Just a Brief Update From Laos

I know I haven't written in a while. The one computer that is free to use at my guest house, has been occupied non-stop. Not that there is a super amount of things to write about.
I stayed in Vang Vieng 3 nights. The scenery there is quite beautiful, but the town is solely designed for young partiers. If you so chose, you could rent a moto and go see some caves or lagoons or just hangout in the beautiful countryside. Then, you have to go back to town and see all the drunk or otherwise kids roaming around being fucking annoying. Why are they so intoxicated? They go tubing. There is a river that goes along the town that is usually calm enough to go tubing down. I've always been a big fan of grabbing some beer and taking a leisurely tubing trip with friends. Vang Vieng takes it up a notch. There are bars along the river, about a dozen in total (though I heard yesterday that most got washed away in the storm that's been hitting SE Asia). These bars not only sell or give away cheap shitty whiskey called Lao Lao, but some bars offer "happy" shakes or food that can have mushrooms, opium, or pot in them. Therefore, you can begin to see why there are so many people wandering town bandaged up or why they have a dozen people drown a year.
For the sake of, I don't feel like dying, I stuck to alcohol. I made friends with a couple, Ray and Silvia, at the first bar from Holland and we went down the river together. The buckets are cheap so we shared one at each bar we stopped after the first. The buckets have a ton of Lao Lao in them though and it is hard to gauge how much you're drinking. So, I got a bit drunker than I wanted and had to spend the next day nursing a hangover. A couple bars have things like mud volleyball, soccer, or games, a couple have water slides, most use to have "high dives", but they were all roped off because too many people were getting hurt jumping off them into murky water where the depth is unknown. I managed to stub my toe jumping in with my tube at the designated put in area, at the first bar, so bad that I later thought I broke it. Anyway, that night Ray, Silvia, and I met up with some people that had taken the same bus as me from Savannakhet. I'm sure we were a sight. Most of them went swimming at a hotel, but I knew I should just go to bed so that's what I did.
Like I said, next day wasn't fun for me. The one thing I did was buy a couple things like a dry bag (very very useful) and a bus ticket to get out of there. That's about it. Go there if you want to party for a day or two. Don't stay longer.
Next, I headed to Luang Prabang. LP is my favorite place in Laos so far and with only one stop left before heading back to Thailand, will likely end that way. It is a world heritage site and the Laos people call it the Ancient City. It is by far one of the prettiest cities I've visited in SE Asia. The main part of town is about 3 blocks wide and 10 blocks long. It's almost like a peninsula created by two rivers. There is a mountain smack in the center with a golden stupa on the top and the whole thing is covered with temples and Buddhist decor. It was my favorite Wats to visit, next to Angkor Wat. The rest of town is quite nice. I spent the first day wandering around the outskirts looking for a mythical bar where they had a pool. It was about 90 degrees in heat and humidity, and I wanted to swim. I never found it, but I did get to see parts of the town that most tourists don't go. It's all lovely. Since I didn't find the pool, I tried to find a swimming hole in the Mekong, but that requires luck. What I mean is, unless you see people swimming in it and specifically where they do, I wouldn't.
I did end up seeing some kids swimming in it the next day, right where a ferry docks to pick up cars to go directly across the river. I tried later, but the ferry sat there for about 30 minutes and I gave up. Most of my time here has been spent lounging and doing nothing. I found a western style coffee place (I'm pretty sure the owner is from the States. I met the "boss" today. I was hoping to copy some music they play there to my phone, and I believe he was from the States. Don't know if he owned the place though). Other than hanging out, I went to a waterfall by tuk-tuk with some friends and some strangers, met up with Angie and Jason who flew into town, and lastly I learned how to guide elephants.
The waterfall was a series of turquoise pools with one giant waterfall at the top. I ended up hiking to the top with my friends, Anna and Sheila. It's a good thing it was a dry day cause it was steep with foot holes carved into the mud hill. It would have been too dangerous on a wet day. At the top, we found some monks swimming. We joined them which was kinda a cool experience. Later we swam at a couple of the swimming holes and visited a bear rescue zoo at the bottom. The other people that joined us also saw a green mamba. I highly recommend the falls.
Angie and Jason came over the weekend, flying in from Chang Mai, Thailand. It was somewhat strange to hear how they were traveling. They flew here, as they were doing everywhere they were going for a couple weeks, for 3 nights... Huh? Don't understand why. Seems like a waste. They stayed in fancy hotels and ate at fancy places I couldn't afford. They were binge travelling, but not for any reason I could see. Usually, you do it because you aren't mobile. Jason is the only one working and he is doing it remotely. All he needs is an internet connection. Whatever. It was good to see them, but also sad. They feel like they have a firm grasp on the culture and people, but they since they are binge (and luxury binging at that) they can't (see Travelling Techniques and Levels of Understanding). Anyhow, there were a couple of things that I would warn them against. They have a tremendous opportunity that many don't have or take and I hope they take advantage of it. Don't pigeon hole yourselves and careful that your technique of traveling isn't elitist. Only sampling the most expensive hotels and restaurants and flying is dangerous in the sense that it is elitist. You will not get a fair sample of real life in the area you are in. Also, it struck me that you guys expected a lot of things that were unrealistic of places like this. Learn to look at them light hearted. Don't pigeon hole yourselves either. What you described to me about the reasons you love Koh Samui were not that different from many places I have visited, and not just on this trip. They exist everywhere and I think fresh coconuts are not a valid enough distinction. Thai food is not the best food in the world, it is one of the best. It is definitely in the upper echelon. Not the best though, nor the healthiest. So far, it's up there with Argentine BBQs and ceviche. Remember though, when I ate those, they were the average foods. When I've eaten with you, it's been really good, but not better. Yes, I didn't get to try Mama Thais or Nukes, but that is only a few places and those exist for any type of food even in the states (if you are willing to pay). Just want it so you guys can really travel by taking each experience as it's own and not comparing it to everything else. I am jealous that you get the experience of living somewhere though, that is good, and I think you have gained a lot from it. I hope I can do that within a couple years.
Lastly, the elephants. Super cool. Be careful here, there are several companies here and all are not equal. You will pay for what you get. Read the reviews before hand. The only one I heard was legit was Elephant Village. They rescue elephants, the others buy them solely for profit from tourism and they treat the people and animals as such. So I went with Elephant Village and shelled out quite a bit more to do so. I did the one day Mahout training, which is where you learn to "control" or guide the elephant. The elephants you ride are all female in their mid-life. Male or young can be difficult. The village is alongside a river and is quite lovely. You can opt to stay there overnight, but it's super expensive. First they teach you commands and you do a brief ride. Then, you go for about one hour riding on the back with the mahout guiding. Elephants are really fucking slow most of the time. A horse would have done our path in 20 min. The elephants were funny cause they were always trying to sneak off to eat. Ours stirred up a bees nest and the mahout nearly fell off he was so scared. Luckily, the bees just saw a big ass elephant and didn't sting us.
The first elephant I boarded was nervous. They put their trunk in their mouth when anxious. It was pretty cute. As a mahout you ride around on the neck of the animal with your knees resting on the top of their ears. You really don't need anything like a saddle. The neck is wide enough and the skin is thick and rough enough that it's really comfortable.
We were allowed to feed them too - they love sweet fruit like mangos and pineapples. Then, we ate. As we ate it started raining pretty hard. We were supposed to wash the elephants in the river and take a boat to some waterfalls, but the rain was not showing any signs of letting up. Our guy decided it wasn't going to, so we did it in the rain. Cold. The river and rain were cold. Really cold. But, washing them was the best part because their personalities really came out. One kept sticking it's head under water, another kept trying to get out of the river. Mine didn't want to lay down in the river while I scrubbed her with a brush. At one point she objected to the mahouts commands with a small trumpet, and another time with trying to spray him. Another thing, they can hold their breath a lot longer than I thought. That was definitely my favorite. Finally, we guided them home and the real mahouts (not us) took them to their camp off in the jungle.
Then we took a boat in the driving rain to a sweet waterfall, which judging by our guides excitement, was stronger than he'd ever seen it cause of all the rain the area has gotten. We swam in a safe area and the rain started letting up as we got out and back to the boat.
All in all, it was a great experience. I wish I had taken more opportunity of the down time in-between activities to go hang with the elephants, but oh well, it was still really bad ass.

So, that's the exciting things I've done over the last 10+ days. I accomplished my goal I set in Vietnam of staying in Luang Prabang for 8 days. Today, the day before I leave, I found the sequel to Power of One, Tandia (rare), somehow sticking out in the randomness of the book store organization like, "hey fucker! Look here!" My next plan is to take a slow boat tomorrow to Huay Xai. It will take two days, with a sleep in a village halfway. Once there, I want to do the Gibbon Experience, which is three days in the jungle canopy, zip-lining around and staying in tree houses. It's pricey, but everyone I've talked to that did it said it was their top experience in SE Asia. Usually, people book way in advance, but I'm hoping to show up and get a spot. I have a little wiggle room cause my visa goes till the 7th. Ok, that's it. Later