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May 10th-14th
Got up early for our 3 minute boat ride across a river separating Thailand and Laos (I learned you are supposed to pronounce the “s” when talking about the country and you don’t pronounce it when talking about the people). After crossing immigration in Huay Xai, we spent the next 2 days on a private boat taking us down the Mekong River to Luang Prabang. The entire way we had forests covered mountains to our sides with tiny remote villages every once in awhile, most with boys swimming in the water (naked). Since the river is so low during the dry season, there is hardly any traffic and we could go almost the entire day without seeing other commercial motorized boats. The first day we made a stop at one of those small villages and they allowed us to walk around and see what life is like. This was extremely interesting and they had no problems with us taking pictures. A few hours later we arrived at a hotel in the small village called Pakbeng where we spent the night and went out and had a great time, although it was mostly backpackers from Europe that were
out and not many people from Laos. Either way, the alcohol is very strong and that lead to many members of our group getting very drunk, from what I can remember.
Back on the boat early the next morning for a day of now awkward moments trying to remember the trouble from the night before and sleeping. We did make one stop at a temple built inside a cave which was nice change cause i’m getting pretty templed out. Anyways, we did eventually make it to the former capital of Laos, Luang Prabang and we all took extra time enjoying the free internet and nice long clean showers again after almost a week without either. Luang Prabang is known for a tradition where hundreds of monks walk down the streets at sunrise to collect food from the villagers, and now tourist, as alms. We did all wake up the next morning at 5am to go buy rice and join in the tradition. Later we took an hour dive to the Kuang Si Falls, a three or four tier waterfall which forms many beautiful turquoise swimming holes which we spent a good amount of time in. One had a
rope swing and for the final jump of the day, Waldo showed up. It was worth it cause i’m counting that as “washing” the outfit i have been carrying with me everywhere for over a month now. And to keep with what seems to be a pattern of drinking every other night, we all went out in a city which everything closes at 11 except one place, the bowling alley! So we caught a tuk-tuk to the bowling alley and to even up the teams of boys vs. girls, we convinced our tuk-tuk driver to join in (he claims it was the first time he’s ever bowled but he did pretty good).
During a free day, we all slept in and went for a walk around the city before getting a massage (a real one this time, and out of 9 of us i was the only one that got the guy mussiest) and heading to a pool. Now i am off to bed cause we have a 7 hour bus ride to another backpacker paradise in Vang Vieng, famous for tubing along the Nam Song River lined with bars, rope swings, zip-lines and much more stuff i
probably wont be able to mention in this blog.
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joey
non-member comment
looks great
are you loving it? it looks amazing?