I’m in a different space now – not being in the routine of “work” anymore. Joining the ‘travel circuit’ I find I am not as disciplined to sit on the computer and journal as much. However, I have settled in to Luang Prabang for a bit of relaxation and find myself in a cafe drinking a Beerlao (soo good!), snacking on deep fried eggplant with a spicy dip (sooooooo good!) and time to reflect on the last few days in which time has just seemed to melt into bliss.

At the risk of repeating myself, I will start off with leaving Bangkok by bus for Nong Khai, the border town to Laos. That was an all night bus trip, or so I thought. I actually arrived in Nong Khai at 4:30 a.m. Hmmmmmmmm… what do you do when you get dropped somewhere at that time? The ever present Tuk Tuk drivers are always waiting for business. So, I checked my travel guide and asked my driver to take me to Mut Mee Garden Guest House. It turned out to be a good choice.

He dropped me at the end of a long driveway in the pitch black and I stumbled down the alley with my belongings and found myself in an beautiful open air garden cafe, overlooking the Mekong River. I dumped my backpack and looked around and a woman appeared (I found out later she was one of the owners) and told me ‘sorry’ she had to leave for the temple but just find a hammock to lie down in and wait for the place to open at 7:30. I did just that – covering my feet with my towel to discourage those f-ing mosquitoes!! It wasn’t 10 minutes before a guy appeared, having just woken up himself to do his morning ritual of playing guitar while watching the sun rise. My good fortune! He introduced himself as Duke, from Montana. Turns out he is a professional guitar player, has produced a couple of CD’s with a band and just finished writing a book on guitar ‘garage band’ instruction. Google Duke Sharp to check him out.

After that great introduction of being sereneded, watching the sunrise over the Mekong River I kind of liked the place! There is quite a following of people, it turns out, that stumble upon the place and end up staying for a long time. Duke had been there for a month, playing every other night at the floating restaurant owned by the guest house. He was spending the winter in Thailand getting dental work done – the savings on that compared to the USA paying for his flight. People gradually arrived in the garden for breakfast and warned me I would stay longer than I expected.

There were no rooms to be had, after I waited for check out time to come and go – so a guy from Israel, named Gideon, offered to share his room with me, since he had 2 beds in there. I was a little weirded out by this proposition but my sense of adventure made me say yes! Turns out Gideon was a bit of a pain in the ass as far as trying to tell me what to do all the time (to be fair, I think it was his culture to talk to a woman like that – he didn’t mean to be a pain in the ass) Other than that, he was a gentleman in every way and respected my space within our room.

I befriended another regular at the place – an older british man from France named Tony. He offered to go for dinner with me. It was great to share a table with someone and we just went to the local night stalls that are set up and ordered grilled chicken, raw papaya salad and pork. Tony spends his winters in Thailand every year and does some charity fundraising work for children while there – and it was refreshing to hear his perspective regarding the situation I have yet to write about but will now.

It is almost epidemic, this trend of (mostly) older men coming to Thailand to find a mate. This is not news to any of you, but I have to admit it is really disturbing to see how prevalent it is. I don’t know whether it is more disturbing for the men, who are accosted by the girls for the money (Tony said he can’t go anywhere without being bugged) or the girls who end up with these awful men. I’m sure there are even more than 2 sides to this story. I saw a man about 85 years old with a young, beautiful Thai girl at a restaurant and she was wiping the drool from his chin! There are also many men who come to Thailand for the whole package, hopeful to find love. Thai women are seen as good potential wives because they are subservient and very family oriented compared with the independence women of the western world have acquired, which some men find not so appealing. Whatever, there are many different situations, but it is a huge sub-culture here. In the bigger cities almost everywhere I look there is an old western man with a young, beautiful Thai girls. Puy was trying to explain to me that the girls actually find these guys attractive (the ‘opposites attract’ thing). Hmmm.

I have talked to 2 men in my relatively short travel time, who have been burned by Thai women too. They fall in love, move here, give everything to the relationship financially (can own property in a joint situation with their lovely new wife) and then have the woman say, sorry, not interested anymore.

Okay – back to Nong Khai. I did end up staying 2 nights instead of my planned one – mostly because Duke was playing in the floating restaurant on the second night and I wanted to take that in. I rented a bicycle during the day and rode out to a sculpture park. It has incredible sculptures dedicated to |Buddha, built by a very intent Buddhist of the area over the span of his lifetime.

I came to Laos the following morning and because the border town in Laos, “Vientiene” is the capital it is the place where I decided I better get my Chinese Visa again. Gregg and I are planning to meet there, when he has some vacation time at the end of January and I was not on the ball when first applying for a visa to China in that I could have just gotten a double entry visa which would have covered the second entrance within 3 months. Anyway – it was a huge hassle finding the Chinese embassy in Vientiene (their website is terrible so I had no forewarning) and when I got there that day they had just closed – at 11:30 a.m.! I decided to spend the night in Vientiene, drop off my passport in the morning and just leave it there until I came back from travelling north in Laos to pick it up again. I did just that and then ‘got out of dodge’. BUT – my evening in Vientiene was interesting!

I wandered around the city in the afternoon and then read that the place to eat was on the river bank (Vientiene is on the other bank of the Mekong River from Nong Khai where I had been the night before. The Mekong borders the two countries) where all the night market stalls set up. I found myself sitting on a straw mat ordering ginger chicken watching the sun set and then I was joined by 2 great guys who had just arrived in Vientiene to renew their Thai visas. One was a Irish 37 year old, teaching Business English in Chaing Mai and the other, a guy from New York, possibly a bit older than me, who has been travelling for 2 years trying to come to turns with having lost his wife to cancer 4 years ago. He sold his house and quit his job and was spending much time in spiritual corners (Buddhism mostly) searching for … something. We spent 4 hours telling our stories to each other and then parted ways. A great evening!

So – after the chinese embassy and dropping off my visa the next morning – it was raining! First rainy day I have seen (yesterday) I got the Tuk Tuk to take me out to the Northern bus station and asked for a ticket to Luang Prabang. Turns out it wasn’t leaving for 2 hours! Shit. But – I was already all the way out of town at the bus station, so that is what travel is like. I waited for the bus and it was a brutal 11 hour slog from noon – 11 p.m. to here.

There are 3 types of buses here: Ordinary, you don’t want to be on. Express, the one I ended up on because there was no other choice with my lack of planning! And then the VIP bus. The difference in price is about $10. So worth the better bus if they are leaving! I will make sure to go back to Vientiene on the VIP bus! That bus stopped all along the way and was overloaded with supplies (chickens… rice.. you name it)

The first unforgettable experience on that trip was when a passenger yelled out in Laos language (I am meaning I didn’t understand what he was yelling) to the driver and then the driver stops right away, just like that. It didn’t seem to matter that we were on a blind corner facing up hill! So, next thing I know, everyone is getting off the buss and going pee! Girls too! Except the girls had sarongs with them, (which, for anyone who doesn’t know, is a tube shaped piece of cloth that they wear as skirts or to get to the shower in). The girls just wrapped the sarongs on themselves and pulled their pants down in privacy with the sarong, and squatted to pee. I sat there for a moment thinking, shit, this is maybe my only chance to pee on this 11 hour trip so I better do it! I headed for the bushes… Everyone gets back on the bus feeling relieved and I watch the driver chug back his water bottle and chuck it out the door onto the side of the road! The litter in the third world is atrocious.

We had to cross and very deep river gorge. A cement truck was in front of us (part of the process of building the new bridge) and we waited while it crossed over with its heavy load. I could see the deck of the bridge buckling underneath the weight. I kind of crossed my fingers as we took our turn to cross. There is much road construction going on in Laos – apparently heavily funded by Japan and China.

We had many close calls with cows and dogs who wander the highway. I don’t know what they do with the ones that get hit but there has to be a few a day! The amount of traffic on those roads and the near misses we had suggest there has to be fatalities often.

The drive between the 2 places is 400 km of winding, twisting, climbing mountains, descending mountains. Very beautiful scenery once we reached the Karst mountains at Van Vieng, despite the socked in cloudy feel. The bus kept fogging up unless the door was left open and the driver’s assistant kept having to wipe the driver’s windshield with a towel.

We stopped for dinner half way – rice and ‘stuff” – and then it was survival the rest of the way.

….. I’m 2 nights into this town now, and enjoying the sites. Yesterday I just checked out the town itself. In the centre is a mountain with a temple on top. There are 400 steps up to the temple. Its a great view from the top, and at night time the temple is lit up creating a beautiful centrepiece to the town! This morning I watched the procession of monks walking the streets for the offerings. Its is a really neat sight. I found a wonderful guesthouse and restaurant which I am moving to this morning. The guest house is down a quiet little alley and beyond it is a restaurant which sits high above the river. Its just beautiful and open air and lovely places to perch and watch the river. Its called Utopia – and its a good name for it!

I am headed out to Tat Kuang Si waterfalls in a couple of hours for the rest of the day. Looking forward to swimming for the first time on this trip!

People have warned me I would find Luang Prabang too touristy and that the better, less travelled parts of Laos are further north where there are wonderful trekking opportunities and some great eco-tourism. I know this is true now, but I am going to pass on it anyway. The bus ride to that area is another 9 hours over really rough roads (worse than what I have already done) and I’m really looking foward to having a week with Gregg on his holidays soon. We plan to meet in Beijing – an easy spot for both of us to get to. Time, therefore, is the other reason. A week at the beach is still high on my priority list!

Bye for now.
g.