Day 41: Vietnamese Wedding Crashers & Growing Pains

Listening: We make plans for big times, get bogged down, distracted. We make plans for good times, all neon, all surface.

What's my problem? A little soreness and pain.

Ahh, the culture shock and jolt to my system that is Hanoi. Blah. Hanoi. I'm ready to leave already.

Laos is a great country. For the most part, people are nice. They have fun with the bargaining. And though they want to part you and your money, they have found that being nice is the best way to do it. Hanoi is a different story.

Hanoi, they're money grubbing, mean spirited and kind of evil. Case and point: I was in a market with my friend Erin (more on her later). I pulled my camera out of my right pocket where I had put some change (about 40,000-50,000 dong [please no dong jokes], or about 3 or 4 US Dollars) I didn't notice the bills fall out of my pocket when I pulled out my camera until I noticed a sinister looking Vietnamese woman at my feet picking up the bills and running back to her stall. There was no, "excuse me sir, you dropped your money" when it was clearly mine.

In Cat Ba (more on that later), a motorbike driver hassled me for a good three blocks trying to get me to go for a ride for "boom-boom." People at the docks follow you around trying to sell you refreshments. In Hanoi, people follow you around trying to sell you books. In the night market people brush your ass seeing if they can pick your pocket.

It just seems as if everyone in Vietnam is trying to hustle you. I heard that the people get friendlier the further south you go, which makes sense considering the Vietnam War. It's just so different from Thailand and Laos. They both seem very similar, but if I had to say, I'm going to bet that Vietnam is much more Chinese than Indochinese.

Anyhow, my time in Vietnam thus far.

Well, my first full day in Hanoi, I ended up just walking around, getting lost. I happened upon the Temple of Literature, where the men who passed the eighteen doctoral exams way back in the day had their names engraved on tablets which rested on giant stone turtles. There's beautiful architecture and a giant brass bell and drum. I liked it quite a bit. The problem was that my camera battery died while I was there. So, I didn't get to take the pictures that I wanted to take.

After I finished seeing the temple, I hiked the two kilometers back to the hostel to check into my bed and to pick up my camera battery. It was there that I ran into Erin.

I had talked to her a little bit earlier that morning. She too couldn't get into Hanoi Backpackers the night before. So I asked her if she wanted to see the town with me and she said she had to run some errands and asked me if I wanted to go. I said why not and tagged along. By the time the errands were finished, the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum was closed for the day, so instead, we went to the Water Puppet Theater show.

Water Puppet Theater is a marionette show with traditional Vietnamese music, which used to be done on the rice patties. It's actually much more entertaining than I had anticipated. The music was pretty good (nothing I would put on my iPod though), and the scenes were entertaining. There was an amusing one where unicorns batted a ball around, and another where there were dragon boat races. I thing my favorite one was the water fairy dance. First you see two fairies spinning about, and then, miraculously (well, not really, because they came from behind the screen), there were two more, then two more, and two more and two more. They would all spin in unison equal distance from each other. It was very cute.

After the water puppet show, Erin and I raced back to the hostel to get changed. We had somewhere to be for dinner that night.

The night before, Erin had met a woman from Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon at the airport. She was fifty three years old, owned a manufacturing company, and had two kids going to college in the States. As they were talking, somehow she invited Erin to go to the wedding which was the reason that she and her... boyfriend (?) were in Hanoi. I was invited as a friend, and off we went.

Apparently Vietnamese weddings are pretty short affairs. The wedding started at six o'clock, and by the time that we got there at seven, people were already leaving. It was very surprising. But, we were invited to sit down and eat regardless. We had some fun conversations with the boyfriend (?) who was trying to teach the other older men exercises so that they could "keep their wives happy." It was quite amusing. Also there was a point where one of the guests was a university French teacher in Hanoi. Since Erin is from Canada, I think they assumed that she spoke more French than she does. See, Erin is from Toronto, not Quebec. There's not as much Francais there. So, she was a good sport and muddled through.

Probably the best part of the evening was when the two of us got called up to take pictures with the bride and groom. Granted, it wasn't just the two of us and the bridal party. There was the woman and her boyfriend (?), some other family members, and a bunch more people that we didn't know. They tried to push Erin and I up front, but I wasn't having it. Erin, though, was just about front and center. The lone caucasian. At least I was a little less conspicuous.

Since the wedding was over long before either of us expected, and the bar in the hostel was dead as a doornail, we headed out to "beer corner." At the time, I had no clue what beer corner was, but when I asked the hot girl that works at the hostel who has a tat on the back of her calf, she said that we should head there.

Now, beer corner is an intersection in Hanoi's Old Quarter. It looks like the intersection of two small streets. Nothing special. But on each of the four corners are little storefronts that serve beer for three thousand dong (about seventeen cents). So a lot of the backpackers sit out front of the stores in plastic chairs drinking beers until the eleven thirty curfew.

At first Erin and I were kind of by ourselves. We couldn't work into any of the bigger groups of people. However, as the night went on, we met more people. There was Vincent from Lyon, France, Samuel from Nord See, France, and Sabine and err... I can't remember her name from Germany. We had a good time. We ate fries and fried corn. A good time was had by all.

The next morning I was on my way to Halong Bay with the Hanoi Backpackers' "Rock Hard, Rock Long" Halong Bay tour. We left around eight in the morning and was on the boat by around noon. After lunch, we all went kayaking. I have to say that we had a pretty cool group of people.

As we were kayaking, we went to this cove where we might have seen monkeys, but no one saw any. Instead, we all played games and screwed around. We were having so much fun that AJ, the group leader said to us, "I know you're having a good time here, and we can stay here as long as you want, but we can go see other things if you want too." We had no clue that there was supposed to be more.

From there, we kayaked to some caves which were not the coolest caves that I have ever seen, but we were with such a great group of people that it was a lot of fun.

Now, I mentioned that I was going to Halong Bay for my birthday, because I wanted to be somewhere beautiful. Mei, one of the other group leaders asked me when exactly it was and whether I was on the two or three day trip. I told her that I was on the three day trip and that I would be on Cat Ba Island for my actual birthday. I was also only one of four out of twenty four people who decided to go with the three day trip. The birthday festivities actually started just after we got onto the boat. I was presented with a bouquet of flowers by AJ (a big Canadian guy who was masquerading as a Scotsman... He kept the accent on all day and then dropped the accent on us at dinner).

At dinner, and I totally wasn't expecting it, they brought out a cake and it was really nice. I mean it was really, really nice. I was so surprised. I really couldn't believe that it was all happening. I thought that I would be in a beautiful place with some fun people. I thought I would have a few drinks and it would be cool. What happened was that it turned into a full fledged birthday party.

One of the ladies working on the boat smeared some of the icing on my face. Mei, who is a rather attractive Indonesian girl from Holland who is a manager at Hanoi Backpackers, licked it off. It was very nice.

Once the cake was finished, that's when the drinking started... and it all started with happy hour, three for two drinks. People were buying me drinks left and right. My two favorite twins, the 19 year olds, Clover and Sophie, bought me a gin and tonic. The barkeep bought me a B-52 shot. I had a couple of beers. That's when things got wild.

I was sung "Happy Birthday" in three languages. Once in English by everyone, once in Norweigian by two delightfully beautiful blondes from Norway, and once in Hindi by some really cool British-Indian fellows. At the stroke of midnight on my birthday, I was picked up, my pockets were emptied, and I was thrown from the top of the boat into the water. That's where a bit of trouble began.

When they threw me off the boat, I landed square on the back of my neck and shoulders. I'm not going to lie. It hurt like a mofugga. I put my best game face on, breast stroked back to the ladder and got back aboard. One guy asked me if that hurt. I told him that it did, and he told me that it looked like it hurt, but he couldn't tell from the way I was swimming.

But it really did hurt. I only stuck around long enough for some of the guys to shove some of their loaded rum and cokes in my face before I decided that I had had enough and went to sleep. Though I don't know exactly what time it was, I'm guessing that it was somewhere around three in the morning. I probably should have gotten to bed earlier, but my favorite twins were kicking around.

The next morning I was crazy sore, and a bit hungover. As most of the people where two day-ers, they dropped me and the other three off at Cat Ba Island for some trekking, and I was supposed to do some rock climbing in the afternoon. I felt so sore that I knew that I wouldn't be able to rock climb. As we were doing the trek, I could feel how bad my back, shoulders and neck felt. I could feel my weakness and dehydration. It wasn't a pretty scene. So, when we got back for lunch, I called it off.

Instead, I rested. I took a two hour nap, had some dinner, got a massage to try to rework my back, and called it an early night on my birthday.

Today, they picked us up at Cat Ba, and most of the day was spent traveling. We caught the next boat back to the mainland, and then the bus back to Hanoi.

Once I got back and checked in, I ran into Erin again. She left today to go to Hue to do an Easy Rider motorbike tour. Also, when I got back to Hanoi, I ran into Kate from the Hague, whose name is actually Julia, but I just had it wrong for the past week. We had dinner with two girls from London at a really cool restaurant. What it is, is a restaurant where they have all of the best street food vendors in Hanoi with specific specialties. They're all situated around the outside of the restaurant facing in. The guests are in the middle with menus, and when you order, the server runs to all of the different vendors to place your order. It's really quite brilliant. I expected it to be really ghetto but good food. Instead, it was much more elegant than I expected. I had some beef noodle rolls which were okay. Nothing like the Hanoi style spring rolls. I also had bun bo hue, which is beef noodle soup in the style of Hue. That was pretty good. For dessert I had dried longans, which were reconstituted in simple syrup and were with a sort of gelatin and with ice. It wasn't all that good.

The rest of the night was spent shit shooting with the girls and some people that I had been on the boat with. It was a good night.

Tomorrow, I'm getting up early (in like 6 hours) to go see uncle Ho in his Mausoleum. I'm also planning on seeing the Hanoi Hilton jail, and getting my flights changed. Tomorrow, I'm also either going to take the night train to Sapa or the night bus to Hoi An/Hue. I'll decide after I rebook my flights. I have a feeling that I'll be going south to Hoi An/Hue, but you never know.

Day 37: Hustle & Flow

Listening: Yeh-ee, yeh-ee, yeh-ee-yeh... yeh-ee, yeh-ee, yeh-ee-yeh (It's a Thai pop song I keep hearing)

What's my problem? Culture shock!

Well, I made it. I'm in Hanoi. The flight was... well... short. I almost felt like it was as short as the flight from Nantucket to Hyannis. When I got here, though, I was shocked.

Luang Prabang is a pretty small city. I mean, realistically, it has only a few major thoroughfares covering only a few square kilometers. Hanoi, on the other hand, is a very busy, bustling city. There are motorbikes everywhere. I mean EVERYWHERE. Apparently, there are streets so narrow, no cars can pass, only motor bikes.

When I got to Hanoi Backpackers, it was kind of loud and rowdy. It was a true Aussie backpacker's hostel. It was clear that the beer was flowing and the backpackers are young. Unfortunately, they were booked for the night, so I had to wander around Hanoi, pack on front and back, looking for accomodations.

I looked at a number of places, but they were all for upwards of twenty five US dollars a night. Finally, I went back to the street that Hanoi Backpackers was on and found a place for fifteen a night. I think that tomorrow I'll check out of my hotel and try to find a bed at Hanoi Backpackers again. I'll probably end up booking my HaLong Bay trip with them too.

For now, I think I'll end up going to HaLong on the ninth, being there for the ninth, tenth and eleventh, and then coming back to Hanoi for at least one night before going to Sapa.

So, there's a guy looking over my shoulder at the sketchy little internet cafe. He's looking at my screen and I can tell he can't read a single word I'm typing. I think he just asked me if I was writing a love letter. HA.

Anyhow, after I checked into my hotel, I instantly bought a sim and called Caroline. Caroline is pretty much a friend of CTodd's, but I met her one time before at one of his parties. Even though she was having a night in with the boy, she came out to the Old Town (where I'm staying) and took me to a restaurant with a good view of the street below.

It was there that I had these amazing Hanoi style spring rolls. Instead of being wrapped in rice paper, they were wrapped in uncut pho noodles. They were divine. I asked her if there was an indicative or a distinctive Hanoi dish, and that was it. Oh, yes. I will be having them again.

From there, we went to the night market. I have to say that I was vastly disappointed in the schwag. Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Luang Prabang all had better schwag. The people watching there is okay though. For a while, we tailed a group of pick pockets, after one of them bumped me and figured out I was sporting a chain. It's people like that that make me want to fight. But I am very good at the self restraint.

Anyhow, I'm so used to country life that this whole urban thing is wigging me out a little. It seems a bit different than in Bangkok. Maybe, like Bangok, I just have to get used to it. It's a little tough though, being on the run, being pressed for time.

Finally, in other news, I tried to move back my flights while at the airport here in Hanoi, but the agent there said that it wasn't a ticketing office. She said I should try the ticketing office in town. So, I have the card and I'm going to try to get there the day I get back from HaLong Bay. I think it'll only cost me a hundred US dollars, which is better than paying a hundred and twenty to go to San Fran round trip when I get to California, plus the upcharge of eating in America. Now, I can pay a hundred US dollars, spend more time in southeast Asia, and spend less money while having a good time. So maybe I won't have to hustle through Vietnam. Hopefully I'll just be able to take it easy.

Day 37: The Things I Carry

Listening: Let down your guard just a little. I keep you safe in these arms of mine.

What's my problem? Wondering how much a tuk-tuk to the airport is gonna cost.

Right now, the things I carry are out of necessity and out of security. In my pockets, I carry my passport, my airline "ticket," my keys, an eyeglass cloth, my chain wallet with half of my bank cards and credit cards, some cash and an ID, and my Canon SD890 IS digital camera.

Today, I'm also carrying my DaKine backpack. In my backpack, I carry airline reservation information, two cell phones, another wallet with the rest of my bank cards (not to mention my Charlie Card), and a DVD of my SCUBA experience.

In another pocket, I carry a spare pair of glasses and clip on sunglasses. Somehow, in with that I keep an emergency tube of hydration tablets, and Caroline in Hanoi's phone number.

In the front pocket of my backpack, I carry several Sharpie markers, a few pens and pencils, my tiny pad, emergency contact information, zip ties, hand sanitizer, sun block, my iPod, my toothbrush, a bottle of Malarone, some Po Chai Yuen pills, a Caba seed from Thailand, and most importantly, toilet paper.

In the main pocket, I keep a bigger notebook, two Lonely Planet books, a copy of the Chefwear catalogue to show the tailors in Hoi An, an emergency sleeve of Oreos (so sue me), a knockoff Volcom cap, some plastic bags (not as many as my grandmother used to have), all of my electronics chargers and adaptors, and the book "Eat, Pray, Love."

It's a chick book, but I'm reading it anyways. Book exchange is a big thing out on the trail. People swap books all of the time. When I came to Asia, I carried with me a copy of "The Art of Happiness" by His Holiness, the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler. I had read the book before, but thought that I would reread it here in Asia. As the first month passed, I only got a quarter of the way through. As I read, I remembered everything, and thought to myself, "I have already adapted most of this into my life and I still put effort into the teachings." So, at Utopia a couple of days ago, I traded my copy of "The Art of Happiness" with Chloe's copy of "Eat, Pray, Love" and spent this morning at Morning Glory Cafe eating a giant hashbrown, sipping coffee, and reading. For a morning that wasn't supposed to happen, it was damn fine.

There are a lot of intangibles that I carry with me. I carry with me a bit of paranoia, as I have had friends on the trail who have been robbed by peopleon motorbikes, or whose packs have disappeared in the blink of an eye. I carry a strong distrust of travel agents, for obvious reasons, and a strong respect for the monks that I see walking the streets. I carry an open mind and heart for my fellow travelers, and a smile for those I pass on the streets.

I carry my friends with me. I think about them often and wonder what they're doing right now. I carry the hope that maybe, just maybe, they'll be as lucky as I am to be doing what I'm doing, and seeing what I'm seeing. I hope that they won't have to trust the photos that don't give the scene justice. I carry the wonder of whether they think about me as much as I think about them, and the hope that they're as happy as I am.

I carry with me the dreams of my grandfather and my father. And although they aren't necessarily the same as my own dreams, I carry those as well. I wonder what exactly their dreams were or are. I wonder if they have achieved them. I wonder if the dreams I carry for myself are as simple as they seem to be, or as complex as I make them out to be.

And for now, I carry on, hopefully, to Hanoi. I'll be in search of a spicy beef noodle dish that Linh has told me to look out for. Maybe tonight I'll carry around a belly of that.

Next time I travel, I think I'll carry with me a copy of Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried."

Day 36: I'm REALLY Never Trusting Travel Agents Again.

Listening: Don't turn away. What are you looking at?
He was so happy on the day that he met her. Say, what are you looking at? I was a superman. The looks are deceiving.

What's my problem? Travel Agents.

Well, It's four o'clock and I'm not on a plane waiting to taxi to takeoff. I'm not in a gate waiting to board. And I'm not anywhere closer to Hanoi.

What, you may ask, happened? Well, the travel agent just about screwed me. I went to the airport in the travel agency provided tuk-tuk. I got to the check in, and was told that there was no flight today. The same agency had sent another person that day on this flight that didn't exist. BASTARDS!

Luckily, the guy from Vietnam Airlines was able to book me on tomorrow's flight for no additional charge, but I am stuck here for one day more.

After getting Vietnam Airlines to help me out, I proceeded to catch a tuk-tuk back to the travel agency, where I proceeded to give them hell. I told them that it was their fault that I was still here and that they sold me a bum ticket. I lied to them and told them that I had booked a room in Hanoi to guilt them some more. I told them that it was their fault that I had to pay for a room in Luang Prabang as well as in Hanoi, that I had to pay for the tuk-tuk back to town, and that I would have to go tomorrow. I gave him shit for a good half hour. He said he would pay me for the tuk-tuk, and would pay for another tomorrow. In the end, all I ended up getting from him was five dollars US to pay for my tuk-tuk today and for my tuk-tuk tomorrow. Fucking arseholes. The funny thing was that I only paid the guy five thousand kip to get back into town. Five US dollars is the equivalent of forty two thousand, five hundred kip. So, unless the tuk-tuk to the airport costs me forty two thousand kip, I'm up.

The real pain in the arse is that I did have to withdraw more kip. I don't want more kip. Luckily I only withdrew two hundred thousand. One hundred thousand to pay for the hotel room for the night and the other hundred thousand to get food tonight and tomorrow.

What bums me out is that I don't really know anyone else in Luang Prabang right now. If I meet people tonight, there's not really enough time to get to know someone. There's no more Chloe. And the rest of the people I know are in Vang Vieng. I really haven't figure out what to do with my night. I have already realy been taking it easy. There's not enough time to leave town for a bit. Well, I guess I'll figure it out. Tomorrow I'm going to the airport early. If I have to wait around for a while, that's fine with me. I just want to know that I'm getting outta here and onto my next base of operations.

Day 35: I Told Myself That I Wouldn't Go Bowling

Listening: I believe when I fall in love with you it will be forever.

What's my problem? No teaching kids today.

Well, it has been a gloriously wonderful few days in Luang Prabang. There's not an incredible amount here that's in the city, but I still found myself completely content with just hanging around. Of course, I saw the waterfalls. I didn't go see the caves though. I saw them from the slow boat on the way in. I did go up to the top of Phu Si and saw the city from its highest point. I wandered the night market and made some purchases. I ate street food and restaurant food. I drank at Lao Lao Garden and at the Hive Bar. And I went bowling.

And that brings us to yesterday. Yesterday, I spent most of the day hanging out at this place called Utopia. A utopia, it is. It's this wonderfully decorated bar and restaurant situated on the banks of the Nam Khan River. It has a bamboo patio up on stilts about three stories above the banks with couches, tables and games making it an amazing chillout spot. It was there that I ran into some Aussie friends, and then Chloe and her crew rolled in.

I have to say that the more and more I watch it, or be a part of it, the more I dislike big group dynamics. There's always someone who wants to do something that someone else doesn't want to do. And when it comes to making decisions, it always ends up coming down to what's the cheapest, not what's the best for the money, or the best for the group. Anyhow, that was just a little rant.

Earlier in the day, I went to go check out this free exhibit called Stay Another Day, which promotes sustainable tourism and encourages hilltribes and ethnic minorities to keep up with their traditional trades, whether it be weaving or hand forged scissors. Of course, below the exhibit is the shop where you can purchase all of these crafts. It's all fair trade and benefits the local communities. I thought it was a great little exhibit. They had some amazing jewelery and weavings.

Later on in the evening, I met up with Goi and Lucky for dinner. Originally, we were going to find some Lap, which is a traditional Lao dish, but we were told that the best place in town had run out for the day by the time we got there at half past six. That's right. They were eighty-sixed by half past six. So, instead we went to Lao barbecue.

Lao barbecue works exactly like Thai barbecue, which is kinda like Korean barbecue. You have some hot coals, and a pan with a raised center and a trough down the bottom. You fill the trough with broth, cook the meat on the raised part, and cook noodles, and vegetables in the trough of broth. I didn't realize until that point that I hadn't really eaten much by the way of vegetables in the past few weeks. I had been feasting on carbs, proteins, and fruit. Lots of fruit. The vegetables tasted so good to me and gave me this instant good feeling, that I must have needed them. I had to have had three big platefuls of veg.

Later on that night, after cruising the night market for one last time, I dropped my stuff off at my room and cruised over to the Hive Bar and Lao Lao Garden to see if I knew anyone running around. I thought that this girl, Andrea, would be kicking around. I saw her at the night market and she said she was heading to Lao Lao for dinner. When I got to Hive Bar, it was all new faces of people who must have floated in over the last twenty four hours. So, I headed over to Lao Lao Garden. Lo and behold, there was Chloe.

I actually thought that I wouldn't see Chloe again. She was catching a minibus down to Vang Vieng with her crew at six in the morning, so planned on having an early night. I even planned on having an early night because I thought it might be fun to teach some English at Big Brother Mouse, a non-profit organization aimed at getting books to kids and helping them learn English.

Anyhow she and Maita from Chile were out having drinks with some Canadians and some Aussies. I was psyched. So, I sat down and joined them for a beer. The Canadians and the Aussies had just arrived that night, so they really weren't all that familiar with the city or how it worked. So, when the bar started closing at a quarter past eleven, they kinda freaked out. At that point, Chloe was the only one of her crew that was left in the bar. The rest had gone home to get some sleep.

We told the newbies that the bowling alley and the discotheque (which I still have not been to) were still open, and we got pressured into going. I swear I wasn't planning on going bowling last night. Both Chloe and I told ourselves that we wouldn't go bowling. BLASTED! We were bowling.

Ended up hanging out until about half past one before we walked back to town. It was nice walking back to town with her at one in the morning. I really wanted to tell her just how smitten I was with her, but I bailed out last second. She has my e-mail and I have her picture (which I didn't have before). I was out by two thirty and, needless to say, no kids learned my awful English this morning.

My impressions of Laos, overall, is very good. It's perhaps the most beautful country that I have ever had the privelage to lay eyes on. The cities are a nice blend of French and Asian. The food available is both simple and elegant. And the women, well, they're just beautiful. They run around in these long skirts, and wear little or no makeup. It's all natural, elegant beauty, easy smiles and polite demeanor. It's truly a beautiful place that hopefully won't succumb to the homogenization that's taking place across the world. I hope the hill tribes are able to stay hill tribes and that the land will only crumble in the face of nature. Anything else would be a crime.

So, my bags are packed and I head to the airport in about three and a half hours. Off to Hanoi. I'm going to try to push back my Bangkok and my Hong Kong flights to shorten my stay in Los Angeles. I think it would just be more economical for me, and more fun, as I would have more time to check out Vietnam or I would have an extra week to go diving. If it all works out, maybe I will go for my PADI Advanced Open Water Cert. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Day 34: I am the Mayor

Listening: Control yourself. Take only what you need from it.

What's my problem? Lao Airlines is closed for lunch.

It's true. I really am the mayor. Coming up to Luang Prabang from Vang Vieng, I thought that I wouldn't know a single soul back in town. Sure enough, when I drop Sandy, Pauline and Amy off at SpicyLaos, I see someone I know. It's Eris, the British guy who was with me for the entire length of my trek in Chiang Mai. He, met my friend Mikey from Canada, who went with Jennifer and I to the Khum Khan Toke, on the bus from Houay Xai to Luang Prabang. Apparently, Eris said to Mikey, "I met this guy in Chiang Mai who just loves his job!" And Mikey asked him, "Well, what does he do?" And Eris told him that I was a chef, and Mikey instantly said, "Hey, I know that guy! It's gotta be Jason!" And from there they proceeded to have a conversation about me.

Then later that night while walking around the night market, I ran into Jennifer and Kate, two British girls that I met at the Chiang Khong/Houay Xai border crossing. They went on the fast boat, and claimed that I way overhyped the dangers of the fast boat. To be perfectly fair, I told them that I had never been on the fast boat or the slow boat myself, but only what I had heard. So, they introduced me to a number of people that they were rolling with in Luang Prabang, and made a plan to meet for drinks at the Hive bar later that night.

At Hive Bar, I met up with Mikey, Sandy, Pauline and Amy, along with another crew of people that they were with. I made friends with a bunch of Israelis, and we all merged with Jennifer and Kate's crew. Fun was had by all, and when the bar closed at half past eleven, we all piled into a tuk-tuk and headed for the bowling alley.

Now, there were a good sixteen people in the tuk-tuk. People were hanging off the back and were sitting on the roof. One guy, Garrett, was hanging off of the side, near the driver and somehow let go. We were going full speed (like 30kph) and he bounced his ass first off the pavement, and then his head. Luckily the injury wasn't so bad. There was a little bit of blood and a few scrapes, but other than that, he was okay. He could have easily had a concussion, but he seemed fine enough after we got to the bowling alley.

At the bowling alley, I met some more people, Blaine and Kate from the States, and Luke and Alicia from Australia. It's funny how the bowling alley becomes such a social center when there is a midnight curfew and everything except the discotheque and the bowling alley are closed.

On the way home from the bowling alley (we walked because the tuk-tuk driver wouldn't except three thousand kip per person) we ran into some people who had just arrived from the border. One of my friends, Marion from Canada, offered her one of the extra beds in her guesthouse rooms, so this girl Bina from London took it.

The next morning, Sandy, Pauline, Amy, Marion, Bina and I, along with another tuk-tuk full of people headed to the waterfall. Bina and I ended up hiking to the top of the waterfall before heading to the swimming holes below. The heat in Luang Prabang is oppressive. At the height of the day, you're not only sweating your ass off, but youre' sweating your tits and your face off too. So, the ice cold water of the swimming holes was a welcome feeling. What was not really welcome were the fat French guys "diving" off of the rocks into the water. When I say "dive," what I really mean is start off looking like they're going to dive, but ending up doing the belly flop. If they did it in the ocean, there would have been a tsunami.

After the waterfall, we all went our own separate ways. While on the way to meet back up with everyone for dinner, I ran into Blaine and Kate. I chatted with them for a while, and while I was doing so, Goi and Lucky walked up. I knew that they were getting in that day, but I didn't know how we would find each other. So I chatted with them as well before I met the crew for dinner.

After dinner, we all went shopping around the night market. I ended up hangng out with this girl Kate (I seem to meet a lot of Kates and Jennifers) from the Hague, and bought a pair of pants and a tee shirt for twenty thousand kip (two dollars an fifty cents) each.

On my way back to my room, I run into Goi and Lucky again in a wine bar, so I go in and have a few glasses of wine with them and shit shoot before meeting the crew at the Hive Bar again. When I get to the Hive Bar, EVERYONE is there again, except for two of the Kates, Jennifer and Blaine. The British Kate and Jennifer flew out that day, and I'm not sure what the other Kate and Blaine ended up doing.

It was a good party at the Hive Bar that night. We knew the DJ that night, and everyone was in a dancing mood. Earlier that night, I said to Sandy, Pauline and Marion that I wasn't really up for a hyped night, that I would probably be okay just closing down the Hive Bar and going to sleep. Well, Pauline and Kate from the Hague went home, but I ended up... going to the bowling alley with Sandy and Marion and a huge crew of people.

I didn't actually bowl this time, though. I ended up talking to this guy, Ryan, who is a rock climbing instructor and who loves his job like I love mine, and this girl Chloe. Okay, this girl Chloe makes me drool. She knew me before I even knew her name. She knew me as Jason, the chef from Boston. As she said it, looking straight into my eyes, she could have probably asked me for all of my money and everything I owned and I would have handed it over. She has the most amazing green eyes. Anyhow, we had a whole conversation about loving what we do and how important it is to love what you do in life.

Actually that has been a conversation that I have had a number of times on this trip. Even last night, Lucky was saying not to do anything to get rich, but to do things because you love it. If you love your work, money will come for a job well done.

But... back to Chloe. We talked for a good long while. Ther was a cat in the bowling alley, that was the most chill cat ever. It was probably just grown out of its kitten-hood. For a while it stayed with my friend Ariel from Israel, then with me and finally with Chloe. Chloe wanted to take it home. I wanted to take both of them home.

We ended up leaving the bowling alley at about half past one. Chloe stuck around with the other people she was staying with. But, when I woke up this morning and walked down the street looking for breakfast, there was Chloe, all alone in a cafe, hung over, waiting for breakfast. So I joined her. It was nice having breakfast with her. She's just so beautiful. I'm like "ghaaaaaa...." whenever I see her. Much taller than the girls I'm usually into, light brown wavy hair, usually tied up, green eyes and a killer smile. But yeah, she was crazy hung over. Her friends came to join us just as we were both finished. She stuck around for a bit before heading back to the room to try to sleep off some of the hangover. I ended up just hanging out with her friends.

After breakfast, they went to go work on their hangovers, and I headed over to Lao Airlines to buy a flight to Hanoi. Unfortunately, when I got there at ten til noon, there was a sign on their door saying that they were closed from half past eleven until half past one. BASTARDS! So, here I am, blogging.

As you can see from my adventures over the past couple of days, Luang Prabang is a pretty small place. I've found out that it's also a really fun place to meet people and hang out. You wouldn't think that a small river town with a midnight curfew that makes businesses shut down at half past eleven would be very much fun, but it is. I'm having a great time here just relaxing and doing my thing. I've met some fantastic people (all of whom are leaving on Friday, which is why I'm trying to leave on Friday), and I hope I keep in touch with all of them.

Anyhow, I've got a half hour before Lao Airlines opens again. If they're on SE Asia time, it means I have another hour of waiting on top of that. Oh well, it's better than being out in the heat. Speaking of heat, I think I'm going to go try to find a cold beverage.

Day 31: Love/Hate

Listening: And the lovers that you sent for me didn't come with any satisfaction guarantee. So I return them to the sender, and the note attached will read, "How I love to hate you."

What's my problem? Other people's drama.

So I came to Vang Vieng to hang out with Jennifer and Adam. Since I split off from them in Chiang Mai, they acquired a large group of people and now there's big drama in the group and it has affected my relationship with Adam and Jennifer. I just don't feel as welcome and as meshing with them as I once did. Maybe it's the fact that I don't want to drink nearly as much as their crew does.

Anyhow, I think that the main problem is this guy Rob who is 100% full of himself. He's kind of the alpha male of the bunch, but he's a complete prick. All of the men follow suit behind him as if they have no minds of their own. The there are the girls. All of them stick together. So that leaves me somewhere in between. And now I am choosing to extract myself.

I could have stayed an extra night in Vang Vieng, but I'm leaving tomorrow instead to go back to Luang Prabang. I know that there's not too much for me to see and do there, but I figure it might be a nice place to chill out for a few days before I head to Hanoi.

For a second, I contemplated going to Phonesavanh where the Plain of Jars is, but it would cost me three days. It would be one day to get there, one day to see the sites, and then another to get to Luang Prabang. I decided five minutes ago to nix it and just go to Luang Prabang. It might be nice to write some postcards and hang out with Goi and Lucky, as they will be there from the third to the sixth. I'm planning on flying out to Hanoi on the sixth, I think. I have to book my flight when I get to Luang Prabang. I think it's going to cost me a hundred and fifty US dollars.

On the flip side of things, Laos is beautiful. I have never been anywhere this beautiful before in my life. The mountains are stunning, and the landscape is like something out of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. I haven't been able to take many pictures of the landscape though. When I was on the river today, I left my camera in the room. I didn't want it to get wet. And it's hard to take pictures out of the side of a minibus. Maybe I'll try tomorrow.

What screws things up in Vang Vieng are all of the bloody immature backpackers. I have never been to a place so devoted to drunken backpackers. Buckets of booze everywhere, places playing re-runs of Friends and The Family Guy, and cheap bad food fill the streets here. It's so lame. The place could be perfection if you just removed the assholes.

Anyhow, tomorrow I go to Luang Prabang. Tonight I hang out in backpacker-land. Pray for me.