Living the Dream

I hope loas (note: the 's' is silent...why? ask the french!) loved us as much as we loved this beautiful SE asian country. Every day we had a blast in this baclpacker's paradise.

Because everything was so incredibly cheap in laos, and we heard the phrase "same-same, but different" more often here than anywhere else (although we got it a lot everywhere we went in this part of the world), we finally bought our obligatory south east asia backpacker t-shirts. said by shopkeepers, guides, drivers, and hustlers alike… it basically means ‘even though you want this product / service / transportation, I’m going to give you this other one that is same-same… until you find out that it is lower quality / not available / more expensive / slower / leaves an hour later… and then I’ll clarify that it is really same-same… but different’.

But despite the transportation and bargaining shenanigans, Laos surprised and delighted us with beautifully preserved buddhist wats and resident monks who seemed genuinely interested in sharing their lives and practicing their english with us, an endless number of outdoor adventures including trekking, kayaking, tubing, climbing, and caving in the tropical forest, and cheaper prices for food, lodging, gifts, and everything else than anywhere we'd been on the trip.

We spent a few days visiting the temples and waterfalls in the ancient capital city of luang prabang, before heading out on a two day trek with our guide, Chuare, through 5 hmong and khmer hill tribe villages several hours north of the city. We hiked about 7 hours into the mountains passing through rice fields, fording 4ft deep rivers, tasting local herbs and produce grown in the fields (kirk enjoyed the sugarcane) and exploring villages all along the way.

Since it was just the two of us and Chuare, who spoke the various languages of the different peoples we visited had grown up in an isolated hmong village, himself, we were able to really interact with the local people more than we had at any other point on the trip. We played a soccer / volleyball variation with the kids, played cards and drank laos moonshine whisky with the old men, took a bath down at the river with the ladies, slept and ate on the floor of a single room smaller than our florida bedroom with 3 generations of local family – grandpa was quite the snorer -- and woke up at 3:30 in the morning with the roosters, pigs, chicken, goats and villagers getting ready for their day. we trekked and kayaked back to luang prabang the next day arriving dirty, exhausted, and very satisfied witih the adventure that was one of the most fascinating and authentic we've experienced. we rewarded ourselves by checking into a guesthouse with hot showers (a rarity) and got relaxing 3-dollar facials in town. we even had a tv in our room, but got a little taste of our lives back in the real world as we caught the final minutes of the movie apollo 13 and also watched the rockies win game 3 of the nlcs, reminding us that our amazing journey is coming to an end within the month and we'll be back to powerpoint before we know it.

After a dramatic 7 hr drive (dramatic both because of the amazing scenery and the speed at which the minibus passed trucks on blind curves at 60 kph) south to Vang Vieng, we felt like we’d arrived at a surreal backpacker summer camp. Nights were spent watching Friends reruns in our choice of about 9 restaurants that played them continuously (and all served the same mediocre, but very cheap, ‘western’ food) on the main road in town. Days were spent floating down the Nam Song river, stopping off to explore temples and caves (we went tubing through one) nestled in the surrounding limestone cliffs, and visiting one or more of about a dozen makeshift restaurant / bars constructed from boards and bamboo, packed full of backpackers playing volleyball, sunbathing, swimming, and watching each other jump off platforms and ropeswings extending 40 feet or so over the river. Everyone we met was staying longer than they’d planned, some extending a 2 day visit to 10 days or more -- sadly we could only stay 1 extra day without missing our flight back to Bangkok…