hey guys!

Well I made it to Laos (awhile ago). Took the slow boat the first day from Chang Kong (border of Thailand) to some random town on the side of the Mekong River. This town is specifically there for this stop. It was about a 6 hour ride and there weren't any seats so most of our group hung out in the engine room. It was ridiculously loud.. and i'm sure all the fumes killed a good amount of our brain cells... but you were able to stretch out on everyone's bags to go to sleep.

So it was almost dark out when we got to this town. All the tuk tuk drivers come over to talk you into going to the guesthouse of their choice (since they make commission). A few people in the group had already booked a room at one of them... so we decided to all stay at the same one. big mistake.

I'm really not sure if my stomach can handle going into details again... but it was by far the worst place i've stayed in yet. We had some left over food in some plastic bags from our boat trip and in the middle of the night.. i hear this rustling noise .. followed by a quick pitter pat of feet running above the ceiling. So of course... i lay there for the next few hours listening to these rats (and i'm talking RATS.. not Stewart Little) transport food from the bags to their hideout.

In the morning, i see the bag with bite marks and they had been taking the bread.. so there were crumbs and half eaten bread all over the floor. Wort part of it is, earlier that night i was in the "communal" bathroom brushing my teeth and all the lights go out. Everyone forgot to mention that everywhere in Laos except for major cities turn their generator off at 10 pm every night. So it was completely pitch black with rats crawling around at my feet. Lovely.

So the next morning we go to get on our boat again to start our 2nd day of the slow boat and there is only one boat. We came on two boats. So now they are trying to fit everyone onto one boat. Completely unsafe.. the damn thing is gonna sink and it is nearly overflowing with people and there is about 30 more people who haven't gotten on yet (about 10 of us in my group). So for about a half an hour.. we go back and forth with these guys telling them... noooo... we came on 2 boats.. we leave on 2 boats. The whole thing with them is they were trying to be cheap and didn't want to fill up another boat with gas. So on and on this went.. they finaly say ok and put us on the other boat. Thing is, I dont know if that was better or worse... at the time i was thinkin.. great.. their just gonna run us into the side of a mountain now in the middle of nowhere 'cuz we were all complaining.

We finally get into Luang Prabang and stayed a couple nights there. Apparently they only give you 8000 rip to the US dollar where as everywhere else in the country gives you between 9000-9200. It's amazing what these countries can do. We went to this waterfall while we were there... sooo pretty.. the best one i've seen yet.

Then some of our group came down south to Vang Vieng and some stayed up there in Luang Prabang for a couple more days. Now we're all here and have been tubing down the river every other day. There's quite a bit to do here.. rock climbing, tubing, hiking, caves, kayaking. Yesterday was our 2nd day of tubing. About every 200 meters there is a bar that gives you free Lao Lao whiskey (stupid idea.. its basically pure gasoline) and they have these rope swings that you fly off of into the river. I'm too much of a chicken to go off of them.. or maybe its because i'm not partaking in the free whiskey they are offering... either way.. I did agree to go off one of them once before I leave this town... so we'll see.

Oh.. and I got ran over by a kayak yesterday as well. I have some rather colorful bruises all along my right side from it. There's a part of the river where it gets so shallow.. you are completely on rocks.. but the water is still going quite fast there. So you have to stand up, grab your tube, and walk through. Well these 3 people and their kayak weren't paying much attention and right as I was standing up... the tip of the kayak hits me in the head... pushes me over... continues to trample over me and i end up with the kayak on one side of me and the rocks on the other. Not fun.

But don't worry.. I'm being safe.

The computers here are relly slow... so i'm not going to even bother trying to post pictures here. You will have to wait until I get to Vietnam. I have loads of them too... some still from Pai and all the way to here... so keep checking in =)