Goodbye Cambodia, Hello Laos

All I can really say upon arriving in Luang Prabang (Laos) is "wow." The change between frantic & chaotic Cambodia and sleepy & beautiful Laos could not be more striking. As opposed to falling asleep to discos and waking up to honking, last night I fell asleep to...silence...and woke up (at 4:15am?!) to mellow Buddhist drumming and chimes (which soon stopped and I went back to sleep, but it was actually a pretty awesome way to wake up). The French influence here is strong with beautiful buildings, great food (great bread!), and superior coffee. I might not venture far from here for the rest of my holiday, and although there isn't much to do here beside eat and sleep, I think that will be just fine. This really is the perfect antidote for Cambodia, as well as to 2.5 months on the road. (I say that even though I really enjoyed Cambodia and being on the road in general.)



I have a very nice room with a balcony overlooking the Mekong River ($30/nt, includes breakfast...oops, sorry...) where I might just settle in for a long relaxation. Speaking of relaxation, did have a "lao massage" last night (of course) and it was pretty good; very similar to Thai as you might expect, but a little different. And only $4/hr (ok,ok, I'll stop!!). There are suppose to be alot of outdoor activities and trekking options from LP, and I'll probably do something in a few days. Might be nice to do an overnight or 2 somewhere (hill tribe village, etc), then come back to my cushy hotel. I'd like to do a mt. bike trip, but so far the ones i've seen all look like they are "fun for the whole family" and we all know that's not what I'm looking for (I want a trip where most of the family break collarbones...).


Finally, a few final thoughts on Cambodia (see Angkor Wat below...), before I forget about them:

Cambodia really does seem like a place you could just disappear in. I mean that in pretty much every possible way: you could just be abducted and no one would bother to look for you; you could hide from your creditors/government/family/etc and the lawlessness would help keep you hidden; you could lose yourself to your own demons with all the vice that is offered by the kilos on the streets daily. I happy to report that I made it out though!

• Drunk driving is not a problem in Cambodia. I don't mean that they don't drink and drive, I mean that when they do, it's not a problem. This is mainly because everyone there already drives like they are drunk, so any actual difference is just lost in the noise. I discovered this on first hand on one night of vice I had (mainly just Angkor beer...lots of Angkor beer...) in which my tuk-tuk driver was drinking with me eventually could not walk straight, but fit in with Cambodian traffic just fine. Note: do not try this at home...
• I really don't think I stress enough the overall impressiveness of the temples, so let me say this again: They were very impressive.

Ok, maybe that's enough for now. I'm currently doing a walking tour of LP and taking a brief timeout here as the mid day heat is killer (I thought is was suppose to be cooler here?). But I should be back to it. At least until I walk past a french cafe with some good looking chocolate pastries...

-erik