loving laos.

hello from luang prabang, laos! quite a journey getting here....

jen and i met at the bangkok airport no problem (whew), and headed to our hostel near koh san road in bangkok. we made the most of the late night with drinks and a hookah to celebrate the beginning of our journey. the next day we did the bangkok norm of the grand palace, some famous temples, and about 10 miles of walking before hopping on a train that night to chang mai. the train was air conditioned and had beds...sort of...and was packed with people. it was about a 15 hour journey, but we actually both had a pretty good sleep through the night, and it was cool to be on a train riding through the thailand country side. i like trains. they make me feel very dr. quinn medicine woman-ish.

we got to chang mai the next morning, grabbed the first hostel we saw, and rented some bikes to see the town. we headed up to (another) famous temple on top of this big hill, which we were adament we could bike up, but were told by the tuk-tuk drivers we most definitely could not..."15 km! too far! we take you! low price!" we were skeptical but decided to go with the tuk tuk and THANK GOODNESS! it was most definitely 15 km completely up hill. but we did make the most of our bike rental by heading out of town about 12 km to a lake reservior in the mountains which was absolutely beautiful! we were pretty much alone, other than a few thai kids swimming, and after such a long hot bike ride, we really deserved a swim and a lay in the little bamboo huts that surrounded the lake.

the next day we started on our two day hill trek into the thailand jungle, which in the two days included about 25 km of trekking through the mountains (calling it a hill trek is truly decieving because those were no hills my friends), sleeping on a slab of bamboo and getting eaten alive by mosquitos in a tiny little village of long-neck people from mynmar (you know where the women have those rings around their neck and their neck gets really long), elephant rides through the jungle, white water rafting, and bamboo rafting down the river. a busy 2 days! i loved the hiking, despite my poor aching legs, and mostly loved my elephant! we first nicknamed it horrace (jen's idea), then dumbo (too unoriginal), then elly. (also may sound unoriginal, but every time we said it he flapped his ears with approval.) anyway, he was a good elephant in that he didn't crumble to the ground through all the muddy uphill and downhill slopes along the river. seriously, elly was a champ! and the leader of the pack! he insisted on being first and shoved his way to the front. my kind of elephant.

the day after we got back from the hill trek (exhausted), we hopped in a crammed van and headed to the laos border to begin the long journey to where we are now. jen and i got slammed into the tiny little space in the back of the van next to about 12 massive bags of luggage. i took a dramamine and was pretty much knocked out (in that wierd not quite sleeping but can't move your arms sort of way) the whole 7 hour trip, but i think jen was a little worse off with no leg room and no sleep inducer. we got to the border in one piece, made some friends with a girl from ireland and a girl from england (who are still with us now), and the next morning, after a 3 hour long visa process, climbed onto what they call the "slow boat" which takes two days down the river to get to luang prabang. once again, jen and i got the worst seats in the house, crammed on a little plank of wood directly next to the smelly bathroom and in front of the hugest loudest motor i've ever heard in my life. all you can do is laugh! but again, we made some friends with some italian guys (i just have a hard time trusting italian men...a little too smooth...), and made the most of the 7 hours by charging people a bathroom fee since they literally had to climb over us to get to the toilet, which really consisted of an open hole with the river underneath. i think taking on the role of bathroom police, along with the fact that we literally had to shout as loud as possible the entire time just to hear each other properly (and later found out the entire boat of 130 people could hear everything we said) led to jen and i not exactly being the most popular people on the boat. but hey, i'd like to see other people have as good of spirits as we did seeing as our sense of hearing and smell will never be the same again.

that night we stayed in a little laos village right off the river. it was really really interesting. i loved laos immedietely, just because it seems so much more undiscovered than thailand. we kept the trend of "worst luck possible" going by staying in the most disgusting hostel ever...complete with an ant brogade taking over our toilet, a trickle of cold water coming out of our shower, mattresses from the stone age--in that they were literally made of stone--and the best part...the elecricity in the entire village shuts off from 10-6. so...no fan! wohooo! again, all you can do is laugh and chalk it up to a true laos experience. i didn't sleep that night as it was about 100 degrees in our room and i kept hearing different animal noises moving from corner to corner of our room. jen told me the next morning it was a gecko. who knew they could be so loud!

yesterday was the last day of the boat trip--another 7 hours--and we actually got seats! on the little wooden benches. seriously, i wish you could picture this boat! at one point there were about 25 laos people in the aisle, just picked up from another little river village, a baby screaming, a half naked little boy going up and down the aisle, and a wide-eyed bunch of foreigners not sure if they should laugh...or cry...or just make a dash for the life and swim to shore. but it was definitely worth it as we got to see laos in a really interesting way. it was really beautiful along the river, and there were several tiny villages we saw we cute little kids full of dirt all over their faces, half clothed, smiling and waving at the boat. i didn't realize how poor and undeveloped laos is.

so we got into luang prabang last night, another little river town, and we LOVE it here! we splurged on a hostel with an actual shower curtain, and immedietely got massages. this town is super friendly and chilled out, and full of history and interest. we may even stay an extra day. this morning we got up at 5:30 to watch about 300 monks make a walk around the temple walls. we bought sticky rice and little bananas and as they pass, they open their little bowl things and we put food in as some sort of offering. we aren't exactly sure of what it all means, but it was really cool. some of the monks were so young! not older than 10.

ok, jen's here now, so we're headed to see what this town has to offer. next we're headed to vang vienne for a little tubing down the river! until then...