Lovely, lazy, long Laos days. I am writing this from my hammock, hanging outside my pretty big thatched roof, bamboo walled bungalow, not on the banks of the Mekong I found out, but on the banks of some other river. It is Sunday and I can see three women in peaked hats fishing mid river, lots of little kids playing in the river, about 20 two man skinny boats moored directly across from me and three neon white tourists sitting on the river bank. I haven't seen the groups of cows who normally amble by three times a day or the resident team of goats that cruise the neighborhood.
Laos had been described to me as laidback and unique and I hadn't grasped the meaning until coming here. So it is with a heavy heart I am leaving it - tomorrow in fact and that makes me sad as I don't think I am ready to leave Laos, or even this weird town. I have been able to rest up from the rather frantic pace through Vietnam, read two really great books and just generally relax.
I have been here a week and four of us, Sharon from Ottawa, Laura and Bill from Santa Fe and I have formed a nice little community, all of us staying in bungalows, now with the exception of Bill who moved across the river a few days ago in search of quieter nights.   We have developed very close friendships and a lovely lazy rhythm to our days that has been relaxing and fun. We usually share at least one or two meals a day together and some activity each day. We all have our own spaces and, as with so many of the friends I have met on this trip, we share little in common from our previous lives, but so much in common in our current lives.
A couple of days ago we rented a tractor - yup, brutal way to travel but it seemed like a good idea at the time, and headed 7 kms out to a place called the Blue Lagoon where we swam in a limestone infused lagoon, (odd blue color) among many fishes and later, many monks. There were swinging ropes and jumping platforms and as it was the first really hot day in a while, we loved the swimming in the cool water. This area is filled with caves high up in the mountains and between swimming we climbed a mountain to enter a cave (huge and beautiful) to see the reclining Buddha featured in this one.
Yesterday we joined a bigger group - about 15 in total and we headed out of town quite a ways to a water cave. We strapped on headlamps and carried our stuff in dry bags, flopped on a tube and pulled ourselves into the cave by holding onto a rope and, hand over hand, delving deep inside the black mountain. Because this is the dry season and the river is low, we were able to go a long way inside the mountain as often the stone ceiling height was just above our heads. Not for the claustrophobic, but very beautiful and unique experience seeing the variety of stalagmites, stagnimites and striations of rock. Once we were as far as we could go, we let go and could float slowly with the mild current, back to the cave entrance. We probably went in about .5 or 1km, so pretty far in the dark.
We came out and the tour kids had broiled up a big lunch of chicken and pineapple skewers, vegetable rice, baguettes and fruit and served it all on big banana platters. Great. We then trekked/hiked through a few little villages to another cave, then back to the river where we took kayaks down the river towards Vien Vang. The river, cutting through the limestone mountains was so beautiful and tranquil until the rapids, of which some we made and others we capsized. Great fun even though I got whacked in the knee on our foray into the rocks. We kayaked down to the party zone where numerous bars operate riverside, catering to the masses of kids who rent tubes in town, tuk tuk up the river with them, and float down, stopping at different bars enroute, ending back in town blotto drunk and often nauseous.
We stopped at one bar zone that had zip line water jumping, trapeze water swings, a gigantic waterslide into the river and blaring loud music. Laura, representing the old broads, took to the zip line and landed rather poorly - on her chest, knocking the air out of her and causing her some residual discomfort and pain even today. We got back into the kayaks after a couple of hours there and arrived back into town around 6 pm. A really wonderful day, perfect weather, water and company.
The tour company, Wonderful Tours, run by a really young guy, went all out to make it great value. All this for about $10 US. So not Vietnam.
I received an email from Janice and she is in Krabi Thailand already...where does the time go, so this morning I booked a really long journey to meet up with her on the 24th. A long way to cover in 2 days. I will take the bus at 9:30 am tomorrow from here to Vientiane, the Capital city of Laos, then transfer to a different bus to go across the border into Thailand to Nong Khai. Will arrive, God willing and without hitting any people or varmints, at 4 pm. Then to the train station to get an overnight train - 6 pm to 6:30 am to Bangkok and then to the Bangkok airport for noon to take a flight to Krabi Thailand - way south in the island areas of Thailand, near the Malaysian border. I know lots of you like to know the costs of all this travel as you might think.....hmmmm......can I do that myself.......well.....YES! Why not? Next winter - beats shoveling snow and being in the dark. It is so beautiful here and really quite cheap. My bungalow (full cabin on the river bank) with private bath and hot water - $7 night. Bus to Thailand border, 7 hours - $8 and the 12 hour night train to Bangkok - aircon sleeper - $30 and two hour flight south - $58. It sounds like a plan as I write it, will let you know how it all works out.
What I do know for sure is I love Laos, not really ready to leave, not sure if and when I would if I didn't have so much more to see. I have actually learned to accept sharing my space with unseen creatures who chew my walls into sawdust through the night, mosquitos who turned on me the other night and chewed my face (I had abandoned the mosquito net and didn't realize it shouldn't be optional after a rain....duh!), noisy Karaoke party sounds from across the river and disrespectful teenagers running around town in their bikinis drunk.
 If only they had wifi on my hammock......I have to walk all the way into town to a café. Ahh the stresses in my life!!!!!!