Have Sunscreen, Will Travel: Lovely Laos

Sabaidee (hello)! For the last week, I’ve been traveling through what I believe is my 48^th country, Laos (the “s” is silent). This is almost a sleepy place, with a slow pace of life and quiet, polite people. It took me awhile to warm up to Laos--it was such a departure from the intensity of India--but now I find it really quite lovely.

I’m traveling now with a group of 13 people ranging from 24 to 73 years old, hailing from Australia, Britain, Canada, and the U.S. In Laos, we started in the small capital city of Vientiane which did not have any very remarkable sites but it was fun to explore one man’s self-made collection of Buddha statutes.

At the Buddha Park near Vientiane

Vang Vieng was our next stop and the town itself is an unattractive string of shops catering to tourists who want to tube on the river and drink alcohol served literally in small plastic buckets. However, the environs have lovely green hillsides that we got to see on an extremely bumpy dirt road bike ride. It can only be deemed miraculous that I did this 8 mile roundtrip ride on a fixed gear road bike. The next day, I went ahead and tried bar hopping by inner tube on the river, where there are guys at each bar who throw ropes and pull each floating customer in to shore. It’s not the classiest pastime but it was a fun afternoon.

Me and my fixie

Local kids check out the weird foreigners

Next, after 5 hours on one of the windiest roads I’ve ever been on, we arrived in Luang Prabang. The city is dotted with many beautiful temples or wats, including the Buddhist monks in orange robes who provide the wats’ upkeep. On New Years Eve, I got up at 5 AM to see the monks gather offerings of rice, fruit, etc from people who line the street sitting on bamboo mats, collecting them in a lunch pail of sorts. I was surprised that some of the monks were very young, perhaps only 10 years old. Then we stopped at a pretty nature area, Kungsi Waterfalls. After visiting a few wats, my final mission was to finish my Christmas shopping at the Night Market (my family is celebrating Christmas on January 16^th after I get home). The currency here is 8,000 Kip to $1, so it took awhile to get used to so many zeros in my wallet but my multiples of 8 are now fresh in my mind. Then finally I stayed up until midnight (just barely) to ring in 2012 with my group. People all over the city set off huge paper lanterns that go up like hot air balloons, dotting the whole sky with orange specks—it was a serene but special start to the new year.

Monks collecting morning offerings in Luang Prabang

Pat channels his inner Tarzan at Kungsi Waterfalls

At Wat Xieng Thong

Buddha statues with tile mosaics behind at Wat Xieng Thong

Night Market in Luang Prabang

2012 is off to a calm start as we’ve spent the last two days on a boat going up the Mekong River. We’ve had some of the best food on the trip during this time, dishes like green papaya salad and larp, a ground meat/hot pepper salad. The boat ride has fortunately left me with time to write up this blog on the boat but no wifi, so the uploading will happen later. I have a few more days in northern Thailand, then it is home sweet home which gives me a bit more excitement and angst each day--excitement for food, family, and friends; angst for job hunting, reverse culture shock, and weighing in after many months of travel cuisine. I just keep reminding myself, what will be will be and besides, that’s all still a week and a country away. Next up, Thailand.