Welcome back.  Here’s just a little update on what we have been up to and where we are heading…

We took a 7 hour bus trip from Vientiane to Vang Vieng in Northern Laos.  We new it was going to be a bit touristy, which isn’t our thing so much, but you pretty much have to pass through there via Rt. 13 if you plan on travelling North at all.  Anyway, we had a killer time, but it was pretty much an amusement park for young adults.  There wasn’t much culture left and it didn’t even feel like a Laos town at all.  Hotels, guesthouses, pizza places, beer gardens, clubs, and more white people than Ohio.  Weird.  The big thing to do there is rent a tube and float down he Mekong, so we did that.  But, it was a circus.  Literally bars ON the river as far as the eye can see with thousands of Falang getting wasted, swinging off a zip line in to the water, and nearly drowning.  The entire village has turned in to a typical college town the weekend after finals.  We had some fun, checked out some of the clubs, and enjoyed the river, but overall it wasn’t our cup of tea so we moved on.

We grabbed another bus farther North to Luang Prabang, also another major stop on the tourist trail in Northern Laos.  We knew there were going to be a lot of Falang here too, but again we weren’t expecting the intensity.  It’s a beautiful village up here in the mountains, but the local culture has given way to rich Ausies, Brits, and Americans:  Guesthouse after guesthouse and french bistro after french bistro.  Everything is pretty expensive, and it’s not too easy to find a real old school Lao meal at a reasonable price.  Again, not much our cup of tea so we are going to take off.  First though we are waiting to receive our land visas for Vietnam.  There is a consulate here but nothing farther North, so if we don’t get our visas now we won’t be going to Vietnam.

We are going to put in a bit extra effort to get off the tourist trail in the coming days.  We are chartering a boat (yes yes yes!) to take is up the Nam Ou towards Phongsali, which is a village perched way up on this mountain called Phou Fa.  It’s really close to both China and Vietnam and it’s really remote so supposedly it has an interesting blend of cultures.  It should take a few days to get there up there by the river so we are going to stop at some villages along the way.  That said, once we are up in the Northern Province it might not be so easy to stay connected via the interwebs, so we might be MIA for a little while until we leave Phongsali and head over to the Vietnam border.   We’ll try to keep you posted, and we will be here in Luang Prabang for another few days so we will try to contact you before we leave

Camera Disaster House Part 6:  We left our camera battery charger in Vientiane (along with David’s jeans and Kevin’s only decent shirt) so we haven’t been able to take pictures.  We did find one store in the village here that sells a charger that will work, but the woman who owns it is trekking to Thailand to get supplies for her store.  She should be back in a couple of days, we are told, and so we should be up and running again before we take off on the BOAT TRIP.

Much Love,
Kevin and David

On the other hand, the people here seem reasonably happy and we suspect it’s because they aren’t panicking about ‘what needs to be done later’ like Western cultures tend to do.  In America we might sit down to lunch with friends and mostly discuss how much laundry we have to do later, what time we need to pick up the kids later, and how we need to get to the bank later before it closes.  Here, people sit down to lunch and simply talk about lunch or whatever they are thinking or feeling right then over their meals.  Maybe all those cheesy ‘living in the present’ self-help books actually have something to say.

And my God the generosity and hospitality of these people.  We have primarily been staying with David’s extended family – Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, etc, who all mostly live on the same compound on the outskirts of Paxse.  This seems to be common in the Laos way of life – very large family’s all living together in a small number of huts or modest homes which sit in or around their place of business.  Here we have had all of these people taking care of us in every way they can, as Laotions evidently always do for guests.  We wake up in the morning (generally around 6:30 am) and the women are already doing our laundry and making our breakfast.  When we come out of the room we are sharing with David’s younger cousins, John and JJ, the rest of the family swoops in and cleans up our blankets and bedding right away.  Sometimes they overhear us mention we want a beer, and next thing we know we have six ice cold ones sitting in front of us.  Did you say you want to go to the Bolevan Plateau?  Get in the car.  Did you say you were hungry?  Here are 7 dishes to choose from, we just whipped them up over the open fire and the fish are fresh from the pond out back.

Sometimes this can become a bit awkward.  In the States when you are invited to dinner it is expected, and enjoyable, to help (or at least offer to) prepare the food or clean up after.  Not here.  The men work during the day (except for when they are napping in the hammocks during ‘hot time’) and the women take care of the men.  Period.  As men, we are expected to sit on the bamboo mats and relax while the women wait on us hand and foot.  A few times we couldn’t help but get up and assist the women with carrying the absurd amount of dishes over to us, but then they got a little nervous and the men started pointing and laughing.  We don’t do that anymore. When in Laos…

At times this can border on absurd.  Some of the younger kids speak a bit of English as they are now taught it in school so here and there they understand what David and I are saying to each other.  Yesterday they heard me say to David that I need to go shopping soon for some clothes.  Next thing I know the children have run to the women, informed them of my needs, and together as a family they began loading up the car to prepare for a shopping trip.  When we arrived they helped me find a new pair of shorts and were shocked when I demanded to pay for it myself.  In the end, I found the money back in my pocket later that night.  What we are learning is it’s much more respectful to smile and say thank you rather than protest as it can seem offensive, especially with the language barrier. This is not the United States – these people don’t need us to be polite, they need us to enjoy the moment with a sense of gratitude.

We will be staying here at the family compound for another few days at least, sleeping on mats on the floor, eating the best food cross-legged with our hands, and bathing with a hose and a bucket. We are tired, and we are loving it.  We will be leaving for maybe Cambodia, maybe Vietnam, maybe northern Laos, likely within a week or so when we have had our Southern Laos fill.

Here’s some wild stuff we’ve learned since arriving here – either from just observing Lao Folk or from asking John random questions (he’s the only person here who speaks some English and he’s only 13, and he thinks we’re the two coolest dudes ever, and we think the same of him):

1 – No one here has ever heard of Britney Spears, but Jason Mraz is absolutely EVERYWHERE.

2 – No vehicle goes anywhere with fewer than 10 passengers inside.

3 – Acting like you’re in a rush brings stares and questions like, ‘are you sick?’

4 – Congealed pig’s blood and blood clot soup is a little intense on the stomach – eat it slowly and fill up on the rice and bread.  Everything else is nearly always perfect.

5 – When conversing with men, look them in the eye.  When conversing with women, only ‘steal’ glances or they will start giggling and be unable to speak.

6 – Camping in Southern Laos is not possible.  Why?  According to Uncle Ut, “Danger.  Tiger and Gun.”

7 – It pays to learn the guitar before coming here: All Laoations generally know how to play at least one instrument, and more often than not it’s the guitar – usually played at night with at least one other family member singing along.

8 – During a baasli ceremony in which you are the guest of honor, the white threads the monks are tying around your wrists are there to bound guardian spirits to your body and soul – duh.

9 – When stepping in front a spirit house, especially near a bridge or in the wilderness, always wai (bow your head and touch your hands, in praying fashion, to your forhead), even if you look like a goofy white guy who doesn’t know what he’s doing.  It’s respect.

10 – Happiness ends after about 3 hours on a 115 cc bike in heavy winds, so keep it around 2 ½ and you’ll do just fine.

11 – Laundry baskets are used for trash and trash cans are used for bathing.

12 – No one ever has a pen but everyone carries a marker.

13 – If you feel like passing a vehicle on a double yellow line prior to a treacherous curve, it’s fine: Just honk your horn to warn the people coming head on.

14 – When language is taken away as a way to communicate, it’s surprising the number of smiles one can wear.

I strongly recommend a bulk band aid kit from Costco with no fewer than 150 band aids for any trip to south east asia lasting longer than two weeks. We both have sustained cuts, scrapes, blisters, scratched-raw mosquito bites, and more. Aside from using an obscene amount of band-aids in such a short time, Kevin has a habit of hitting is head everywhere! Asian people are short. Kevin is tall. If you are over 5′7”, watch out!

Items in our travel kit we have used:

• Band-aids
• Antiseptic towelettes and/or Hydrogen peroxide
• Antibiotic ointment/cream
• Tons of Ibuprofen
• Tweezers
• Lidocane + Aloe Vera
• Tiger Balm
• DEET
• Sunscreen
• Pepto (and not enough of it)

Things we have in addition:

• Epi-pens
• Tylenol cold/flu
• Anti-histamines
• Claritin
• Gauze of many sizes and shapes
• Medical tape
• Safety pins
• Sutures/syringes/ sterile needles / IV catheters
• and much, much more (this may be the heaviest thing next to the tent itself in either of our packs)

Injury Report:

Kevin:

• Several gashes on his feet – swimming during low tide.  Coral rocks hurt!
• Micro cuts on hands and feet – don’t try to hold on to the rocks.
• Blisters on feet – From wet shoes and low cut socks
• Bumps to the head – On buses, bathroom door frames, random hanging pieces of metal, street signs, vendor carts.
• Busted knuckle/gashed fingers – Taking his shirt off too close to the ceiling fan. It was an all metal fan spinning at mach 7. He fell straight to the floor! My heart dropped! I thought his hand was cut cleanly off!
• Several moderate stomach aches

David:

• Micro cuts on hands and feet – from the rocks
• Flip-flop blisters – don’t carry packs and wear flip-flops for long distances.
• Blisters on hands – hand washing and drying clothes.  The detergent is really caustic and makes your skin mushy. Maybe what i purchased wasn’t detergent. After all, I don’t know how to read Thai.
• Scratched bloody mosquito bites. *I’m a scratcher*
• Two day long stomach illness – from something bad I ate.