Advertisement
Published: October 22nd 2006
Well, it's been awhile since I've written.
I do have a good excuse, however. I've been in northern Laos (pronounced 'Lao'), and there's hardly anywhere with internet here and it is always very slow. I promise you that I will be catching everyone up on the adventures that I've had over the last 10 days or so, but in the meantime, here are a couple highlights:
+ I took the bus from Bangkok to a town called Ayuthaya, checked out ancient Thai ruins and discovered a band that plays what the Thai's call "Life Music", which is really fun.
+ From there, I took a bus to Chiang Mai in the north, which is a cultural center and a backpacker haven. I stayed at a beautiful place by the river, with an amazing Singaporian woman and her staff. I partied with some of the Chiang Mai art scene, met a Thai biker gang, and ate terrible Western food.
+ Then I took a bus north to Chiang Khong (the Thailand side of the border with Laos at Huay Xai) with an Englishman, two Canadians, and two Swedes. The six of us partied in Chiang Khong and the
next day headed into Laos.
+ We took a two-day slowboat trip down the Mekong river, through a little town called Bhat Beng, to the spiritual center of Laos in Luang Prabang. I spent most of that time on the roof of the boat, helping the Lao boatmen bring the boats into dock and push off again. I ate a lot of great, authentic Lao food in the back of the boat with the crew, and I got to babysit a monkey for a day.
+ In Luang Prabang, I checked out the riverside restaraunts and bars, and drank the infamous snake-whiskey (fermented from Snakes and Lizards and giant, venemous Insects). I also visited Laos' most important temples and buddhas, including the countries old Royal Palace, and the buddha the town was named after.
+ Just outside of Luang Prabang, we swam in a series of jungle pools and jumped off of waterfalls with Buddhist monks. We also got a chance to feed and pet a tiger. Afterwards, we discovered a new cocktail and ended up buying a monkey. (We took him to the Buddhist monks right away, to take care of him until they take him
to the refuge.)
+ The next day brought a bumpy, car-sickening ride down Laos' Route 13. We ended the journey in the town of Vang Vieng, where I sit right now typing this up.
Right now I'm sitting in an internet cafe in Vang Vieng, Laos. I've been tubing down a river all day with a group of Englishmen and Englishwomen, Canadians, and Swedes--with an Australian and a Scotsman along. I spent most of that time swinging off crappy Laotian ziplines and rope swings, also doing some river-surfing and climbing a lot of rickety Lao structures. Just now, I've left a bar after getting beaten at pool by a Swedish friend I've been travelling with for a few days, and now I'm on my way to a huge Laotian wedding party.
Well, I guess I better get back to the adventure.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.234s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 12; qc: 64; dbt: 0.1282s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Aaron Brown
non-member comment
"drank the infamous snake-whiskey (fermented from Snakes and Lizards and giant, venemous Insects)" Sounds pretty kickass. So does babysitting the monkey of course. Wedding part huh? you'll have to tell the story of how that one happened sometime.