It's Thursday, February 28th. Rich and I have been in Vang Vieng, Loas for about a week now. Loas is very similar to Thailand with regards to culture, food, language, and people but Loas is set back 40 years before any of the tourists came to Thailand. The countryside is much more rural and untouched by the western world. There are backpacker havens like Vang Vieng but as soon as you get off the beaten path , which could be a 5 minute walk outside the city, it changes drastically. The climbing is very similar as well. In Thailand, especially Ton Sai, where things are generally polished (like a polished stone, rock becomes smooth after repeated use and thus becomes slippery and not easy to climb on) in Loas everything is generally sharp and dirty. At
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