Laos I

A little bummed from leaving my friends, I passed through airport customs in Vientiane, Laos. There aren't any ATMs here (Visa must change their slogan), so I exchanged a few hundred dollars into Laos kip. The teller lay four stacks of rubber-banded money onto the counter. Like some bank thief, I quickly shoved the cash into my small bag with difficulty. Who wants to be a Millionaire!

Vientiane is nothing to rave about. The city's only sight is the Pha That Luang temple from the 15th century. Guarded by a fortress wall, the sand-colored monument exhibits Laos' unique architecture: round tapered steeples. It's beautiful, but I only spent one day here before heading north to Vien Viang, the backpacker's haven. Set along the Nam Song river, Vien Viang is known for its beer accessibility and river tubing. I, and what looked like the rest of the town's backpackers, rented a tube and floated down the river for the day, stopping at the riverbank bars for refreshments and ziplines. Lazily floating down the river, I admired the scenic palm trees, bare rice paddies, and rocky hills. How did I get here? I extended my feet so they were a part of the view: my own two feet took me to Laos! It's not easy living out of a backpack in a foreign country, especially since I've been on my own for most of it. I have the occasional homesick day or nuisance day, but they floated away with the peacefulness of the Nam Song river.

At the next riverside bar, home of the famous Omega swing, I met a bunch of Israelis. We played volleyball and soaked up the sun without a care. Uh oh! The sun was setting, and we still had two more hours of floating in order to get back. Goosebumped and purple-lipped, we decided to hop out of the water and walk back to town with the tubes on our backs. We bushwhacked through a viney forest and and trekked through massive strewn rice fields. Finally, we found a road and hitchhiked back to town, throwing our eight tubes ontop of a pick-up!

The easy life is too easy here. Instead of spending another day tubing, or just reading in a hammock at the riverside bar, a new friend and I rented mountain bikes for the day. We rode to the Organic Farm for lunch (it sounds neat, although I doubt that most farmers here use chemicals) where I sipped a tart glass of starfruit wine. On the other side of the river, we pedalled across rice fields hovered by rocky hills and rode to two limestone caves. Exhausted from the sun and heat, I rode back to town and collapsed at the "Friends" Cafe. My new Israeli friends and I must have watched every episode during our four days in Vian Vieng. Seating was Japanese style; and after our Lao noodle soup or Snitzle, we sprawled out on the comfortable cushions for hours. Definitely not a good strategy for a profitable turn-over.

After four days, I was ready to push on. I only planned to spend 10 days in Laos, but I have come to love the people and their laid-back lifestyle. Now, it seems that my one-month visa won't suffice. I'm in Luang Prabang now, a french-like town that is full of Thai-styled 15th century stupas and monasteries. I spent one day walking around the town, venturing down small roads and exploring the Mekong's riverside. Another day, some new friends and I hired a boat to the Pak Ou, where thousands of Buddhist statues are collected in a riverside rock-ledged cave. All along the north side of the river, massive sheets of rock hang perpendicularly, towering at least 500 feet above our heads. We took an afternoon swim, beneath these cliffs that begged to be climbed. In the sun-heated current, I lay on my back, gazing up the rocks as the Mekong carried me down. I screamed like a tickled infant: This is the most exotic moment of my life!

Every backpacker that I've spoke to has heard this myth: in the Bokeo region of Laos, there is a metres-high resort where you play with Gibbon monkeys and take a zipline from treehouse to treehouse. It's a childhood fantasy for adults; and if it's true, only 10 hours away. Our research attempts were fruitless and I settled on heading towards Phonsavan instead. Just hours after buying my bus ticket, our backpacker group met an English couple who had actually spoken to the extraordinary hotelier. Yes, he had treehouses free in just a few days. Now, we are waiting for our confirmed reservations!