Laos

It's been a long time since I updated anything that had anything to do with my trip, so here's some catching up... bullet-point style.

* I've decided never to again eat goat meat. Or pig meat (unless I forget- which conveniently seems to happen with bacon). Having worked on an organic farm with these sweet meats, rising at 6:30 to sweep their poop nuggets, and having lovingly gripped their moist tits over a pitcher--- I can never again look at them the same way. Look at this face. LOOK AT IT! No more goat meat. Also- having seen the pigs jump all over themselves trying to get at the heaps of goat shit we would feed them AFTER sweeping out the poop nuggets--- NO MORE PIG MEAT EITHER. Gross. Such gross animals.

* Phoudindaeng Village > Vang Vieng. I know. I know. You're supposed to go to Vang Vieng to go tubing. That's the entire point of going there. Everyone told me it's great- it's a trip maker... blah blah blah. Honestly, I just couldn't be bothered to go into an entirely gringo town to party with a bunch of 18-year old gap year kids. I'd rather sweep goat shit. (Sorry, if you're reading this Farrell)

* Not much else has happened in the last few weeks. Nong Khiaw and Muang Ngoi were fabulous, and I'm glad I went. My hideous leg lesions are BACK. AGAIN... even after 3 rounds of different kinds of very aggressive antibiotics. They think they're so smart.... with their... LESIONNESS. Fuck them. Back to the doctor's in about half an hour.

* In Pakse now. My God it's fucking hot. My God it's fucking hot. Fucking hell it's fucking hot as fuck. ERRNNNGG!!!!! I hadn't planned on staying here... like I said. I've only got 3 days now to see 4000 Islands and get to the Cambodian border... but after the grueling 8 hour ride from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng, the 4 hours then to Vientiane, and 10 more hours on a bus down to Pakse... I just... couldn't... do it.

Strange that I'm still so tired though- I actually slept quite well on the bus. These sleeper buses are equipped with full-sized beds on both sides of an aisle for proper horizontal-type sleeping... much like modern-day, air-con slave ships. The beds aren't made for 2 big people (nobody over 5'5, I think)... but for myself and the tiny Lao woman and her baby... we made a good sleeping puddle- provided we all slept in the same direction. First, I spooned the lady while she spooned her baby. Later in the night, she spooned her baby while her baby spooned me. There was lots of spooning. There was also lots of spit in my hair in the morning. All in all, it was a very domestic ride.

* On the bus ride from Vang Vieng to Vientiane yesterday, I observed a couple of village kids that really reminded me of my sweet little Ethiopians. As we drove through their town (if you can even call it that. Does a cluster of 3 houses and a noodle shop count?)... I observed about 7 children playing what appeared to be baseball on the side of the highway. Not only did they lack a field- they lacked proper bases, bats, and balls. They were using a stick as a bat--- and do you know what they were using as a ball because they didn't have one? ANOTHER STICK. So they were throwing the stick and hitting it with another stick... then running to an imaginary base, which was really anywhere because there were no markings anyway. I made a diagram to illustrate my point. Fucking awesome.

On the whole, Laos is marvelous. It took some getting used to-- there ARE a lot of tourists here, and anybody that says otherwise was here years ago, before the boom... but it's still great, and I'm having a grand old time. Only three days left to go though, before I'll be on my way to Cambodia for 2 weeks. I'll report back from Angkor.