Lao Email

A 2 day 16 hour boat ride meandering through the lush green hills of Lao is how I entered the country. It was a boat ride I looked forward to for a long time, two days on the Mekong river through rural landscapes of Laos. Isolated Villages, happy children playing in the river waving to the boat as it drifts past, this was the unique experience I was looking for. With the exception of Luang Probang’s monk filled streets, heavily influenced French architecture and cuisine, Vientiane’s urban sprawl, and Vang Viengs bazaar out of place party atmosphere, Laos as a whole was very reminiscent of my first 2 days entering the country, slow moving, lazy, remote, and relaxing.
It’s funny for me to say, and is even more odd looking back on it, but it was hard for me to assimilate into the Lao way of life. It’s not to say that I’m not a happy person, friendly person, easy going person, I would like to think that I know how to relax and enjoy my self, but I clearly was not ready for Lao lifestyle. Maybe it’s a bit of the A.D.D. that I have embedded in my personality, but the lazy days, the relaxed days, the sun soaked days of doing very little were actually the days that were most memorable. Sure the scenery is beautiful in Laos, but it was the people and life style that I really enjoyed, although it took me nearly the entire trip to learn to enjoy it. As I have rambled on about in past emails, discussing my hopeful findings of primitive life styles, as I hoped to explore never seen before lands… naïve as all hell.... YUP sure is, but it was what I hoped to find. What I was looking for was a small piece of the world, less westernized, more down to its roots, what it has been for years and has remained to the day. Laos is as close as I have come to finding this. Hooking up with a great group of travelling companions, it took me nearly a month to allow the serenity and beauty of the people and culture to set in. The “hippie” in me took over on my last week in Lao, roaming Don Det (a small rural island on the Mekong) for nearly a week barefoot and shirtless, living in a grass hut with electricity running from 6pm to 10pm daily, a hammock on my porch facing the river, beautiful sunsets, a local pig roast, smiling people, and a whole lot of nothing... Lao life... rural Lao set in, and I loved it.