Loaded in Loei...

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Every guide book we've read lists Loei as a concrete wasteland; a town of no significance not worth a second glance. Julija wanted to see it anyway, mainly because of the Chateau de Loei Winery, which is one of the only established wineries in SE Asia. I was immediately proud of myself for negotiating a 30B tuk-tuk ride to our guesthouse, an unheard-of fair for such a distance. Our guesthouse, Sugar GH, was charming and clean, run by an attractive young Thai girl, who our soon-to-be friend, Seth, from Alaska, became enamored with. We took a nice walk around town and the man-made lake in its center, which is filled with sacred carp, and gawked at the womens' hilarious massive aerobics workout in the park. We got some soup at a quaint little restaurant where we sat on the upper level, watching traffic negotiate the main roundabout of the town. The local elections were happening soon and the Thai candidates promote themselves by having their faces plastered on billboards on the sides of trucks that drive around all day blasting loud, obnoxious music and campain slogans (we think.) They woke us up all the time. After the mosquitos got bad, we picked up a pint of SangSom rum and headed back to Sugar, where we met Seth, a fish biologist living in Alaska. He had bought a crappy motorbike in the north of Laos for too much money, and had tried to ride south with his partner, their bags, and two guitars, only to realize it wouldn't work. He had to leave his bike at the border and come into Thailand without it. We became friends and, after a couple drinks, headed off to this silly bar that we had heard about--the Robot Bar. It was closed, unfortunately, but this place is so beyond wierd. It has the potential to rock, but who knows. There are two big Robocop statues outside and then you enter through this strange tunnel into this large room with crazy stuff on the walls and a big stage.... Strangely appealing. We ended up at this other little bar, chipping away at a bottle of Benmore scotch (not bad, really) and eventually got into a wierd conversation with a cheating Ford salesman who was out with his girlfriend. Julija hated this guy and I didn't like him either.

The next day we headed out to the winery. The drive was gorgeous. The winery sucked. The signs said "wine tasting", but when we went into a cramped concrete room, we were offered a couple shot glasses half-filled with white wine. When I asked, "May I try a red?" the girl smiled and said, "No. You buy?" I offered to pay for a tasting, but she would not open another bottle. We laughed at the situation and bought the cheapest red, which wasn't cheap at all. After a drive around the vines, Seth and I and Julija headed out to find these waterfalls we had seen signs for on the way out. We found one, but it was totally dry. There were 8 little boys in their underwear playing on the rocks and they got a real kick out of it when Seth and I began throwing sticks and rocks off the cliff with them. Good stuff. It was a very nice place to relax and have a glass of syrah. On the down side, my stomach was not happy with me and I spent some time in the ant-covered outhouse. On the way back to town, we stopped by some beautiful reservoir lakes and realized that we would have to stay another day to lounge on a bamboo raft and drink beer all day. That night Seth's friend from Laos and a couple metal-head guys from Finland checked in and a group of guys, including me, went down to the river and goofed off for a while. I enjoyed the "guy time."

The next day we lounged on the lake and enjoyed swimming (I swam to an island in the middle of the lake which almost killed me), eating sticky rice and honey-chicken, listening to music, reading, tanning, and drinking Chang beer with ice (yes, with ice). Around sunset, our raft was invaded by a group of young Thai guys who had been partying all day. This was fun for about 5 minutes; then they wanted beer and cigarettes and had completely taken over our craft. I jumped into "cautious mode" and collected our things, but it turned out to be fine. We went swimming as the sun set behind the mountains and it was really special. Soon, we were pulled into shore and we rode home after fighting off the Thais, who begged us to come to the Robot Bar, to no avail.
That night we ate pizza (we had a rough experience with some strange market food the night before) and watched a movie. The next day we said our goodbyes, paid our bill, and left on a bus for NongKhai, on the Laos boder.

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