It's a little after 9am and I am in ny first mini van transport. I am leaving luang prabang and will be heading south to vang Vien. From all the accounts I have heard, I have quite a windy,twisty,turny death defieing ride ahead of me. For better or worse I have a front row seat for it all so it should be intrestig enough. Luang Prabang is a great spot and one I would highly recomended to anyone traveling in the area. 3 nights was a good amount of time to stay here but with that amount of time I think I will be hustling around for awhile. Thanks in part to all of the people I have met and talked to I think that I am going to try and somehow make it to Cambodia and see Angor Wat. I have heard only good and wonderful things about it and if I can find someone to make the journey with I think I will. But that is the future and that can change in an instant so I will just try and let you know some of the cool things I have done since i arrived via the slow boat down the Mekong. (edit: no angor wat for this guy...not this trip)
One of the benefits of takingthe slow boat is that because you are with about a hundred people for 2 days, over the course of the next few days or even possible weeks you still see some them around. meeting Arjun in the boat we
we spent the night at a cheap guesthouse in pakbeng and he decided to come to the hostel I wanted to stay at in lp, the spicyLaos hostel. At 30,000 Kip it wasn't a bad place to stay and my crude map bought me right to it's doorstep after exiting the boat. The hostel was a big place with lots of dormitory beds and people from around the world using it as a jumpoff. Places like spicy Lao are great places to meet people because nearly everyone there is a likeminded traveler. One of my goals for my time in Luang prapang was to ride a bike to some sort of destination so the first night i made some flyers and hung them around the hostel asking if anyone anted to ride to the wAterfall, a solid 32k each way to a destination unmissable. I was hopeful to find someone.
The first night I chehcked out the night market and the surronding area on my own but by the end of the night had met up with Arjun, who had left earlier for dinner, a well as Lindsey, my chaing rai friend. (Rafting guide from Jackson,wi)
Dinner was excepional, as I was ableo start wandering while enjoying a 5000kip mango and pineapple shake before coming to the mecca of food at the market, where I was able to fill up an entire plate of anything I wanted for only 10,000kip. That's about a dollar and twent cents. I had a relatively quiet night and got to sleep pretty early. Arjun was going to look at temples the next day but I wanted to explore and find a good bike to rent for my future ride so i wasnt in a rush to get up before 8am to look at temples.
I wandered all around the city starting around 9am and finally chose a teal giant mtn bike with disc brakes for the journey. A smaller bike than I would have liked frame it was nonetheless a gorgeous bike and well worth the price. While exploring I took a pitstop at a wat (temple) on top of a hill. A Brit and his gf from the boat were there and we talked for a while taking a break from the midday sun. They were leaving the next day for the islands. After they left there was an older retired British couple , myself, and a German girl named Ramona on top the hill and the 4 of us stayed up there for quite some time hanging out. When the couple left Ramona and I stated talking. She was on a gap year traveling and already had lots of great stories. She was encouraging bexause she had ridden to the waterfall the day earlier with a few guys who were biking through Laos, that she met at her hostel. I think my next trip I want to bike somewhere far. You can mark me down for that if you want, I just need to find a team and a destination.
We also spent some time with a local Laos man who was learning English and wanted to practice his skills with us and write down some new words and information about us. Super good for him. All he wanted to do was get better at communicating and he was giving it a great shot. When he asked What types of food we eat for breakfast I gave him rundown of the ideal KP big ass breakfast. It was a great way to enjoy the scenary above the town and beat the heat and enjoy each others company.
For lunch I stopped at a small shop that our Laos friend recomended. As I was getting a drink midway through lunch I saw brad, a guy from our boat. I would see brad multiple times more throuhiut my 3 days in luang prabang and I always enjoyed seeing him and having lunch with him was nice. He is a tough character to describe but I will do my best. He is from "Cali Cali" and is a 6'3 about 250-275lb guy. He"ll talk to anyone and has stories about any topic you might think of. A contractor a home he came to Thailand and Laos because "he didn't have an work and he hasn't been on an awesome travel vacation in a while". I don't think I have any pictures with him or off him, but I have a strange sense that I will see him or meet him again some day. Someday, I'm sure of it. He's just one of those travel characters you will somehow come in contact with again in a ridiculous situation.
Seeing how I planned on riding to the waterfall the next morning I again decided to have a relatively quiet night. I had seen an advertisement at a coffee shop that was going to screen The Kings Speech. I decided that would be a great thing to do. At the screening I hung out wih James, a Los Angelas music and arts photoog and blogger who I also met up numerous times. Althouh I only know his first name and that his blog has something to do with tumblr and Scotty pippen I am certain that I will meet him again whenever I make it out to California to visit my buddy mike.
between lunch and the movie i went to a tea tasting and watched the sunset on top of a hill.
Before the movie started I was talking with a girl named Kim who was doing a work internship in singapore and who was traveling now that it had ended. After the film, which was great, Kim and I and another dude from the film went to check out a bar cled utopia. I had heard many good things about it that all sounded too good to be true but in fact were totallly true. Set on a riverside there were multiple seating and lounging areas. Hammocks, pillows and mats, tables, grassy areas were only some of the options and in the very middle was a fully functional volleyball court surronded by huge nets to keep the ball inside. although walkig to get to the bar is like following a maze seemingly throughout peoples backyards it was totally worth it and super awesome. The three of us ended staying until he bar closed at 11:30 and had a great time talking about tons of stuff. Teaching in Korea, taking a tefl course and comparable studys, partying in van vieng, living in singapore, traving for extended amounts of time, we all had intresting things to share with each other and it was a great time. Kim and ___ were older than me but had done some pretty cool stuff so talking to them was a great treat.
When I got back to the hostel that night no one had yet to reply to my note but Arjun told me that he wanted to try and do it and also that he had met another guy, richard, that wanted to ride with us. In a matter of seconds I went from riding alone to having 2 teamates. we agreed to get an early start the next morning as the 2 of them needed bikes and we wanted to get to the falls as early as possible to stay out of the sun.
The next morning they were able to rent 2 really nice trek mountain bikes after we found a good place to get them from. I was also lucky because Richard rented the biggest bike they had for me and I let him use the teal GIant I had rented. A great tradeoff as he got a lighter bike with disc brakes and I got a bike that fit me properly. At 8.40 we were off for our journey. The first 10k were flat and on relatively busy streets but the next 5 or so were on a steep uphill that had Arjun off his saddle and walking his bike up the hill. I could tell Richard had biked alot before but arjun was definetly timid and a little unsure of himself on the bike. I did my best to help him but I did't want to sound like I was babying him. Although he had told me he was going on a biking trek at the end of he summer in the himilayas I also came to find out this was the longest ride he had ever been on by almost 50 km!!!
-(With that being said it was most impressive on his part!! The next day, back at the hostel, he pulled me aside and thanked me for inviting him to go, thanking me for the advice, and telling me he would never forget his first long bike ride. Words can't describe how could it felt to hear him say that and it too will be something I never forget.)-
The waterfall was absolutely bteathtaking and the pictures I have still don't do it justice, although they make a valiant effort.
Crystal clear water with a tinge of aquamarine ( is that why they call it that??) made the water the perfect cool off spot to jump into after a nice ride. We spent a few hours there, swimming, hiking, jumping off rocks, and swinging on an awesome rope swing. While we were there we also got to see me friends Coleen ( San louis abispso, met at chat house in cr) and Billie, a German girl. We hung out with them after they saw us riding in for the last few kilometers. The water was great and made leavig to bike back dfficult but we did anyway. The ride back was extremely nice and much easier than the way there. At one point we stopped for a breather and a few young boys and girls wandered over to us as we sat on the grass on the side of fhe road. Withing a few minutes there were more than ten children around us, wearing our hats, eating some snacks, and just being children meeting these foreigners. It was a real moment, not dilluted by tourism or money or anything except genuine curiousity and amusement. We stayed with them for much longer than we planned to stop and as we left they followed us for another 500 meters or more, trailing us, riding next to us and high fiving us as we left. Only one of the girls knew English enough to ask us our names, where we were from, and how old we were. All the three of us knew was hello(sabadee) so we were most impressed.
A cold shower was a welcome reprieve upon return to the hostel. I made plans for dinner and drinks with coleen, billie, and Jenelle, as Arjun and Richard took aa night bus to vientienne and vang vien respectively. On the way to dinner I again ran into rafting Lindsey one more time as she was heading north the next morning. for dinner we rocked the buffet again. After dinne we went to this babcallex the hive. Although we missed there nightly fashion show we unknowingly walked into their weekly breakdancing night. About 20 guys ranging from about 12-25 absolutely destroyed the dancefloor with crazy flips and spins and balances. Some of the best breakdancig I have ever seen hands down, they made the guys in the NYC subways look like newbies. seriously they were that good. The girls had never been to utopia so after telling hem it was somethig they needed to see before hey left we went over for a nightcap. We met up with a guy named Charlie on the way and convinced him to join us. ( FYI I'm typing this about a week after his happened and chalie is sitting on the bus traveling with me still...) we met up with James (la blogger) and his friend and taught the foreigners how to play Kings. After we finished a game we played some volleyball before heading back to the hostel. Some of the girls played some ping pong but Colleen,Billy and i went to sit In the hammocks. I don't think I lasted more than 5 minutes in the hammock before I fell asleep, waking up about 3 or 4 hours later a little bit chilly and headed back to my room I planned on going on a bus to vang Vien the next morning.
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