Update from the Land of Monks!!

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Greetings from Suan Mokkh!

Ok, so I know I made this huge deal about not having internet, but registration doesn't start until tomorrow (the silence starts tomorrow night) and I'm bored. Spent the day getting settled in, reading, taking my first legit dip-and-pour shower, and buying a flashlight. Very exciting.

ANYWAY it's a way better deal to stay on the internet for an hour rather than 10 minutes, so I figured I'd continue my Laos updates. Here it gooes!!

LUANG PRABANG:
Alright, so we're to the point of getting accomodation. Luang Prabang was amazing. We spent the first night at the fantastic night market, which is massive and full of vendors selling everything from Lao coffee and tablecloths to purses and shirts. The next day we decided to rent bicycles and spent the day touring the city. The town is a Unesco World Heritage site and actually forms a peninsula due to the fact that it's where the Nam Ou and the Mekong rivers meet. It's very charming and has a distinctly French feel (and a lot of French tourists as well!). We tried to bike out to where we saw some amazing scenery on the way in from Vang Vieng, but in the heat of the day, we didn't get as far as we hoped. We ended up having a fruit smoothie and playing cards along the river and watched as some monks crossed in a longtail.

The chronology of events is escaping me somewhat, so I may be getting the timing wrong, but I believe the next day is when we went to the waterfall. We met up with our guy friends from Vietnam the night before (Elliot, Ollie, Marcus, and Danny) so we all decided to share a tuk tuk out to this waterfall that everyone kept talking about. Best. Decision. Ever.

I've seen a lot of waterfalls in my time, but this one takes the cake. There are probably about five to ten little pools created naturally, because the waterfall is tiered. One "pool" even has a rope swing! (Which we, of course, took part in.) I actually have to thank the guys for the best part of the waterfall though. Someone (I think it was Elliot?) got a tip from another traveler to walk past the main waterfall and pass by a small sign saying "Do Not Enter." So, we obviously took that advice and entered. We ended up above the main waterfall, where the water was rushing but calm enough to stand on the edge and look down upon all of the various levels of waterfalls below us. Naturally, there was also another waterfall at this level - but this one had a cave behind it. We were able to swim through the waterfall and all of us hung out on the other side of the waterfall for a while. We spent most of our time, however, using little waterproof bags from Vang Vieng to bring our cards over to a rock, where we played "Chasing Waterfalls" (the game James made up) while the waterfall misted our backs. It was seriously one of my favorite memories from traveling, due to the absolute beauty and the fantastic company.

The next day we went on an organized trekking/kayaking trip. We had read in the Lonely Planet that Luang Prabang is great for trekking and man oh man, were they right. We went trekking the first day for about 5 or 6 hours and visited a few hill tribes. It didn't seem touristy at all and we spent most of the time playing with the kids and taking pictures and stuff. The scenery was amazing - particularly the rice fields -and the people seemed genuinely happy to see us there.. minus the kids that we made cry. But hey, that happens. We spent the night in a Lao village where we experienced sticky rice with chili for the first time (we're obsessed with chilis these days) and bathed in the river with the locals. The next day, we were all really excited because we had signed up for the rapids version of kayaking. ...They weren't kidding when they said they were rapids!! Every single person in our group (including one of our guides) flipped over on the first rapid. We were supposed to have helmets, but of course, we didn't. Thankfully, no one got hurt, but we were all a bit apprehensive, as the next rapid was supposed to be even bigger. I was in a kayak with Becky, and we kept pumping each other up along the way. By the time we got to the next rapid, we were ready to go.. and we ROCKED it. It was SO much fun!! We just learned that you have to try and keep the kayak straight (or perpendicular) to the wave and you're fine. After that, we were doing everything we could to get into the rapids. Regardless of our amazing skill, we still flipped over three more times. Once because Becky wanted to torment me (I love you, you bitch), once because Christina and Elliot abandoned their kayak to flip ours over, and once because the guide had to get his revenge from when we flipped his boat. ...By the end of the day, the guide had to get in our kayak because it was so full of water, he was afraid it was going to sink. Oooooops. We all got ridiculously tan and had an insanely fun day, complete with heartwrenching ballads sung by Becky and yours truly.

The next day was by far the saddest day we've had on our trip. It was the day we split off from Becky and Jade. They had to get to Bangkok by the 19th for their flight out to Uganda, and we wanted to continue up north in Laos. We always knew the day would come, but it was a really, really difficult time when it actually happened. It was the day before our "2 month anniversary", i.e. two months after we first met, and about 15 minutes after they left, we were contemplating following them the next day. A lot of tears were shed (and for those of you who know my emotions, you know that's a pretty rare thing for me) and between Christina, Elliot, Ollie, and myself, we were all a wreck. We tried to get our minds off the girls' departure by getting a cool hot pot Lao barbeque thing, which did help a bit, but it definitely wasn't a remedy for the girls being gone!! We still miss you guys so much!

NONG KHIAW:
We left the next morning for Nong Khiaw (the guys left for Vang Vieng). This tiny town in Northern Laos is absolutely magical. The Nam Ou river runs through the town, which is set against a backdrop of towering limestone cliffs. There are only four restaurants (and only two good ones), so we spent pretty much our entire time in one of the two playing cards with our Canadian friend Alex that we met. We did try to do a few more active things though. The first day, we went on a fishing trip (which is how we met Alex) which consisted of taking a longtail down the river and learning to fish with these weird little circular nets with weights on them. You have to throw the nets with a certain technique so that they spread over the water with the largest circumference. The weights drag the net down to the bottom so the fish can't escape. After catching a few teeny tiny fish, the two guides (two young guys) showed us how the Lao actually fish. They drape a massive net all the way across a portion of the river and then take a huge bamboo stick and slap the water as hard as possible, all along the net, to scare the fish into it. As this technique had more success, we were able to have a barbeque, in which we ate fish whole (the head, the eye, everything), salted some eggs, and had some more sticky rice with chili. We then returned to Nong Khiaw via tubing, which took about two hours due to the slowness of the river. The next day we rented bikes and went to the local cave, which was used at one time as a hideout during the Indochina war. The rest of the time really was spent just... hanging out. It was a nice time after all of the activities we had done in the last few weeks!!

We left from Nong Khiaw for Muang Ngoi, which is a tiny village only accessible by boat. This blog is much too long though, so I'll leave Muang Ngoi and Luang Nam Tha (as well as the BUS FROM HELL - 300 km in 21 hours - 36 hours overall.. ughh, that's a story and a half) for after the silence is over. It's crazy to think that when I get out, it'll be less than a WEEK until my 22nd birthday!! Time flies!! We'll probably be in Chiang Mai for the festivities, although we have been eyeing $56 round trip flights to Burma... but Chiang Mai is probably a better place for a celebration =)

Hope all is well back in the States!! Will update in about two weeks!!

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