Sabaidee.....

Sabaidee is hello in Lao and Thai. Thai and Lao are actually linguistically very close. The local said yesterday that about 80% of the language is the same. Whether that's true, I don't know. So I last left you in Chiangrai in Thailand. Thank you for all your well wishes, I am doing much better now. In fact, I wouldn't been fine if I hadn't had a bit of a relapse last night after drinking a lot of "lao lao" = rice whisky. It was Happy Hour and it was 2 for 1 drinks... No worries, I wasn't drunk, I just had a rough time on the toilet again last night. :(

A good night's sleep did wonders for me b/c Phil and I did make it to the Lao border that day. I was actually quite anxious about leaving Thailand for Laos as my impression is that Laos is quite undeveloped. That's only partially true. Luang Prabang - where I am now - feels like a tourist haven. There's an airport nearby and little minibuses w/ older white tourists being bussed around inside of them, stopping at beautiful picturesque restaurants everywhere. You don't need to speak a work of Lao here, which is almost a bad thing in a way.

FYI - did you know that Canadians have to pay the most for a visa into Laos. Everyone else is in the $30-$35 US range and Canadians have to pay $42 USD. I didn't have exact change (apparently they don't give change.... right.....) so they gave me a "great" exchage on my Thai baht. Needless to say, I felt ripped off from the moment I stepped foot in Laos. The good thing is that being ripped off is the equivalent of maybe $1 CND when you do the exchange.

We had dinner on this restaurant deck overlooking the Mekong, and watched the sunset. It was quite beautiful except that I was freakin' out about being in Laos and dealing w/ stomach cramps. The next day, we began our 2 day journey by slow boat down the Mekong towards Luang Prabang.

We couldn't round up enough people for a private boat so we were all ushered into a public boat that "apparently" can seat up over 100 people. There were no locals on the boat - (do they know something we don't know?) and it was jammed w/ "falangs" (foreigners). There was somewhat of a mutiny as we refused to take on more than 100 people. It really did seem unsafe. Word was that a slow boat had sunk the week before or something. I thought - surely this is it! I'm going to drown on the Mekong. I grabbed all my USD and passport on my person and was prepared to jump and swim to shore if the boat went down.

The ferrymen finally consented to taking two boats after much complaining and borderline shouting. Then we were on our way. We stayed in a basic guesthouse in Pakbeng that night. And then the next day - we repeated the same game. We fought to have 2 boats to Luang Prabang. They said that we could all fit on one boat, we protested and pretended to get off the boat and just wait on shore. After about 1-2 hours of "negotiations" we were on our way again. What I"d like to know is whether or not they do this every day w/ tourists.

I met lots of cool people on the boat. And we've gone out to dinner together and we're getting together again tonight. The cruise down the Mekong is actually quite picturesque and calming. There's the option of a "fast boat" taht only takes 6 hours instead of 2 days, but apparently it's a bit dangerous during the dry season. The people passing us by "speed boat" were all wearing helmets... hmmm......

We arrived in Luang Prabang last night and Phil is kindly splurging for us to stay a pretty swank place. It's beautiful. It's amazing what hot water and big fluffy towels will do for you. It's a pretty little town. We went out to a bar last night and met some locals who took us to a nearby dance club. And this is definitely my kind of town - the clubs close at 12pm. Works for me! I'm not much of a night person.

Luang Prabang has lots of Wats (temples) and beautiful small French colonial buildings (pretty little shutters, etc.). So far, good impressions of Laos. I like it b/c the towns and cities are smaller and I'm not taking in as much diesel fumes from the traffic. I see why people like Laos. And it's freakin' cheap!!!!! Where else can you get a full meal for $2 USD.

This morning, I got up at 6am to see the monks receive their alms. Locals (and foreigners) give sticky rice and candies to the monks that walk by every morning. It's quite an interesting ritual to observe - a long line of monks in their beautiful orange robes. I'll try to post some pictures soon.

That's it for now.