VAng Vien, Loas eat your heart out. Yes, one of those thatch bunglows is mine. These cliffs go straight up, yet trees are sprouting out of them it's crazy.

Give you an idea of dinner all that salad was used as plate and food and we had three fish between all of us.

The dinner party. The Loa man is our Tuk Tuk Driver.

Once in a while you just get lucky when you are traveling. I spent three days in Vien VAng, a buetiful mountain town in N. Loas. Which is know for it sheer granite cliffs, calm River and alots of cool caves and also town that has bar that play Friends and simpson all day long; kind of weird. For my rock climbing friends this place is must! You could climb so many first acesents in few days it make your head hurt.
Back to point of this story. I end up hanging out with a Brit (alex) that lives in Thailnad and is fluent in Loa and Thai and has a Lao girlfriend. We went to market to get some real Loa food and ended up befriending some loa women. They quickly asked us come and have dinner with them in their village. Which sounded like great experience; I figured that village was few kilameter away, no big deal. They bought whole bunch vetagibles and few still alive fish and 2 kilos of noodles and grabbed a tuktuk (3 wheel taxi) and we were off and we kept going and going 24kilmeter out we stop at small buetiful town in middle of no where. We bribed the tuk tuk drive to stay so we could go back with free dinner and beer. I got check out their house and then we went and made dinner on the river.
The way we ate the food was taking some of the lettuce or cabbage and putting some noddles in it then some fish, then some more veges and finally some sweet hot sauce and wrap and eat. It was great food and fun although most the time I had no clue what was going on, but we all laughted and laughted and held and played with the three babies that some women had. After dinner we went back to their place were they insisted we stay the night, which been fine with me, but other couple needed get back and we told tuk tuk driver that we go back with him so off we went. It quite a day.

The last few days I been in launge Paungban a beutiful french town in the mid-North. I met two travelin partners Mark and Tao and have hung out with them exploring this town and all it's wats. They alot fun and tommorrow all three of us are taking a boat up the Mekong River for day long boat trip two see the jungle and float the river. Then up to national park to do some trecking and then I will started heading towards Vietnam.

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How is it going from Paske, Loa. I just got back from place called 4000 islands. These islands are made from the Mekkomg river and sits right in betweeen thai, camboadia and Vietnam. 　Ｉ　ｓｐｅｎｔ　ｔｈｅ　ｌａｓｔ　ｆｏｕｒ　ｄａｙｓ　ｊｕｓｔ　ｈａｎｇｉｎｇ　ｏｕｔ　ａｎｄ　ｃｈｅｃｋｉｎｇ　ｏｕｔ　ｗａｔｅｒ　ｆａｌｌｓ　ａｎｄ　ｓｗｉｍｍｉｎｇ　ｉｎ　ｐａｒｉｄａｓｅ．　　Ｔｈｅ　ｐｌａｃｅ　ｗａｓ　ｄｉｒｔ　ｃｈｅａｐ．　　Ｉｈａｄ　ｍｙ　ｏｗｎ　ｂｕｎｇｌｏｗ　ｆｏｒ　＄１　ｏｎ　ｔｈｅ　ｗａｔｅｒ．　　Ｉｔ　ｐｒｅｔｔｙ　ｗｅｉｒｄ　ｔｏ　ｔｈｉｎｋ　ｔｈａｔ　ｊｕｓｔ　３０ｉｓｈ　ｙｅａｒｓ　ａｇｏ　ｗｅ　ｗｅｒｅ　ｉｎ　ｕｎｏｆｆｉｃａｌ　ｗａｒ　ｗｉｔｈ　ｔｈｉｓ　ｐｌａｃｅ．　　Ｉｔ’ｓ　ｐｒｅｔｔｙ　ｈｅｒｅ　ｉｎ　ｔｈｅ　Ｓｏｕｔｈ，　ｂｕｔ　ｔｏｌｄ　ｔｈａｔ　Ｎｏｒｔｈ　ｉｓ　ｂｒｅａｔｈ　ｔａｋｉｎｇ．
　　　Ｂｅｆｏｒｅ　Ｉ　ｌｅｆｔ　Ｖｉｅｔｉｅｎｅ　Ｉ　ａｐｐｌｉｅｄ　ｆｏｒ　ｍｙ　ｖｉｓａ　ｆｏｒ　ｖｉｅｔｎａｍ．　　Ｗｈｉｃｈ　ｓｔｒａｎｇｅｌｙ　ｃｏｓｔ　＄１５　ｍｏｒｅ　ｔｈａｎ　ｒｅｓｔ　ｏｆ　ｔｈｅ　Ｖｉｅｔｎａｍ　ｅｍｂａｓｓｙ　ｉｎ　ｔｈｅ　ｗｏｒｌｄ，　ｂｕｔ　ｔｈａｔ　ｔｈｅ　ｇａｍｅ　Ｉ　ｇｕｅｓｓ．
　　　Ｏｈ　ｔｈｅ　ｔｗｏ　ｐｉｃｔｕｒｅｓ　ａｒｅ　ｍｅ　ａｔ　ｗａｔｅｒ　ｆａｌｌ　ａｎｄ　ｃｏｏｌ　ｓｕｎｓｅｔ　ｏｎ　ｔｈｅ　ｉｓｌａｎｄ．

HELLO FROM LOAS

I crossed the boarder to loas yesterday (saturday/friday your time). The capital city is pretty sleepy, but the river that runs through it is buetiful. It can be pretty cheap here. The night before in Thailand I stay in a real dive. Watch the movie "The Beach" the place he stays first night was way nice than place I stayed. I did not care at first because I was really tired from hiking out from the national park. After while I learned I was staying in psuedo-brothel. Prostutes and their clients came in and out all night log;nice! You got to love the authentic sleezy feel. My bed did not have a mattress, I learned, but instead was made up of couch cushions; I think. So I decided to splurge alittle and get a nicer room in Loas $7, but it was nice and clean.
Now I am in a hostel for 18,000 loas currency or about $1.80.
Tommorrow I planning go to Vietnam embassy and work on getting a visa and possible start heading south for twoish weeks. Then back to capital to get my passport and visa then up North two-ish days then Vietnam. That the plan, which probably will change tommorrow. That what you come to learn plans are tentive.

Some kids up in the jungle. just hanging out. they started off very shy and ended up running after me as I left. I almost crashed going up the steepest rutted out and loose rock road (for lack better word) I been on, to get to this village.


More ruins in sukhothai. I like this picture except for the tourist in it, but maybe when I get back someone can show me how to erase him in photo shop!

Picture Of Buddha's hand from the ruins in Sukhothai, Thailand. I pretty sure I stole this picture idea but I like the way it came out.

Tonight I sat in one safest places in Thailand. Let me explain....... So yesterday I went to buy some meat on a stick; it best way to explain this food they sell on the street. When I bought my food one of the guys motioned to take a seat and we hung out for a bit. The man knew a small amount of english and was very hospitable so sat and talked and learned that he was a police officer here in Sukhothai; well I pretty sure that what he was saying. After a while I went back to my guest house and slept. Tonight I found myself looking for one last bit to eat and long behold I walked by the same meat on a stick place. So once again the man insisted that take a seat and have a beer with him. So there we sat drinking beer and listening to the radio of his truck. So through drawing on paper to make up for my lack of thai and his lack of english we held a good broken conversation. Which I learned that he is a sergeant in the local police and work as a plain clothes detective. He also carries a glock 9mm hand gun which I go to check out. As the night went along all his co-workers showed up and had few drinks with me. So really, I sat on the street in Thailand surrounded by a lot of cops trying talk about/ check out women, how much we make, rent, guns and life in general. At one point I just had to laugh at how unique this situation was. The younger guys wanted to take me clubbing and night out on the town. Which would have been fun, but I am pretty sure they wanted to take me to brothel; so I declined. Luckily my guest house has internet so jumped on to share this moment with you.