Me against the internet…

That’s how I feel today..but the rest of the week has been amazing. I am trying to upload pictures and its so s-l-o-w. I have been here for about 3 hours so far. What do I expect in a country that only has one ATM?? Yes..in the whole country One bank machine. At least I got to have a webcam 80’s party with Steph and Martin in real time while I wait. 80’s party’s have taken on a whole new meaning now – thanks to the internet we can have them with on the other side of the world! Only problem is now I have Foreigner stuck in my head.

So we have been in Laos for about a week now. I am wearing smelly white strings tied up ½ way to my elbows from one of the coolest experiences ever. We rented bikes in Luang Prabang (super cool French inspired small city that shuts down at 11:00pm sharp…) for a day and decided to bike around and see the city. We stopped to jump in the river and cool off after visiting a really cool temple. Which I don’t have the pictures from but should upload them - the paintings in this place were crazy. I will get them uploaded. Someday. Anyway these young monks were swimming in the river, they completely ignored us since they aren’t supposed to speak to or look at women. But as soon as we got out the guys we were with and the monks erupted in to the biggest seaweed war ever. We left the river all stinky from gross seaweed river city water we decide to head back to town for a shower and some grub. On the way back we heard loud karaoke music and took a detour to check it out. Lo and behold (what does that even mean??) we come across a birth party where this father was celebrating the birth of his new baby (I don’t know if by celebrating he meant trying to deafen it cause the music was SO loud my ears hurt) and they invited us to join. It was so cool, they had us up dancing with their friends and family and even brought us into the house to bless us and the baby. I guess this is a Buddhist tradition. So after lots of dancing, really spicy food and Beerlao we left a few hours later feeling like we had just stepped in and out of the twilight zone. We are supposed to wear the strings they tied on us during the blessing for a week cause they bring good luck. They are now yellow and starting to smell, but c’est la vie..

The following morning we got up ay 5:30am to witness the walking of the monks. They come out of the temple and walk down the street with baskets that people put food in. All the food they eat in a day is whatever is given to them during this daily ritual. We bought some rice and sat on the sidewalk waiting. It was a surreal experience - it was still almost dark out and there must have been 100 monks.

Last night we got back from a trek here in Laos. We left early in the morning and it was raining, good thing it stopped or I’m sure I would have looked like swamp thing by the time I got to the first village and scared the village people to death. Our guide was a guy name Huan (means house in Lao) he was a 25 year old student and a great guide. We trekked or about 3 hours and arrived at this small village in the mountains, this place was an eye opener. Really the first time I have noticed poverty in the villages. All the ones in Thailand were basic farming, live off the land villages and it seemed to work - the people seemed happy and healthy. Not so much here. The kids were all snotty and sick and very very dirty. Uncle Art would have a heart attack if he saw their teeth. And they didn’t seem to be really growing many crops and the livestock was scarce. And we sat there and ate our lunches. Nice big baguette sandwiches with ham and cheese while the kids stared on. I lost my appetite. No eating there for me.

After a few more hours of hard mountain hiking we arrived in the village where we would spend our first night. This was better, seemed they had it a little more figured out than the first place. Except the opium. All the men were smoking opium and walking around so stoned. It was creepy. But the kids were awesome, even though there seemed to be an over abundance of them, condoms? I doubt it. The guys we were with played a volleyball like sport with them while An and I took pictures. They love posing for the cameras and seeing themselves on the screen after. They scream and laugh, it’s so funny. We had cold hose showers in the outhouse and ate some good food, had a Beerlao and a mini ipod party (iPod speakers – our best friend!) and crashed at 9pm, so wiped out from the trek. The following day was basically the same except we had to walk along a river all day and we all took turns getting sock soakers. That night we were camping in tents on the beach. We arrived to the beach by kayak and jumped in the water. We were so hot and dirty (see my flickr for really embarrassing pics). We set up camp, ate, had a campfire with some of Huans friends and they serenaded us with Lao music and tried to feed us chicken heads and feet. Good times. Next morning we got up at 8:30 after a sleep that left much to be desired.. We began our 4 hour kayak down the Namkong river, which actually turned into about a 6 hour kayak cause the outbreak of seaweed / mud fights and the guys flipping there kayak over the rapids slowing us down. Plus we spent an hour hanging out at waterfalls..

Anyway that pretty much brings me to now. We are going to leave Luang Prabang tomorrow and go to Van Vieng, about a six hour bus ride to go tubing. Yep, that’s the big thing. Tubing. We were going to head straight to Vietnam but our visas don’t start till the 30^th so we decided to chill in Laos a little more. I prefer Laos to Thailand, the people are still glad to see you and not constantly trying to grab a buck out of your pocket. I am even learning the language, thanks to our Dutch buddy Dan who seems to know…every language?? Anyway that’s that. Check out the pics from the trek. Hopefully I can get to those temple ones but I have been in the internet café for 4 hours. Over and out. xoxo