made it to laos, and so far it has been worth the effort.
to get here we had three travel options: speed boat down the mekong, slowboat down the mekong, or a bus and they all sounded awful. the speedboats are incredibly dangerous. we heard multiple tales of crashes, breakdowns, and other incidents so the speedboat plan was rooted out immediately. the slow boats, we had heard, were terrible, taking two days total, people packed in like cattle on a ramshackle barge. it was supposed to be excruciating, and that's why we had originally planned on the bus.
but after arriving to the thai border, we hadn't talked to anyone who had ever actually taken the bus, though there were whispers of horror stories; 15 hours over washed out roads with no a/c and no toilet. small uncomfortable seats. and we met a gaggle of people all set to take the slow boat in the morning, so we gambled and bought tickets for the cattle boat.
as it turns out, the cattle boat was a full on booze cruise.
i sat in my seat for maybe the first 30 minutes. after that, i was standing in the back, with 20 other travellers, drinking beer lao, listening to music, and at the party's apex, singing along in a chorus of "living on a prayer" by bon jovi (the second time that's happened here). i can see how sitting still on that boat for seven hours, two days in a row would be a nightmare, but those nightmares are apparently reserved for those not willing to have a few mid afternoon beers.
midway thru the two day cruise we spent the night at an insignificant town, pak beng, where we had dinner and turned in early. ashley didn't get much sleep that night after we killed two cockroaches in our room, right before the power for the whole city went out, leaving her to lie in darkness, recounting stories we'd heard about creepy crawly things turning up under the covers. i slept fine.
next day, back on the boat, the party section looked more like a coma ward as those who had gone all in the night before were now paying the price. and even though it was uncomfortable, the ride was stunning, drifting by small villages of stilted bamboo houses along the river, kids swimming, and men fishing. it was a truly visceral southeast asian experience.
now we're in luang probang, a small city that's not nearly as touristy as anything we saw in thailand. its quiet, and relaxed, and feels like a genuine town as opposed to a backpacker camp. if this is what laos is like, we will be very happy. we celebrated our arrival last night by hitting the bars with our new international entourage. everything in the city shuts down at 11, but there were rumors of a late night spot just outside of town.
so what do lao people do when the bars close down? they go bowling.
12 of us piled into a tuk-tuk for the 10 minute ride to the bowling alley, where i assumed that ashley and i would shine like midwestern diamonds on the lanes and embarrass the europeans in bowling, but it wasn't meant to be. after two games, our high score was 70 and in the end we lost once to team england/spain and again to a danish girl teamed up with a local ringer.
today we got up early and made our way to a nearby national park whose main attraction is a gorgeous waterfall. again, we had our entire posse in tow as we hiked to the top for killer views of blue skies and lush green mountains. once we had worked up a sweat, we hiked back down to where the falls tumble into a series of turquoise pools that look like they were made for swimming. we spent more than an hour there swimming in under smaller falls and jumping off trees into the pools. it was amazing. ashley and i have had a few moments on this trip where things have been so perfect that they almost look fake, and this was one of them. i felt like i was swimming in a waterfall at a mini golf course.
tonight we'll take it easy, have a nice dinner, and hang out with some new friends before the group begins to dissipate. tomorrow we might head out to some nearby caves for some exploring and spelunking, or we may just walk around the city. as always, it's brutally hot, so another trip to falls might also be in order. my guess is that our next town will be vang vieng, about three hours south by bus, a city that has a party reputation, but is also famous for river tubing. after that i would think we will head towards vientiane. we're told that all of these cities have a noticeable french influence, in the food and architecture, so we're anxious to see what differences there are between here and thailand. if nothing else, it seems already as though its a much slower pace of life, which is fine by me.