Laos

We arrived into Laos Thursday night? it’s very easy to lose track of time on this trip and I asked four other participants of today’s date and got three different answers. It’s the first time I have landed into a city that I didn’t know the name of (today will be the second). The airport was smaller than my house and we deboarded the plane directly onto the runway. The city turned out to be Luang Prabang. Hot. Tropical. My first impression of it was a town that belonged on a beach. It’s on the Mekong river actually. It was the 2nd day of the New Moon New Year 2553 3 day celebration.

Friday we woke up and did a bonus scavenge that took us one hour down the Mekong river to some caves. Flocks of Laotians were there to celebrate the new year and worship by going into the caves to pour water on the budhas that rest there. On the way back we spotted an elephant on the banks and knocked out a second scavenge when our boat driver convinced the owner to let us ride it. Much like a skateboard, 7 foot men have no business on an elephant. I’m pretty sure ours was pissed so we cut our hour ride down to 15 minutes. They did let Travis drive the elephant though. Ha--- what I thought was a little boy guided the elephant- I was guessing 7 or 8. When our tour ended, on top of the tip I gave him a lollipop and one of the beanie babies I carry around in my backpack for the kids here. It turned out he was 17. Ha.


The New Moon New Year is celebrated in Laos with a water festival. Everyone lines the streets with buckets of water to toss on anyone and everyone (policemen, monks, old woman….. no one is spared). Toddlers line the streets with cups of water and plastic water guns while older children and adults have huge buckets to work with. After changing clothes twice I attempted to bribe a 3 year old girl who was baring a huge waterrifle around her chest, with some of the candy I had into letting me remain dry. She shook her head no to the candy and drenched me- not even breaking a smile. I miss Lyric.


Ontop of the water, people put paint and grease on their hands and run smearing people’s back and faces with it. My back is covered in black grease that has washed off only enough to appear like a bad bruise. I look as though I’ve been beaten. Travis was wet from noon to near sunset with what he later informed me was water people threw from the gutter. I will be slipping a Cipro into his drink today.


In the late afternoon it rained so hard that the entire village shut down (how ironic that rain shut down the waterfestival). When it cleared up enough to see we hiked up to a huge mountain considered by the Laotians to be sacred. At top was a small temple where the monks pray at sunset. Monks in Laos really weren’t what I expected. We talked to several in town. They wear orange rags with bare feet and shaved heads but most of them were just boys---- 13 or 14. And although they did seem a bit…sacred (?) They also just seemed like 13 year old boys to me. They didn’t dump water or have waterguns but they took great pleasure in filling up the buckets for people. Note: you can’t touch a monk (I learned this after sticking my hand out to shake ones hand yesterday).


Even though Laos was the poorest country I have ever been to—the people seemed very happy and the city was beautiful. Every few blocks an ornate temple or a stairrailing shaped like a dragon. This morning we visited an orphanage to hand out basketball t-shirts, books and beanie babies. The children were a bit timid and very grateful. The orphanage was the cleanest and appeared to be the most well ran I have ever seen. SOS orphanages They run them all over the world. If you ever have a chance to donate- do--- as for sure every penny seems to be spent the right way.



We have just landed into Thailand. I can’t recall the city. It’s bigger than Luang Prabang but smaller than Hanoi