~come and join the party every day~

Last night I had to tip someone for not stealing my bag. Earlier we paid over 3 times what it cost others to get a ride to a waterfall. I haggled my way to one quarter of a quoted price at the market. The day before I almost got scammed by a local in another village. WELCOME TO LAOS! If you can put up with poor communist villagers trying to separate tourists from their money, its not such a bad place. It helps to remember that what they'll brag to their friends about as a point blank highway robbery is only 3 or 4 bucks for you. I know they need the money more than me but its just frustrating to be viewed as a gullible sack of gold.

So despite the 3 day commute to get to Luang Prabang, the experience of the river boat was probably the most fun I've had here. Imagine 60 tourists and travelers from all walks of life and every continent sandwiched with 20 Lao on a river boat that can comfortably seet 50 people. Your floating about 8 hours each day in 90 humid degrees the whole way.

So an extended game of I spy broke the ice, which trailed into general conversation and polite typical travel inquiries before finally culminating into an hours long jam session with one ukelaile and the rest random object that make sounds when percussed. We went through singing all we can remember of the full gambit of pop music. From pink floyd to nsync. Beerlao was served and consumed immoderately.

The overnight was spent in a tiny riverside village spawned to sell passers by drugs and beds. We assembled into a 7 piece cast of germans, americans and a swiss guy and bargained for a good rate on a room. We spent the night climbing along the river rocks and partying a bit more. The next day on the boat was a bit more tame but we still played cards and I even learned the lao version of the game, president.

The main bar here in Luang Prabong is called Utopia and its run by an american and set up right on the Mekong river offering patrons gorgeous riverside sunsets and even free volleyball. Naturally I got a game in as well as some foosball. The next day we went to the waterfall and swam around.

It was a nice hike to the top and afforded me some good conversation with my German pals Benny, Lars, and Mo. Their buddy Adrian just left the hostel today to try to hitchhike all the way to Bangkok, an obscenely long distance down these crappy roads, in a day and half before his flight back to germany takes off. If he misses this one, it'll be the third flight hes postponed!

Its actually been 15 hrs since I wrote the rest of this post and I already have stories about the 6AM ritual alms giving ceramony in this city, the buddha caves, Lars swimming and getting stuck across the big river, random riverside elephants, hilltop temple sunsets, incessant haggling, and a legendary 1 dollar all you can eat buffet. As you can tell,  the days are jampacked. And I'm really tired. So no more story time. Good night. Maybe random pictures will suffice. Oh yeah, happy Buddha's birthday to all!