A long blog to catch up on the last week...

So I'm actually going to make it to Bangkok to catch my flight at godawful early o'clock on Thursday. That was questionable for a bit this morning. When I asked, all trains and buses were booked, so I crossed the border and went to the train station. Fortunately I picked up someone elses cancelled ticket, so I've got my sleeper for tonight!!! Now to book myself into a posh (for my budget standards) hotel near the airport for a good night's sleep before returning home.

On the 26th, I made it by songtheaw (little pickup truck packed full of people, produce, packages, puppies and pigs) 4 hours from Luang Prabang to Nong Kio. It's a nice little town on the Nam Ou river. The first night, I was walking along and was invited by a nice family to join them around their fire (no Lao Lao this time, whew!) They got a good laugh when I toppled over backwards off the little stool that my friend Mark rightfully calls the "wooden enema". The next day, I rented a bicycle and went about 10 out through a few villages, the last of which seems to rarely see farang. You can tell because the children that do see foreigners (closer to town) run up yelling "Sabaidee, hello, pen?!" I took a bunch of great photos along the way, in part to entertain people because they all LOVE to see themselves on the digital screen. BTW, I've had no luck getting photos posted here (tried several times), so when I get home, I'll sort through my 6 CDs of images and post the best ones on a free online photo album somewhere. I'll send a link when I get a chance to do that.

So the second night in Nong Kio, I met the MOST OBNOXIOUS traveller on the PLANET!! He's an older, retired German guy who is arrogantly and earnestly travelling the world. He's got the next 2 years of 6 month trips planned already. I say obnoxious because a bunch of us were in a restaurant, and at about 9:30 the owner's family was getting ready for bed on the balcony about 20 feet from our table. This town shuts down at about 10 pm. We (with the exception of obnoxious man-OM) were quieting down, trying to be respectful and just finish the last of our beers, when OM started rapping on the floor to get the attention of the cat. The owner politely asked him to stop, and OM started loudly ranting about how he was a paying customer, and if the guesthouse and restaurant wanted to stay in business, he should be allowed to make as much noise as he wanted. So I got up and left immediately, not wanting to part of that scene anymore.

On the 29th, I hopped a boat up river through some amazing scenery to Muang Kwa, which is itself a complete pit of dingy buildings and trash everywhere. I've had some pretty nasty rooms along the way, but this is the first time that I've woken up to the sound of rats in the walls. I slept with the mosquito net tucked in even though there were no mossies, just to make it a little more difficult for anything else to land in bed with me. I met a woman along the way who had a rat fall through her ceiling in the middle of the night and scurry across her forehead. Ew.

I ran into this guy, Mark, who I'd met in Vang Vieng. He's super cool and a lot of fun to hang out with. His 51st birthday was on the 29th, so we had a mediocre dinner to celebrate and spent the next day hiking about 12 km entirely uphill (about 3000 ft elevation gain) to a village called Omaak. Most foreigners just blow through Muang Kwa in one night and don't spend any time in the surrounding area, plus the dirt motobike road that we followed termininates about 24 km out of Muang Kwa, so most of the people along the way really rarely see foreigners. We felt like travelling minstrels because we'd dance around and make funny noises to entertain the kids, then entertain them with photos of themselves. We met a random english speaking guy at the last village, which was a bit unexpected way out there. He was super nice and offered for us to stay the night in his village, but we both wanted to get moving on again early the next day, so we just made the full 12 km back. Too bad, though. I bet that would have been a great experience.

So the morning of the 30th, I went down to the boat dock to get my ticket back down the river to Muang Ngoi, only to find out that 5 other seemingly richer short term travellers had stupidly chartered the scheduled boat for $70. The official price for the boat is 60,000 kip (about $6 per person), and when I told them that they said the boat guy told them that if they paid for the whole boat, they could take pictures along the way. Dumbasses!!! I watched this guy hand over a crisp new $50 and $20, and about a dozen Lao people gathered to drool over them like kids with candy. A few minutes later a little girl came along with a few bottles of Beer Lao, and they celebrated their successful scam. So then of course the ticket for me to get on a boat went up to $15 since I was alone, and they wouldn't just let me pay the stupid tourist my 60,000 to get on "their" boat. So I set my pack down and just got really politely and sweetly obnoxious saying "who's going to put my on a boat for 60,000 kip?" After about 45 minutes, I finally got a guy who begrudgingly put me on his boat and took what I was willing to offer. But that really irritates me about travelling - so many travellers are willing to toss around money without doing just a little bit of research to find out how much things SHOULD cost. The result is that prices skyrocket for everyone else. And in a country where the average Lao person earns about $1 per day, that either raises prices to where locals can't afford goods and services anymore, or it makes it difficult for them to get what they need because everyone would rather cater to the "rich" foreigners. Argh!!

Anyway, I made it to Muang Ngoi, which is a sweet little village where the power is cut at about 10 pm, and there is no phone or internet anywhere in town. It was lovely. A couple of guys and I hired a guide who took us down the river by boat and led us up into the hills to an Hmong tribal village. They were celebrating the new year, so everyone was decked out in their traditional dress. I played catch with a couple of sweet little girls and entertained a group of boys by taking short videos of them with my camera. It's really really beautiful up there. And since it was the holiday, I decided to stay an extra night in Muang Ngoi to spend New Year's with my new friends. There were 4 of us staying in bungalows for $1 each (whoo hoo!!), and the woman who runs the place (Mama Tjuum) had invited us to join her and friends and family for a pig roast for the holiday. We asked how much we should pay them for our share, and she said about $3, so we thought that was fair enough. When we get to the table, almost no one spoke english which shouldn't matter since there are many ways to welcome people across the language barrier, but no one at the table tried. Then we find out that the other foreigner at the table, a 40 some-odd year old woman from San Francisco who was dating a 20 someodd Lao guy, had bought the pig for $30. Her boyfriend tells us that we should buy a couple of ducks and a chicken for the table. We're suddenly feeling like this is an opportunity for them to take advantage of us and try to get us to pay for their holiday meal, and don't feel very welcome in the first place. So to avert the akwardness, the woman buys a case of beer for the table. We're being shunned, and she's getting loads of attention. When one of the guys that I was with decided to buy a couple of beers for the table, he suddenly got more attention, and we quickly realized that the only way to be welcomed by these folks was to show them the money. So we politely made out exit. There were plenty of other parties in town where the people were absolutely lovely and warm, and we joined with them in dancing an bought rounds of beers for people, but it was out of our hearts and not by demand. Although I gave in at about 11:00 and missed New Year's. Too bad too, because the town kept the generator running until midnight just for the special occaision ;)

So now I'm mid travel back to Bangkok. I caught the boat/bus to Luang Prabang day before yesterday, and made the 11 hour journey by bus from LP to Vientiane yesterday. Barely, at that. The bus station was in mayhem because all these foreigners had bought "tickets" from travel agencies in town for VIP bus that was over booked. Basically, you pay $12 (instead of $10) for a useless piece of paper that you then have to take to the bus station in the morning and hope that they have a seat for you. Since no one seemed to know this, there were a lot of pissed off people who got to the bus station and were told they couldn't get on the bus that they were "booked" for. I managed to hustle for a seat on the $8 bus that everyone was jammed into (complete with plastic chairs down the aisle) and finally got into Vientiane last night. Laos is a beautiful place with some really amazingly nice people, but I see that it's been marred by the greed that comes with tourism, and I don't think it's quite the place that it was even just 3 years ago. That's too bad, too, because I bet it was really wonderful. Not I'm on a quest to find the place that is now what Laos once was and get there before it's ruined as well. I'm starting to think the best places to visit are post war torn countries right after their safe again but before they become corrupted by over tourism. Any ideas anyone?