The title is from how to say 'thank you very much' in Laos, which is korp jai la lai....which always makes me sing 'the boxer' from simon and garfunkle. Anyway...new news?
We stayed in Chiang Rai for two nights, the air conditioning was an absolute blessing, although I've found, and been told, don't do air con too often or you will turn into a spoiled little chilled brat. Fast forward to last night where the oscillating fan (which I've realized are my least favorite things in the world) provides about 1.5 seconds of relief before it dicks off for other ventures and you wake up in a pool of sweat and ridiculous heat induced dreams. I'm not sure why but I have mental half dreams and play-outs in my head in this climate, so last night I woke up very hot and dazed, looked out the blow out-vent-fan thing beside my bed and stuck my pinkie in it. It hurt quite a bit, obviously, so I think I got up said "F this" or something of the sort and woke up in the community movie room, sweaty and with a cut pinkie. And I'm not even on the hallucinogenic malaria pills!
That's a bit off track though. Two nights in Chiang Rai where we did yet another waterfall, which seem to be a central theme on this stomped out SE trail, and a wonderful night market! The bike ride out to the fall was treacherous, not so much a road as a half concrete/dirt path where I got to experience my first and hopefully last bike fall. I had a girl on the back who cursed me as she wiped the gravel out of her cut up leg and I soaked up the sheer joy of the exhaust burn on the back of my calf. The scar will kind of look like a smiley face saying 'hey remember that time?'. Perfect. The waterfall was a beautiful and sweet relief after the harrowing and heated bike ride and (almost) crash free we made it back to Chiang Rai for some amazing and cheap (amazingly cheap) dinner at the night bazaar. at night. duh.
After Chiang Rai we caught the bus up to Chiang Kohn which is where I had to say goodbye to thailand and the 14 days remaining on my visa. The issue is this: if you arrive by air they say WELCOME here's thirty days enjoy your stay! If you arrive by land, and this is only recently, they say well....welcome, kind of, but we think you're probably just doing a visa run, so here's 14 days. So when I come back through Cambodia on the bus, I will have to make the most of my two weeks in southern thailand. Unfortunately my thai is not good enough to ask them if i can just save up the days I gave up crossing into Laos. Nor are my diplomatic skills for that matter.
The laos border town was called Huay Xia, I think, and it was quiet and relaxed but if I ever start a separate blog for things that can't quite make it to this one there would probably be a story in there somewhere. This is when I parted ways from my first wolf pack, which was now down to two, and were forced to meet new friends. I took the two day slow boat, so good luck being a lone misanthrope on that. The stories I heard about the slow boat pretty much fit the bill, where you stock up on good cheer and cheap whiskey the first night, get a wicked snap on, and are so hungover and hot by the second day say 'i would really love off this boat, if for nothing else than a good shower and vomit' All part of it my friends!
Which brings us back to Luang Prabang, the jewel of Laos! <-Possibly read that somewhere
This lovely little french colonial town has a curfew of 11:30, boasts about 50 guesthouses, has one of the nicest waterfalls (there they are again) I've ever seen, and actually isn't that unbearable when the sun goes down. We found a 'secret' waterfall swimming hole today, where we turned a 1 hour adventure into a solid 4 hour soak. I bit the bullet on the first jump of the lychee tree into the water, a good 25 feet, but have lived to tell the tale. My camera, of course, ran out of batteries about halfway up but I still managed to get some awesome snaps of the main waterfall and have made some friends who captured some for the real action. I didn't know what day it was until about half an hour ago, but the computer says it's Saturday. If I'm going to soak any amount of debauchery out of this night before the 11:00 curfew (wtf?) I best get on it. Until next time!
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