos is lucky in that tourism is seeming ot benefit it more than ruin it (ie phuket *shudder*). theres a new website/initiative giving ppl ideas on what to do for meaningful tourism ie sustainable/community sensitive/eco tourism. its called stay another day. dont relaly know website but you can google it. the trek we did in savannakhet was suggested. either way, visisted the charities but the one i liked the most, which wasnt listed in the book funnily enough was the self-study centre that has been set up. its pretty much this place where all the local kids come to use computer and library for free. and all the kids are in their to study! they really are. it was so quiet when we visited. wanted to go cause they have this great initiative where they are lending out cameras to the local kids to take photos. and some of their photos are amazing. we wanted to buy some, ended up buying a cdrom with all of them.

either way, just crazy to see how eager laos kids are to learn and get good jobs and self educate them. seriously, everywhere we go, the waiters/serviceppl/sellers have all got their little books to learn thai or english or something tucked under the table.

read more go to http://www.thelanguageproject.dreamhosters.com/langproj3b/
anyway, spoke to the curator, carol and she said what they need are 'easy cover' (its to cover the books which libraries use) and SD cards so the kids can take photos (and some are seriously talented). so if anyone can help out in anyway contact me or the place directly and im sure we can work something out :)

anyway yes after the charities went to dinner at the 3 nagas. here comes the clincher. jase got food poisoning from there. and we not talking simple diarreah we talking constant throwing up and toilet breaks every hour. ended up staying up all night (well partly for me cause i kept falling asleep in the bathroom or on the floor or on the bed). poor thing. got a doc to come see him in the morn and pump him full of drugs. he got an intestine infection- nasty things. so yes, had change of plans and got another night at villa soxai 1. decent place cept for peep holes. beware. we stayed on ground floor and noticed the guy stand outside our door. then noticed tiny peepholes. didnt catch him in the act but suspicious. so hang a towel on your door. that was 30$.

spent a whole day recovering and sleeping, only venturing out to eat at night (hahah jase was so scared, fark i was too.,,,) then went home and spent the whole night watching tele. the way to go!

anyway, i thikn thats more than enough from me

miss you all lots
amy

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