Laos

It's hard to go somewhere sometimes when you have HUGE expectations. It usually makes for disappointments. Not to say I'm disappointed in Laos, but we got off to a rough start. After the bus ride I had a restless sleep in a hot room with poor air circulation. The next morning, breakfast at Joma Bakery made up for it! I sure do miss my normal breakfast foods! I ran into James, Katie, Helen and Sam from my hellish bus ride while there and we all wandered off together. We decided to explore, and explore is exactly what we did. For several hours we walked up one street and down another until we found a lovely restaurant on the river. It was quiet and peaceful and we stayed there most of the afternoon and part of the evening. Sam serenaded us with songs and the guitar as well as some loud storytelling. I even had a few beverages. It was a relaxing day and a nice way to recooperate from the bus journey. That night we found a Canadian owned pizza joint. The Torontonian bakes his pizzas in a clay oven and has nothing else on the menu. They were delicious! On our way home the boys went off in a tuk tuk for a jaunt and when we met up with them near the Guesthouses Sam was arguing with the driver. The driver was asking for a LOT of money, especially for the size of the town and for Laos in general. All of a sudden I heard Sam tell the guy to put the knife away. I went over told Sam to give him the money he had offered and just walk away. The driver was being totally unreasonable. As we crossed the street and walked away the man hopped in his tuk tuk and spun in a U-turn. Unfortunately, we hadn't made it to the corner where we needed to turn and the guy stepped in front of us and pulled out a huge knife....a machete the length of my arm! As he waved it in front of us we all stepped back. A local driving by on his bike pulled over and said something. The funny thing was, I wasn't scared. I was annoyed. Who does that? I threatened to call the police but the tuk tuk driver's shifty wild eyes didn't seem to absorb what I'd said. He was clearly not in his right mind. Sam and Helen ended up paying the driver double what they should have just to get away. I was ready to take him on.....but I guess that wouldn't have been a smart move so off I went to bed instead. So much for the Laotians being a kind people. My experiences in Laos were leaning heavily on the negative side.

I have to say Luang Prabang did redeem itself. The following evening after a day at the pool we discovered the night market. This colorful tented bazaar was a straight row that went on for what felt like 1 km, if not more. It just kept going and going. And the items were beautiful, handmade, colorful designs. I loved just looking around. We also discovered a delicious hole in the wall restaurant where a little girl of 7 or 8, with the saddest eyes you've ever seen worked with her parents. The day after that a group of us girls went to the waterfalls. We met some bears in a bear conservation area before hiking up the side of the waterfalls and over the top of them. We hiked/slid down in barefeet as our shoes couldn't handle it. As we stood dripping sweat at the bottom, laughing at ourselves I might add, we relished the treat waiting for us. We peeled off our soaked clothes and jumped into the blue water! BRRRRRRRRRRRR! It was cold but I pushed myself in and it was so refreshing, until........I discovered the fish that were nibbling on my skin. So creepy as the suckers must have been bigger than the foot spa ones. They felt like they were head butting you before taking a bite. The only way to stop them was to keep moving. Finally, we ran back to our tuk tuk, quite late and drove home in the rain.....perfect timing!

The next few days were spent relaxing at the pool or at a neat place called Utopia which is a restaurant/bar/yoga studio/volleyball court/who knows what else. Katie and James met me there and we squandered the day away reading. Sitting on the edge of their porch overlooking the river was so beautiful. One morning I woke up at 4:45 to see the monks begin their daily procession down main street, collecting their meal with offerings as the sun rose in the distance. It was a neat sight to see. When it was over I went back to bed for a few hours, wouldn't you?

For a few days I woke with a bit of a sore throat, but nothing major. I tried to eat more fruit and cut out sugar. On my last day I woke up with a really sore throat. I had plans to meet Katie and James for breakfast and then we were going to rent bikes and find a cave nearby. We pedalled our way towards the caves but couldn't find them. Everyone pointed us in different ways, if they even knew about the caves at all. Katie ended up with a flat tire, and it went flat again right after we had it fixed. By now it was almost noon and the sun was hot. We decided to try to see something else and rode back to town and down main street. I was feeling really ill by now, and I'd tried to eat a sandwich but hadn't been able to eat much. I decided to return the bike and head to bed, where I stayed for 6 hours. I got up to grab some dinner and then back to bed I went. I didn't sleep well. I woke up every time I tried to swallow or roll over.

The next morning I was picked up and taken to the pier outside of town to catch the slow boat. To sum it up I spent 2 ten hour days on a long skinny boat that chugged through the Mekong river. I spent a lot of time snoozing and reading. The view was beautiful.....but a bit over rated. I'm still glad I did it.....I would have regretted not trying.  The first night I stayed in a Guesthouse in my very own room(a grand treat for me as dorm rooms arethe norm). I had a giant queen size bed and I was excited. After diagnosing myself with tonsilitis caused by strep throat on Web MD I went to sleep. But not before thinking it wise to gargle with mouth wash to kill any bacteria. Don't try this at home! I woke up 2 hours later in excruciating pain. I drank some water and took some Aleve and went back to bed. The thing about Asia is I'm a bit paranoid about bed bugs so I always sleep in my silk sleep sac. I sometimes trip myself out and feel bugs that aren't there. So on this particular night, just as I had rolled over to go back to sleep I felt a tickle on my arm. I brushed at it without thinking but then stopped dead when I actually felt something there. I turned on the light and then cringed when I saw a giant cockroach on the floor. Now I don't have a problem with cockroaches. If they stay in their spot and I stay in mine we can easily be friends. However, if you enter my domain.......it's not pretty. I jumped out of bed to get this roach out the door but it scuttled under the bed, darn! I looked around and spotted another one, I managed to get him outside when I glimpsed one on the back of the door. I swatted it with my towel and the bugger flew to the ground and also skedadled under the bed! Great, so now there are 2 roving cockroaches. I stuffed my towel under the door to halt any roaches from entering and checked to see if I could spot any under the bed, nope they were in hiding. Now I was up. For a couple of hours I checked email and Facebook and dawdled online. Finally, I was tired enough. But not too tired to try sleeping with the lights off again. I was not giving these bugs a chance to attack. Instead I left the light on and slept with my eye mask, which I must have lifted a dozen times to check for insects. Of course I kept "feeling" creepy crawlies on my body! Ick!

The second night, and last in Laos wasn't much better, but for entirely different reasons. We arrived in Laos' border town late, around 6:30. Thankfully it was still light out but this time there were no Guesthouses at the pier to greet us and give us good rates. A bunch of us began walking the 2 km to town, stopping along the way to enquire about rooms. They were all extremely overpriced or full. Most of them were run down and stinky as well. After over an hour, night had fallen. I was sick, tired, and hungry. I was also in tears. The people here weren't even friendly and I could not carry my bag another step. My back was covered in sweat and I just wanted to sit down. As I walked down the street crying (I'm not ashamed to admit it, I wanted home) not a single person offered to help.....I went back to one of the Guesthouses and got a room, double what I'd paid the night before. While the room wasn't as nice, at least there were no cockroaches! I couldn't wait to get back to Thailand and the kindest people you'll ever meet! My time in Laos did not end on a good note.