We spent a night learning how to drive elephants in the mountains outside of Luang Prabang. We bathed them in the river, we rode on their neck and hopped up and down as we gave our driving commands. We were supervised loosely from our teachers as they talked on their cell phones or sang local pop tunes at a loud volume. My instructor (Ped) had two cell phones and he spent more then 1/2 the time talking on them. We stayed the night in a bungalow on the river with a mosquito net above the bed (it was romantic). After leaving the elephant camp, we went to the Kouang Si Waterfall. It was something out a fantasy novel. One hundred small pools tumbling into each other for a 1/4 mile. The water was a deep aquamarine due to the heavy limestone deposits. At the top of these smaller swimming pools and waterfalls was a nice 100' waterfall. Unbelievable.
Once we returned to Luang Prabang we ran into our Swiss friend Eva and had a spending splurge at the famous night market. We bought several scarfs, t-shirts, wood carvings, paintings, a bed spread, and other assorted items and sent them home. All in all we spent close to $100. We thought we had really got a good deal until we shipped our heavy box home via the local post office. The shipping by boat will take 2-3 months and costs $80 (hahaha, we still got a good deal!).
Our last night in town we hiked up 300+ stairs to a temple to watch the sunset with about 100 other tourists. It was still beautiful. Then we wandered around town looking for this movie house that was listed in the guidebook. We walked to where it was shown on the map and a Japanese man in a restaurant spotted us staring at our book and remarked, "Let me guess, you are looking for the Cinema? It has been closed for 2 years." Christina and I decided to sit in the restaurant and split a small glass of Papaya flavored Lao Lao whiskey. It was a full glass, and way to strong, so we decided to offer some to the Japanese man and his two buddies. We immediately hit it off and talked for three hours. We discovered (in between the beers he kept ordering for the table) that he was the owner of the restaurant, he was also the owner of the tour company, and the two buddies sharing the table were Lao natives who are his tour guides. At the end of the night, he refused to take our money to pay for anything. He said he had such a great time talking with us that it was his pleasure to pay the bill. His only request was that we send him an email and check in from time to time.
Yesterday (1/18), we hopped into a minivan (with 11 people!!!) and drove a road worse then Big Sur Hwy 1 up and down 3 mountains for 6 hours till we arrived in Veng Viene. It is an odd little town in the middle of nowhere (all of laos is the middle of nowhere). We got a guesthouse that was on the pricey side of things ($20 a night, you can find rooms here for $7.50 or less). Our room overlooks the river and has an unobstructed view of the sunset at night. The sun sets in between two sawtooth mountains and the sky turns a beautiful pink and purple.
There is an odd trend of restaurants and bars here that show Friends episodes all day every day. I have counted no less then six of these bars, and I have only seen 1/4 of the town. This morning over breakfast we saw Ross and Rachel get married and then Monica and Chandler moved in together. On our way back to our room we found a Family Guy restaurant, next time we eat there.
-J
I am starting to miss some of the comforts of home. It wasn't until i watched 2 young girls follow us into the river, us on our elephants, and they had their towels and shampoo, that I realized they were following us to bathe. And boy, was that water cold... Even the elephant (mine was "Coon" and James rode "Ping") didn't want to go into the water.. Lots of shouting "Pai, PAI!!! UGHHH!" from our guide, until finally, they stepped into the water, then sprayed James down with one shot of water from her trunk. We rode almost all day on our elephants necks. Then we got to feed them bananas. That was my favorite, so far. Then, what James failed to mention is that he flew, like Tarzan, from a tree and into this pristine blue-green water from a rope-swing at the waterfalls. The water was way too cold for me, but I got him on video.
We are further south in Laos now, as James mentioned. Staying in a guest house called Popular View Guesthouse, which they are still building... But the sunsets from our room are spectacular. We hiked up to a cave today, about 3-4miles round trip. We had a "guide" that took us through the dark wet cave in the mountain, who kept pointing out "shit-pea" areas, only to find out they were "slippery," after James slipped... They do not speak good "engrish". Tomorrow is an adventure day. We trek to a cave, then tube through another cave, then kayak down the river back into town. We are still having a good time. Now, off to watch "Friends".
-C
PS We wish our beloved Sharks some good luck. We prayed to Buddha.
No comments:
Post a Comment