January 14, 2007

Well here I am in Laos on my whirlwind tour.   I did get my visa and everything went very smoothly with that.  Good thing as that is why I came.  It is interesting traveling "alone".  I met Claudio from Switzerland on the bus and we found the embassy and a guesthouse together.  As we split ways to our respective rooms at the guesthouse I met Michael from Canada and we had dinner together.  So really it took days for me to be alone. 
After handing in my passport I decided to see some of the local attractions.  There is a Wat with thousands of Buddha statues that was cool.  It was nice to see a small non-gilded Wat.  Then I went for an herbal sauna and massage.  Oh my gosh it was wonderful.  If you are ever in Vientiane Laos, go get this sauna/massage.  And to make it better it was only $8 including the round trip transport from my guesthouse.  The next night I went bowling with some new friends, crazy to go bowling in Laos, but hey why not! 

Now with visa in hand I continue my adventure.  Having only a few days left in the country I decided to prioritize and I focused on a boat trip from Luang Prabang to Nong Kiaw.  This meant a beautiful, but long bus ride.  I took many pictures out the bus window, hopefully some turn out.  At one point it was so mountainous they actually passed out sick bags (as they passed out water and snacks earlier).  I took one, with my track record I had to, but luckily I didn't need it.  I arrived in Luang Prabang in the evening and took a boat out the next morning.   Not a lot of time, but that is not why I am here. 
I will say I was a bit annoyed with the folks trying to "help".  I asked if this was the right place to buy tickets, and a man said yes and even pointed out the boat I would take.  Then he said he would take me to buy the ticket.  What?  So I asked again do I buy a ticket here or somewhere else?  He said "Here, but I will take you".  Not wanting to get into a vehicle alone with a strange man I just walked away.  As I did so someone else said it was a two minute walk to the ticket office.  Thank you!

Waiting for the boat I saw a man that looked a bit like Jason Schewe.  I figured this was a good a conversation starter as any and we started talking.  So that is how Christian from Toronto became my travel partner for a day.  We took the same boat, stayed at the same guesthouse, had dinner together and talked for hours (mostly about boys, how I love gay men) and watched the "sunrise" together.  Then he left so no chance of getting on each others nerves.  Perfect.

The boat trip itself was breathtaking.  It was 8 hours of beautiful mountain scenery and local Lao villages, gardens and people.  The boats were all interesting and every turn was another photo op.  I tried to take a few photos and then stop and just experience.  My favorite thing was a boy about 6 or 7 using a bamboo pole to paddle a long boat. 
I had a funny experience a few hours into the ride I had to pee, really really bad.  The driver didn't speak any English so asking when we would stop was useless.  I saw a man coming out of what I thought was the engine room.  I figured there was some sort of bathroom there, at least a hole.  If not I would pee over the edge of the boat.  I went back and found a squat toilet, and I mean squat.  There was only  a few feet from the toilet to the ceiling so I had to climb up into the cubbie hole bathroom.  Fine with me at this point.  Then I just sat back and enjoyed the ride.  What beautiful misty mountains.  OK I am done sitting in front of the computer.  More to come later.  Much love

-Alice-Free