Laosy Good Times

As I mentioned in my last post, the route from Thailand to Laos used to be super easy.  You stopped at an old wooden shack in Chiang Khong to get your exit stamp, hopped on a crappy wooden boat that took you accross the Mekong River into Laos, checked in at the dock, and then walked 20 meters up the road and you were in the center of Huay Xai.  Then maybe you'd hit up a Bed Bath and Beyond to have a nice little Saturday.  The new process however, was not so smooth.  Checking out of Thailand was quite easy, but instead of sailing across, you now have to take a bus over the newly constructed Friendship Bridge.  You had to buy a $1 ticket and then wait for a bus to take you.  It took four buses to circle before I was able to hop on one.  While waiting to get through the queue, I also began talking to a group of three girls that had been on my bus from Chiang Mai to Chiang Khong and they were planning to do the same route down to Luang Prabang on the slow boats, so we decided to make the trip together. Thus my travel companions were Lena and Julia from Austria and Carolin from Germany.    

Huay Xai was just a tiny town for doing the border crossing, so there wasn't a lot to do there.  The main tour option was the Gibbon experience, where you hang out in tree houses and zipline around in search of the elusive Gibbon, a rare type of ape that lives in Southeast Asia.  However it was a few hundred bucks, which was out of my price range considering my annual income is $0.  After walking around town I decided to be ambitious and go for a run before meeting up with the girls to watch the sunset and grab a bite to eat.  

First temple visited in Laos!!!

Sunset over Thailand

View of Chiang Khong from Huay Xia

SLowe boats...their speed matches my wit.  wait, what?

The next morning the girls got to see my breakfast addiction: meusli and yogurt covered fruit salad. Oh my gosh, I love it! We then saved 20,000 kip by walking down to the docks to buy our slow boat tickets instead of buying them in town or taking a tuk tuk.  Three girls that will lug their heavy bags around for a kilometer or two just to save a few bucks... I made a mental note to marry these girls.  Once we got on the boat, we had to wait for everyone to load, so even though the boat was slated to leave at 11, we didn't kick off until closer to noon.  The views along the river were absolutely incredible, every time you look up you think, "I need to take a picture".  It was such a nice way to relax whilst traveling after going on so many long bus rides through Thailand.  

We sailed until about 6, when we arrived to Pakbeng, which marked the halfway point of the trip.  We gathered our belongings of the boat and then walked up the hill to find accommodation where the guy at our hostel kept pressing us to buy sandwiches for the boat ride the next morning, claiming he needed the order immediately in order to be able to have them ready the next morning.  Does it really take more than 30 seconds to make a sandwich? He also wouldn't give us the wifi password, he told us we had to wait an hour, most likely because we didn't agree to buy his sandwiches.  I've definitely had some weird experiences with people in Laos.  Some are really pushy, constantly trying to rip you off and then acting really rude towards you if you refuse to buy goods or services from them.  Others are super nice, friendly, and cheerful.

The Friendship Bridge.  Laos to the left, Thailand to the right

There's a lot of fishing nets set up on the rocks along the river, so occasionally you see a fisherman checking them

Just after sunset along the Mekong River.... The world is beautiful, no?

We ended up grabbing dinner at an Indian restaurant so we could dominate some Naan and then laughed after seeing the portions of our food.  Each one was about the size of a can of tuna.  We were also joined by another German from the boat, Andreas, who was staying at the hostel right next to ours.  After getting back to our room, I also noticed that my my flip flops were missing.  I had slid them into the front pocket of my bag, but realized they were either stolen or knocked out when the dudes were throwing all the bags underneath the boat.  I was thinking about replacing them anyways since they're 2 years old and there is a nail embedded in the left one that pushes up into my foot a few times a day, occasionally drawing blood.  But at the same time flip flops are $3, so that means I'd have to skip a meal to afford them.  These aren't the types of decisions to make with haste.

The next morning we ordered to go sandwiches and some muesli fruit salad before heading down to the boat to claim our seats.  On day two no one follows the original seating assignments, instead they jockey for a better position.  A few of the people who had been drunk on the previous day's ride were late down to the docks, and instead of waiting for them, the boat crew decided to say screw them and kept going.  Technically the boat wasn't supposed to leave until 9:30 and we kicked off at 9:28, but that's why you arrive early.  However with so many boats taking the same route, I'm sure they were allowed to hop on another.  We got roughly the same seats and once again enjoyed the scenery, while simultaneously freezing our balls off.  Figuratively for the girls, literally for me.  They did however bring blankets, which they shared, saving my ability to procreate.  

I also ended up finding my flip flops next to the bathroom on the boat!  Apparently the crew figured I would need to pee at some point and would stumble upon them.  I also helped the people working at the food stand in the back write up their shop list and prices.  I don't know why they don't just keep a running list, but apparently they just write it fresh on a new piece of cardboard every day.  I suppose it's good practice if nothing else and perhaps they sell different items each boat trip depending on what is available in the towns they dock in.

It's weird how your perspective can change over time.  6 months ago if someone asked me for help, I would have helped them, but my disposition wouldn't have been of excitement or happiness to be able to help someone.  In most instances I would have just been thinking why do they need help with this, can't they just figure it out themselves?  I never thought about the fact I should be happy that I can be helpful, that the capacity to help others is a gift and not a burden.  #The Art of Happiness

Temple built into the cave wall

When the second half of our journey ended, we were dropped off at the new docking station, which is 10 kilometers outside of Luang Prabang.  The old docks landed directly into the center of town, so a lot of tourists get upset about this new process claiming it's a scam.  It may in fact have been set up this way so the tuk tuk drivers make extra money, but Laos has been one of the 20 poorest countries in the world for a long time, so it only makes sense they try and squeeze out a few extra dollars from tourists here and there.  I was aware of the dock change as it is well documented on wiki travel, so I got off the boat without making a fuss.  Half the people on the boat wouldn't get off and threw a fit though, impeding the ability of the crew to hand bags off to everyone who had hopped off.  

It was pretty obvious they weren't going to take anyone to the old docks, so I didn't really get why adults were throwing temper tantrums.  Don't get upset over a few pennies, that amount of money is so insubstantial over the course of your life.  Just be thankful you were born in a country with a strong currency and can afford to travel in a place as beautiful as Laos.  The people in Laos could be just as capable and intelligent as you, but because they were born in a country with a cheap currency, they can never travel outside of Laos.  So maybe you get scammed occasionally, but perhaps you should be thankful you can get scammed, because it means you have a much more privileged life in general. ...Rant over :D

It took a while to find rooms because none of the guest houses had four person rooms or two double rooms available.  When we did find a few, they would tell us one price outside and then say the room was more once we were inside.  After roaming around we found some super cheap rooms that were less than $4 per person.  Not too shabby!  We then grabbed some dinner and set out to see the night market, which is one of the famous tourist attractions in Luang Prabang.  It was so weird to walk through the stalls because they almost seem never ending.

I also convinced the girls to embrace street food and get some ice in their life!  They were a little weary about consuming ice and vegetable/fruit peels, since they can potentially make you sick if not handled properly.  However, I convinced them it was safe and they were keen to try some.  Let's just say they tasted a banana/oreo shake and their lives will never be the same.  They also rocked one of the crepe stalls.  Who knew street food could be so amazing, I love it!  I also purchased some cobra/scorpion infused Laos Whiskey that we tested out with the kid working reception at our guest house.  Ice, street food, snake whiskey...They were owning Laos.  I highlighted, double under lined, and added exclamation points to my mental note about marrying these girls.

That's one hell of a Whisky...Gotta love Asia

The scorpion and cobra made me so powerful!!!!

The next day the girls were planning to head to Northern Laos so they could eventually cross into Vietnam.  However the bus only ran once a day in the morning, so they were stuck with me for another night.  I was on a quest to find a tour that would take me into the wilderness, because I wanted to spend my birthday doing something adventurous.  However all the tours in Luang Prabang were super expensive and I couldn't afford them.  They were all $40-50 per day, which didn't seem worth it to me, so I decided I would just look at options in the next town I was headed to, Vang Vieng.  Thus I spent the rest of the day catching up on my blog, since I'm pretty much always 2-3 posts behind, and hiking up to a viewpoint.  That night I challenged my digestive system against the 10,000 kip buffet in the night market.  Cold, somewhat tasty, and slightly terrible.  But for a $1.25 buffet, you'd have to be high to have anything but low expectations.

Those passengers are about to get ripped off by a tuk tuk driver!!!

It's a picture of perfection, o-oh and the postcards gonna read, "Fuck yeah we can live like this...we can live like this!"

The rivers in Laos are full of these bamboo bridges

Kids playing in the river

The next morning the girls bought me birthday breakfast at a French cafe before we had to part ways as we were headed in opposite directions.  They were too good to me, it was a birthday present enough just to have breakfast with three amazing girls :).  Khawp jai lai lai!!!  I eventually hopped on my bus to Vang Vieng, which is the type of place backpackers gravitate towards.  I also got to experience my first local bus in Laos, which was an amazing experience.  When the bus stopped for a restroom break, I was wondering where to go and then I looked across the road and saw that everyone just urinates in the woods.  So funny.  The local bus typically takes 1-2 hours longer than the VIP buses (Tourist and backpacker bus company), because they constantly stop to pick up and drop off locals along the way.  However, I don't mind losing a few hours if it means I can save a few dollars....after all it's not like I'm pressed for time out here.

Oh my gosh, until we meet again girls.  Of course, it's cool. I'm sitting in an icy fruit shake.  Yeah yeah yeah
P.S.  I'm always nervous when ya'll whisper :p

During one of the bus stops the lady sitting next to me came back with two of everything she was eating so she could share with me.  I was so struck by this kindness from a complete stranger, one that didn't even speak English.  She did it for absolutely no reason other than to be nice.  I was so humbled that someone who is likely nowhere near as well off as myself would go out of her way to share with a stranger who wasn't even in need of any charity.  I can only hope I'm that thoughtful someday.  I can't explain why, but I knew that this one simple act of kindness changed something inside me.  Maybe monetarily I didn't need it, but perhaps spiritually I did.  As one good deed always deserves another, I bought the little kids on the bus cookies at the next stop.

I eventually ended up in Vang Vieng and was able to find a cheap room in time to grab dinner and watch the sunset over the Nam Song river.  Not a bad day!  Would I find a birthday funtivity for the following day?  Would my mom forget my birthday for the third time in my life?  Yes and Yes, but that's a story for another blog.

Random GoPros

Gym Class Heroes - Taxi Driver

The old dock for the boat-based border crossing

Our slowboat

8 people, 1 tuk tuk

Chiangs Mai, Rai, And Khong... Plus Thaigers

After catching four hours of sleep after my 3 AM arrival, I promptly showered and switched hostels. I spent my first day in Chiang Mai roaming the streets and visiting a bunch of random temples throughout the main city square.  I was shocked by how cheap it was.  Northern Thailand is basically half the price of its Southern counterpart.  I saw accommodation for as little as 90 baht, which is $3.  Sushi was 5 baht, that's 6 pieces for a dollar!  Tis unreal.  Since it was peak tourist season, I couldn't find a super cheap hostel available, so I ended up getting a nice queen size private room for around $8/night.  I later found if I would have walked one building more I could have saved 2 bucks a night, dammit!

Pretty cool temple drawings, I love the elephant/bird/dragon creature

Chiang Mai is full of two things: Temples and Tourists

Pretty cool elephant shrine

ATM on wheels?!?!?!?  Never seen this before, genius!

Cat Nap

I spent the next day bumming around and looking up tours and comparing prices since I didn't really know what I wanted to do in Chiang Mai.  I ended up booking a full day tour that started at 7:30 AM and ended at 8:30 PM, but about 9 hours of that was spent driving verses 4 hours seeing things/eating. Our first attraction was a hot spring, but it was really more of a breakfast stop than anything as the hot spring was a tiny hole in the ground with steam coming out of it.  I ended up finding a banana/egg crepe which was weirdly good. We then drove another 1.5 hours to the White Temple, which a bizarre modern day temple/art project.  When you first walk up to the entrance, you can't help but wonder...Why the fuck is there a predator statue coming out of the ground?  But at the same time you're also like, that's awesome!

When you head through the gates and start to walk towards the temple, you see a bunch of hands coming up out of the ground, as if they are hands rising from the underworld.  Some of them even have painted fingernails, which is just plain creepy.  There's giant statues on either side of you of crazy looking dudes with swords.  Once you cross the bridge leading to the main entrance, you have to take off your shoes and turn off your camera, because no pictures are allowed inside.  When you initially go in, it appears to be a normal temple... and then you turn around and see the back wall, simultaneously realizing it's the weirdest temple ever.  There's paintings of Superman, Spider-Man, Minions, Anime, etc.  Heck, it even features Neo from the Matrix.

Meh.

This is just like my tree back home, except these heads are fake

Creepy Awesome

The White Temple

The next leg of our journey was another ninety minute ride to The Golden Triangle, which is a spot where the Mekong river forms a triangle where Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar converge.  I skipped optional boat ride along the river that allows you to get a better view of Myanmar and enter a tourist market in Laos in order to save 330 baht since I was heading to Laos in a few days anyways and the boat didn't actually dock in Myanmar.  We had to wait, you guessed it, ninety minutes for the people on the boat to return and then we headed to a buffet for lunch.  Since I'm seeing some room for improvement in my body lately, I as trying to avoid fried food, which was 80% of the buffet's content.  Thus I filled my plates with rice, noodles, and veggies.  I did allow myself two pieces of popcorn chicken, but I didn't even enjoy it!  

I'm trying to base my dieting off one of the principles in the Dalai Lama's book, "The Art of Happiness".  Basically you don't do things just because you like them, you do them because the end result is that it makes you happy; The whole purpose of your life is to be happy.  i.e. You might like Pringles and Snickers, but they make you fat, which makes you unhappy.  It's basically the trade off between short term gratisfaction and long term happiness.  It's such a simple concept, but I have found it to be quite effective.  After lunch we went to the Myanmar land border crossing, which also happens to be the Northern most point in Thailand.

Do you know what this statue and my penis have in common?  They're both referred to as the Big Buddha

Where to next.......

Myanmar Border Crossing

If I was a ninja turtle, my name would be Seanatello and I'd wear a V-neck.  We both know you were wondering

Our next drive was a mere sixty minutes, taking us to the hillside tribes of Northern Thailand, which included the Karen long neck and big ear tribes.  There wasn't really anything culturally enlightening about the visit at all, the village itself was partitioned in a way that only shopping stalls were accessible/visible.  There were 4 different tribes total, but there was no real interaction with them.  The girls wearing the gold long necks looked sad and bored, basically just dolls on display to bring in tourist's money.  I didn't stay long, because while their dress is interesting I don't enjoy knowing their culture likely fizzled out and is now just a means of making money, and likely a meager sum at that.  I'm not sure if it's better to take an attitude of survival of the fittest or a stance of needing to preserve cultures that are antiquated by the majority of the population's standards.  But the middle ground where they exist just as a show, is just weird to me, it just seems so fake.

She looks so enthusiastic...Poor girl

Ridonkulous

Big Ear Tribe

Their necklaces were pretty heavy, weighing a few kilos.  Apparently they can't keep them off for long, because their neck muscles are too weak to support their head on their own.  Wild. After the tribes we had a four hour drive back to Chiang Mai.  For my last day in Chiang Mai, I had to decide between going to the national park, which has the highest peak in Thailand or hanging out in a cage with some tigers...I went with option two.  Thus my tuk tuk took me to the Tiger Kingdom, which my research claimed was humane unlike the Tiger Temple further south, where the tigers have been found to be illegally imported from breeders in Laos and are widely believed to be drugged to maintain a sedated nature.  Tiger Kingdom was said to start with a few tigers and they breed all the tigers in house, with the eventual goal of releasing new tigers into the wild to help restore their numbers.  So on paper, it is the humane option.

Tigers are nocturnal, sleeping up to 18 hours a day, so most were asleep during my visit.  A few were up to play, though it seemed forced and a few trainers were a little too aggressive in their poking and prodding of the cats, which I didn't like.  The pricing system was pretty novel.  There was no entrance fee, so you paid based on the size of tiger you wanted to get into cages with. Discounted package deals were offered for visiting more than one set of tigers.  I went with the pick 3 option, which allowed me to hop in cages with the big (Over 18 months), small (6-8 months), and smallest (2-4 months) cats.

The baby tigers were pretty cool to see because they are basically just like kittens, but you couldn't really play with them because all they did was sleep.  The small sized tigers were a little more active, as they were in a much larger cage and had some obstacles to play with and logs to climb.  2 of the tigers were moving around in the cage, whilst the other two slept.   It's really weird, because at no point are you worried about them attacking you or anything, it's a really safe environment.  The largest set of cats were all asleep, and they would just lay there as you piled on top of them or grabbed their tails... Which just seems pretty unnatural for a tiger.  I can't imagine those tigers being reintroduced and/or surviving in the wild.  

Le Tigre

While these tigers slept a lion and a cheetah had a race.  When the Cheetah finished first, the Lion said, "I Won!".  The cheetah was like "no way bro, you're lion!!!" And the lion said, "No dude, you're a cheetah!!!" (Well there's 12 seconds of your life you're never getting back)

You can lock me in a cage, but you can't take the sky from me...

The Eye of the Tiger

My pick for best pic.  That is one adorable tiger

I'm still not sure how I felt about the Tiger Kingdom.  On the one hand they're an endangered species, whose population in the wild is dwindling, so this is a good way of increasing the population.  They appear to be well fed, are kept in groups instead of being isolated, and only a few tourists are allowed in the cages at a time.  Plus as a tourist it's awesome to be able to get that close to a tiger.  However, they still seemed a little off.  One of the trainers hit one of the small sized tigers on the head with a branch and it just looked around a little bewildered.  It's reaction wasn't that of a highly alert creature, it just kind of tensed up and then gazed into the distance, instead of looking towards where the hit came from.  

The tigers don't really seem to enjoy humans either, it's more like they just tolerate them.  I also saw another tiger roaming around its cage making weird moaning noises.  Thus I'm not sure if they are drugged or not.  I would lean toward saying no, but there's definitely still something off with a few of them, perhaps it's just being raised in captivity.  I also felt bad for the all-white tiger, because it was isolated to a small cage by itself since it makes for it's own unique attraction.

Passion Pit - Sleepyhead

Chomp Chomp, Chump

White Tiger

The next day I had to head to Chiang Khong, which is the town you can cross into Laos from, since my visa was set to expire.  I asked a lady working in one of the tour and bus ticket stalls how much it would be and she told me 400 baht for a minibus, but if I wanted the cheapest option I should just go to the bus station.  She even told me how much to pay for a tuk tuk!  People in Asia are incredibly kind.  All in all I only saved 90 baht, but I was running super low and didn't want to have to go to the ATM again because they carry $6 withdrawal charges. 

Since my bus didn't leave until 1 PM, I had some time to kill, so I hit up Subway where I got a 6 inch ham sub for $1.50, I still don't understand how it was that cheap.  My stomach was still grumbling after, but I wasn't sure if I'd have another 49 baht to spare, so I decided to just let the hunger ride until dinner.  The bus ended up taking a really long time because the public buses stop quite frequently to pick up and drop off the locals who ride it.  Thus we didn't arrive in time to catch the crossing, which closes at 6 PM, so I had to stay the night in Chiang Khong.  There was randomly a couple who own a hostel waiting at the bus stop to pick people up, so I figured why not at 200 baht.  They also had pretty cheap dinners, so I was able to get a vegetable yellow curry for another 90 baht.  Let's just say all my penny saving paid off as I exited Thailand with only 120 baht left, less than $4.  This also allowed me to keep the 100 baht bill for my travel currency collection!

One of the reasons I wanted to cross into Laos between Chiang Khong and Huay Xai was because you got to cross on a crappy wooden boat with holes in it, meaning I could finally complete my trifecta of crossing methods.  I've already done air and land, so only sea was missing.  However, they ended up building The Friendship Bridge over the river, so you now had to cross by bus.  That bridge has only been open a month, so I narrowly missed my window.  I'm not too upset though, because now I have an excuse to boat into another country :). 

I read online the old boat method took less than 30 minutes total to exit Thailand, boat across, and get checked into Laos.  The new border crossing wasn't going quite as smoothly, as it took nearly 2 hours, but that is a story for another blog.

Sexy Tiger Time Photoshoot

Baby Tiger Pillow!!! 

I don't know what's going on in this photo, I look like I'm trying to seduce Tarzan 

#Save the Tigers

This dude was in the small sized tiger cage....6-8 months.  That is the hugest kitten I have ever seen.

It's natural for you to be turned on right now, just go with it

I guess you could say I caught the tiger by it's tail....

I'm not sure what's bigger, the tiger or the bald spot on my head.... Ladies, c'mon it's just a temporary issue from my new haircut.. L-Ladies? Falls to knees, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!"

Random GoPros

They told me there was a predator on the loose, at first I was like, "How did they find about me!", but then I saw this guy and a wave of relief flooded through me.

Me in full tourist mode

The sky makes this photo look intense

I was so pumped when I saw the Buddha was riding this giant dragon boat

I'm not sure this statue is large enough

I spend a lot of time in crack houses, but never opium ones

My hair blowing majestically in the wind

How you doing big guy?