Bangkok-> Nong Khai

10/21/2011
-Decided to get my haircut, after a slow, social morning, set out walking around my neighborhood looking for a place that could shave patterns like the thai kids have.
-Not three blocks away from my guest house, walking on the sidewalk when two thai police pull up  their motorbike right next to me on the sidewalk and ask to search me. i ask "what for?" "drugs and weapons" is the response, I say yes, because i have no drugs or weapons, and i don't think i have the option of saying no.
-The cops search my pockets and bag, opening everything multiple times, smelling my cigarrettes, even going so far as to page through my journal. obviously, they don't find anything, finally they tell me they searched me because I "looked like an artist."
-parted ways with the cops and shortly thereafter found a men's hair salon, that had won the bangkok championship for free style hair. got  a haircut for about $10, more expensive then anywhere else but they did a great job.

 

 -Went to the record store, hung out for a while, listened to some Isan 7s as well as original Studio One cuts, and original Mulatu Astake from Ethiopia. 

-Took the Skytrain to the victory monument, a massive roundabout surrounded by food stalls and other stalls selling everything you could imagine. Incredible amounts of people moving every-which way. Had a dinner of delicious duck soup, after wandering around trying to find water (the city was sold out due to threats of flooding). bought six bottles of water, saw a brutal car walk on the way back to the skytrain. chilled out and read on the roof of the guest house for the rest of the night. 

10/22/2011

-Slept in and had a prolonged tea. 

-Spent the morning researching the weekend market scene, in bangkok there are an assortment of markets which only spring up on the weekends. 

-since most of the markets were really active at night, decided to go to chinatown because i had read that there was vinyl there. Chinatown is a massive sprawl of alleys crowded with vendors selling an array of wares, mainly food products and chinese imports. 

-didn't know at the time that there is one street in Chinatown that used to be the center of  the Thai record industry, the only place to find records in Chinatown is from the Chinese families selling the backstock. Now i have it marked on my map, so when i return to Bangkok...

-didn't buy much besides some snacks at the chinese market, but enjoyed walking around. 

-accidentally got on the boat going the wrong direction and wound up at Khao San road, which is the bangkok backpacker district. I was immediately uncomfortable there, and left after walking around for an hour (i wanted to at least see the place), despite plans to eat lunch there.

-Took the boat and skytrain back to the hostel, visited the record store, hung out for a bit. 

-Met a friend at the guest house and went to this strange hipster market in a parking on the outskirts of BKK. arrived after an interesting experience with a cabby who had picked us up despite not understanding at all where we intended to go, but took half off the final meter. 

-Interesting collection of stuff. Lots of vintage clothing, old Vespa parts (old Vespas are huge in BKK), American movie posters, and action figures. Bought a watch from a guy who makes new bands out of leather for old watch faces. 

-Read on the roof a bit before bed. 

10/23/2011

-Woke up fairly early and headed to Chatuchak Market.

-Spent a while outside recording a Phin player and his son. Wandered around the market for a long time, Awesome array of vintage goods, pets, new clothing, military surplus, home goods, anything you could think of they'd probably have, asked a couple of people with antiques about records to no avail, with the exception of two small collections of american classic rock. Picked up an awesome pair of sunglasses from the 60s, some gifts for friends in Nong Khai, including an awesome vintage shirt from the states for the "charlie manson fan club." Two crazy psychedelic shirts from japan for myself.

-visited the record store on my way back, listened to some old Morlam records, Nat gave me two for free.

-had an early dinner of roast duck and rice, read on the roof before bed. 

10/24/2011

-Had a leisurely tea, travelled with a friend who'd been stranded in the guest house for 7 months, to go visit the Bangkok forensics museum. Which happens to be in the same hospital where the King of Thailand is currently undergoing care. The forensics hospital is apparently one of the largest collections of medical oddities in jars outside of Vienna.

-unfortunately, the regular boat shuttles weren't running, due to flooding, so we had to hire a longtail boat, because the hospital is across the river. 100 baht and a noisy wet boat ride later we arrived at the hospital. 

-spent a while wandering through the labyrinthine hospital complex, til we found the museum, only to be told it was closed due to the national holiday for Rama IV. 

-disappointed we wandered the backstreets, til we stumbled on a temple along the water, and vendors selling assorted food for birds and the river catfish. 

-bought some food, and fed the prehistoric looking catfish, while fighting to keep the pigeons from swarming our bag of food. 

-attempted to get a boat back to the skytrain. The only available boat was a ferry that just went to the other side and back. so we hopped to the other side figuring it'd be easier to catch a boat from there. 

-walked away after being quoted 600 baht for the return trip. walked through a massive park and through an ancient temple, stumbled on some junk vendors, lots of tapes but no vinyl. 

-while we were on a broad avenue, the police made everyone on the street stand still for a caravan, of top of the line Mercedes with a police escort driving BMWs. traffic on the road was cleared and no pedestrians were allowed to move til well after the caravan had passed. I assume it was royal family members from the stickers on the sides of the Mercs. 

-caught a bus back to the guest house, took about 45 minutes, but only cost 30 cents. 

-was lucky enough to catch a friend of a friend who works for the Bangkok Post for dinner. Great to meet him, had interesting conversation about Taos NM and the expat life in BKK. 

-roof reading pre bed. 

10/24/2011

-woke up early and went to the train station to make sure trains were still running, purchased my ticket. 

-chilled at the guest house for a while, my train didn't leave til 8PM, played some cards and did internet stuff. 

-went to the record store, gifted my tiger t-shirt to Nat, helped move records upstairs in case of flooding, chilled out in the back room listened to some great records. 

-headed to the train station around 7, forgot about rush hour, got to the train with about five minutes to spare, but luckly the train was an hour late in leaving. 

-I was sharing a bunk with a very interesting Japanese business man who had worked all over the world and hated Bangkok, fun talking to him though.

-While i was outside the train with the japanese dude smoking cigarettes, the train started to pull away and me and the japanese man both had to jump onboard as it rolled out of the station. 

-talked with the Japanese man, a Canadian girl and some Frenchies who were bunked nearby til it was time for bed. 

-I took the top bunk because it was cheaper, which was a mistake, i was right by the ceiling light, so it was bright as day all night, also the top bunk is windowless.

Long overdue update.

Broke my metatarsal in Nong Khai, two days before i planned to leave. After a thrilling visit to the local hospital, and two nights there, where i was misdiagnosed as having a hemotoma. Spent a terrible month in bed,  read a book a day. Very blessed to have many friends in Nong Khai who would bring me food and company. Especially Sam. Eventually went to an orthopedist who correctly told me my foot was broken before even doing an x-ray. He put me in a cast finally, but i was looking at 3 months of healing and didn't want to spend it stuck in bed in Thailand, relying on others for everything. So I made the decision to return to the states. After 56 hours of travel, found myself back in New Mexico. Another blessing, to be able to return to such a peaceful and relaxing space. Visited a doctor there who took off my cast and put me in a walking boot, finally no more wooden crutches! Relaxed in NM, made some art, learned to wire LEDs, and did many radio shows on KTAO. After two months, i was allowed out of my boot, and flew to New York, where i spent a wonderful 20 days, seeing old freinds, live music and eating tasty food (cheese!). On the 17th boarded a plane to Bangkok via Hong Kong, after 16 hours, many movies and a little bit of vomit, arrived in Hong Kong, had a short layover to wander the international terminal, before a short flight dropped me in Bangkok. Rode the Sky Train from the airport to the hostel i had reserved, had some grub and passed out.


10/19/11

-woke up, did some research to find the best market for vintage clothing in Bangkok, while i drank my morning tea, had to take the BTS (the sky train) to a river ferry, take the ferry far down and to the other side of the river.

-the ferry was especially interesting due to the flooding in Bangkok right now, the river was swolen over its banks flowing into buildings, although most spots were effectively sandbagged. Saw many of the historic buildings of bangkok from the river.

-Getting off the ferry to head to the market was a different story however, as the river had moved in at least 2-3 city blocks over the banks. stepped off the floating dock into about six inches of murky river water, on what should have been dry land. Took off my shoes and waded to dry land.

-The first two rows of the market had between two to six inches of standing water, but all the stalls were still open. Wandered around the market for a while, avoiding the flooded bits as much as possible. Bought two shirts, one new t-shirt, a delicious pineapple, a bizzarely cut bright orange/blue/black/white plaid shirt with snaps, some sunglasses and a needle and thread. spent less then $15 on all of it.

-wandered around the area surrounding the market a bit. Then returned to the ferry landing, after a stop at 7/11 for some condensed milk sweetened soy milk.

-the returning ferry was further down the landing only accessible via a flooded hallway, despite sand bags stacked everywhere. took off the shoes again, waded to the ticket stand, bought a ticket from a lady sitting in calf deep water. dried my feet in the sun and waited for the ferry.

-on my way back, stopped at Siam Center, a dizzying, massive, collection of mega-malls surrounded by market style (small stalls cramped walkways) clothing boutiques.

-wandered around for quite a while though  multiple 9 story mega-malls featuring largely American and Japanese brands. Barely a word of Thai to be seen. Starbucks KFC Mcdonalds Everywhere (gotta love the Thai Ronald Mcdonald). Truly a surreal experience all around. "Malls of the Future." Bought a new copy of Marget Atwoods newest book Year of the Flood

-The best part was an elderly Thai violinist plying his trade through a beat up portable amplifier busking for cash. Sounded like something you'd hear out of a noise band in Brooklyn. Asked if i could record, got a nice recording (up on the Earsphere!) left a good deal of cash in his case.

-After treking around the Asian consumer wasteland, returned to the Hostel. Went to grab some eats from the street vendors who ply their trade on the same road as the hostel (I've read its one of the best street food spots in Bangkok).

-chilled out on the roof, did some reading, went to my room to charge the computer and try to get my recording on Soundcloud. While waiting for the upload to complete, fell asleep in my clothes. barely managed to clear all the stuff off my bed before falling into a deep sleep before nine. I've never been so tired.

10/20/2011
-woke up around ten, feeling very rested. researched shops in the area that carried vinyl records and ran all over town looking at records. Most of the Vinyl specialty shops had american and japanese represses/originals of classic rock and jazz at rediculous prices ($100 for Blue Note 180 gram repress)
-the first two store were in this strange mall called fortune tower, half the stalls were empty, and the building appeared to be falling down, all the wiring and ductwork was exposed in the ceiling, and although the mall was 7 stories, each floor contained maybe six stores, the rest was inclosed with plywood promising stores to come.
-Purchased a mini flexi tripod for my recorder but no records there.
-The next store "Record Hunter" was in the basement of a massive movie theater/mall complex near the Victory Monument. The owner was awesome, an avid record collector himself who loved metal music. The store was stocked with American and European Death/Black/Hair Metal, in addition to thrash and hardcore (an original press of Death in Bangkok, who would have thought). After a lot of digging and listening, picked up an awesome Morlam full length Mono from the sixties. Pre-electric, so just beautiful vocals and Kan (the reed pipe), and a seven inch of 80s thai hair metal. The A-side is really derivitive, but the b-side is rocking and fresh.
-After an Unsuccessful attempt to find "Jazzbah" records in the packed Siam Center shopping complex (it was supposedly upstairs above a womenswear shop). Headed back to the neighborhood i'm staying in to visit a shop owned by a British-Thai DJ partnership, focused on mixing classic Morlam and Luk-Thung with reggae and funk from all over the world. Also the duo responsible for the Soundways records comp, The Sound of Siam, and the Finders Keepers Comp."Thai? Dai! The Heavier Side of Luk-Thung Underground."  "Zud Rang Records" has an overwhelming collection of rare 60s-80s Thai music, very well catagorized and organized. The proprietor had an incredible depth of knowledge not only of old Thai music, but of all sorts of music (he was wearing a Cedric Im Brooks "Light of Saba" shirt, and agreed, best reggae record ever). spent two hours in there, talking music, and listening to his private stash of super rare Morlam 7 inches, for example heard one amazingly heavy rocking track that was one of only two known copies of an artist release of about 300. They're working on repressing that particular 7, they cannot find any information about who the original artist was, not listed anywhere. Unfortunately, if i bought many record there i'd quickly go broke, understandably there is an international collectors market for this stuff now, and people pay top dollar so as to not have to dig through grungy crates at markets. Fortunately for me i love digging through grungy crates at markets, and the owner told me anything i found at a market, to bring to him and he'd help me translate and figure out what it is. In addition he taught me how to ask for old vinyl in Thai, which is massively helpful.
-Tired out, so read for a bit on the guest house roof before grabbing some dinner from a street stall pork and shrimp fried dumplings. hit the hay early.
 

Lao -> Thailand (the abridged version)

Since I've fallen so far behind, and have been relatively stationary the last two months, I will do a gloss of the last two months, so i can be caught up when i hit the road again in a few days.
-Took a bus from Luang Probang to Vientiane on the 17th reasonably uneventful ride, sat next to a University student studying English business in Vientiane, had some interesting conversation, but interestingly he didn't really warm up to me until the bus passed Vang Vieng, and he asked me if i had been, to which i said no: "if i wanted to be a drunken asshole floating down a river, i would have stayed at home." After that, the conversation really flowed, once he realized i was not one of the swarm of disrespectful westerners that descend on the country every year.
-arriving in Vientiane around 11 at night, i was worried I'd have trouble finding a guest house. Wound up sharing a double room with a girl from Belgium, who had come in on the same bus as me.
-the next day met a great Japanese dude, named Toshi. hung out with him for the next couple of days.
-Ran some errands, bought three cartons of Cigarettes,  because they're much cheaper in lao, i could get a carton for half the cost of a Thai pack.
-we all were there to sort out thai visas, so we shared a tuk tuk down to the thai immigration office. we got there around 8:30, there was already a large line of people ahead of us, I think i was number 128 in the queue to hand in my passport and paperwork. after you hand in yr paperwork and stuff, you have to go to another window to pay for your visa, they only took Baht, so i had to run across the street, find an illegal money changer and negotiate the rate, i wound up getting 1000 Baht for $40 about $7 more then its worth, but i had no choice.
-had to wait until two the next day to pick up my passport and visa.
-the next day, picked up the visa, went to the guest house, grabbed my stuff, and headed to the public bus station, where there was a bus that would take me to Nong Khai for 10,000 Kip ($1.20) unfortunately the 3:30 bus which i had planned to take was already sold out, so i had to wait three hours for the next one. i had already changed most of my money to baht, so didn't really have any way to kill time, plus i was lugging my stuff around. bought a huge baguette for 5,000 kip and my last beer lao. Shrugged off the tons of dudes offering to drive me to the border in their trucks for exorbitant rates.
-On the bus, sat with the coach of the Lao national running team, they were headed to Bangkok for a competition.
-Also on the bus, the only other Falongs, was a French Canadian couple, the first dude i've met with a beard bigger then mine.
-at the border, was charged by the Lao gov't 9,000 kip for overtime, because we came across so late, luckly i had exactly 9000 kip left. also had to put my bags through an x-ray next to an intimidating sign about the death penalty for drugs... oddly though, when i picked up my bag from the fancy one way glass walled enclosure, i noticed there was no one actually watching the bags going through the x-ray, but two cops making sure you put yr bag through it. The good ol' empty tower.
-teamed up with the canadians to find a guest house, he had a good map, and we decided rather then shelling out for a tuk tuk we could walk and find a suitable guest house.
-after an hour of walking wound up finding a pretty shitty but cheap place on the Mekong river.
-got some dinner on the river.
-the next day i went for a stroll, wound up finding a great Morlam record stand, spent a lot of time there, listening to music and talking sans mutual language with the guy that ran the stand.
-the day after that went for a stroll through the market and along the river, noticed a man with a Phin on his back playing Guitar to some of the workers for the Vietnamese restaurant/ chopstick factory. Ran back to my guest house and grabbed the recorder, spent an hour recording Mr. Samak Sewarak (recordings on Earsphere) bought him a beer and gave him some cash, had a great time. saw him riding around town yesterday actually, got a big smile and a thumbs up.
-That night was coming back after scrounging up some dinner, there were a bunch of Thai skateboarders skating and drinking by my guesthouse.
-one of them said hi as i passed so i stopped and chatted for a while, wound up spending most of the night drinking and chilling with them.
-went to the market to negotiate with this guy who had a big stack of Morlam 45s and had refused to come down in price the previous day. he wanted 200 B per record (roughly $7 for 7 inches which i was unsure of the content, he insisted it was old morlam) wound up spending two hours going through all the record and pulling out the one in the best shape, if i was going to throw down i might as well get the cleanest ones, wound up convincing him, after he made a phone call, to sell me 10 for 1,500 B, so $5 a record. 
-hung with the skater kids again that evening.
-the next day, chilled with them again, figuring that i'd leave Nong Khai the next day. this time they had brought down some speakers, and i provided some music while they skated. one of the skaters, who had not been there the previous day, Ali, was hanging out with his girlfriend and offered to give me a ride to their bar, 60 Station. i said sure, and went back to the bar with them, where i met David, a Swedish wack job who had been staying with them for a while already, and Tom, a super chill Thai kid around my age covered in tattoos.
-I immediately took to Tom, Ali and Breeze (Ali's girlfreind), so when they  offered to let me stay there in the room upstairs for free i jumped at the opportunity, and the next morning moved out of my guesthouse and schlepped my shit down to their bar.
-stayed at the bar until the beginning of may, helped out around the bar, painted a mural on the back wall, did some decoration and painted the sign outside.
-Had a great time staying at the bar, we cooked food together most nights, or Breeze went and picked up food, or occasionally when Breeze wasn't around Ali's wife would bring food over.
-Spent a lot of time chilling at the bar, meeting the various people who came through. also did some trips with the kids from the bar, we went to the buddha park (pictures forthcoming) and drove down to Udon, Went on some fishing trips, etc.
-While i was staying at the bar, one of the regulars came by with a guy i hadn't met before, but who worked for the middle school in town, he said they desperately needed a science teacher and asked if i would be capable to do so. i said i probably would be but would have to think about whether or not i wanted to do that, not being one to jump into things, esp. long term commitments.
-After a day of thinking about it i decided i might as well go interview. called peter and set it up
-got my resume together, and headed down to the school the next day.
-it was a confusing interview, with out much mutual comprehension, but they gave me the job.
-i went into the school a quite a few times before classes started for meetings or to get information on the curriculum i was supposed to be teaching, but everytime i went in, I sat around for a few hours and nothing happened.
-in the meantime, waiting for school to start, i went out and bought a bicycle, and went searching for a place to rent.
-I wanted my own place certainly if i intended to stay, but also i was becoming embroiled in drama at sixty station, I tried my hardest not to get involved, knowing how these things work in small towns, but by proximity alone i found myself playing a roll i didn't want to play.
-Moved into the house on the tenth,  had a small gathering of freinds over, drank a bottle of "Obama" whiskey, and pretty quickly, upset the landlady,  a pretty uptight woman from the states, making too much noise too late.
-The house is a old wooden two bedroom on stilts, with high ceilings, a big bathroom, skylights, and surrounded by a quiet and beautiful garden. I'm sharing it with an American kid a little younger then me, who's been living here for a while, Sam.
-spent the next couple of days getting stuff for the house and finding clothes for work. Bought a pair of dress pants for $7 at Tesco, and found some nice shirts at the sunday second hand market for a dollar a pop.
-The Twelth was my birthday, and also supposedly the day we'd actually have the long promised meeting at the school. went to the school around 2 sat around for a while, no one else was there, so i left. Went back to the house, to meet up with Breeze, to buy party supplies and set up at Sixty station, but it started to rain really hard, and there was drama between breeze and ali, so Breeze, Sam and I chilled at the house for a couple hours til the rain slowed a bit and we went to the store.
-A bunch of people were supposed to come by Sixty and we intended to have the party there, but no one came out because of the rain. so we wound up going to the strip of girly bars where everyone hangs out, once the rain had stopped, there i met up with all pretty much all of the people i know here, and proceeded to get mao mak (thai for very drunk). at one point i punched Sam in the side of the head, and he socked me in the face, partially breaking my nose. Also among the events of the evening Breeze kissed Sam, to get back at Ali for something that happened the previous night.  two bottles of whiskey and an uncountable number of free beers later i headed home, and slept like a rock.
more soon.

Last days of Pi Mai

4/15/2011
-woke up early, had to move to a different, more expensive, shittier guest house. waited for two hours for the korean girls staying there to leave and let them turn the room. all the while the entire staff of the guest house sat outside drinking.
-after i settled into my new room, almost made it to my crepe spot without getting wet, lots of strategic street crossings... but wound up getting outflanked and completely soaked by a large group of kids about 15 feet away from the crepe stand. soaked again after eating. 
-beer and friends were setting up when i got back, hung out on the street with them for a while throwing water and folks, went for a  wander to see what was happening around town, assuming the second day would be more wild then the first, i was not dissappointed, by the time i got back though, soaked to the bone, my everybody had gone to the waterfall, so i decided a solo venture was in order.
-went back out into the street, bought a two beers, stopped in the police station when i saw they were all gathered there drinking, gave them one of my beers and did a hearty cheers. before heading back out onto the street, to get my face covered in black cooking grease, orange and blue paint, and my beard filled with so much rice flower it was completely white, not to mention getting my body completely soaked. ran into my friends from the 13th they were outside their store, armed with blackened cooking pots and a large basin full of water. There was a constant stream of pick up trucks full of drunken soaked kids, coming by where we were standing.
-in order to really get people good in the trucks one has to jump on the back before dumping yr bucket or smearing black grease on somebody, in the process of leaping on and off the back of the slow moving trucks i tore the sole completely off of my shoe
-when the traffic started to slow around 5 made my way home partially barefoot. got lots of smiles from everybody around
-showered, put on dry clothes, and met up with colin and clay for another night market dinner.
-went to bed early

not a real post.

sorry kids for the lack of posts, been in Nong Khai, Thailand sans internet for the last couple of weeks, lived for free above a bar for a while and got a job teaching science, will be here for the next couple of months, updates to come when i get internets in my new house. until then go read a book.

Luang Probang and Pi Mai

4/13/2011
-Woke up, ate a crepe, standard routine...
-Hung out with Colin, Clay, and Beer at the guest house.
-walked around a bit, Pi Mai was starting up, already people were outside of their houses blasting music, drinking, and throwing wat
had some squirtgun fights with some kids, and lots of lao girls and girly boys dumped water on me.
-Grabbed dinner at the night market and ate at the guest house, half a roasted chicken and sticky rice, also home made potato chips.
-Headed out with Beer and his friends, colin and clay stayed at home, first to a freind's birthday party, where there was cake and Kareoke, we went out to Star Bar, i was the only Falong in the place, had a few beers, some dancing. the interior of the bar was all back and covvered with elaborate styrofoam carvings painted in flourescent colors and under black light.
-when we arrived there was a live band, which was pretty good, and then a DJ, Beer dragged me on stage to DJ, but i didn't know the  most of the music they had, and what i did know was the worst of American pop. So we agreed that i'd come back the next night with my hard drive.
Rode back to the guest house and to bed. Had a different room this time, much cheaper, but still very nice, one of the best i've had.
4/14/2011
-the first official day of Pi Mai, Beer and his friends were doing tatoos with henna hair dye, and i did a big sharpie sleeve of paternwork on one kid, turned out good.
-then we set up on the main street to wait for the parade, Beer set up big speakers and i DJed on the street for maybe 3 hours, while there was a waterfight all around me.
-The parade was cool, lots of elephants going to the main monastary in town and drummers playing in front, recordings on Earsphere today 
-Then to a sand bank in the Mekong where they had erected a small tent city the past three days. there were three stages with music surrounded by vendors selling food and beer lao, all along the banks of the sandbar the Lao people were building big mounds of sand, decorated with flowers and covered in Flour. The sand bar was full of people, on either side of the tents was a crush of people flowing both directions, everyone throwing flour and river water at everyone they passed. Beer had an old pump action water sprayer, which had some serious power, all the people sitting and eating that we passed he soaked, it was pretty funny.Also Beer had a military canteen full of lao lao and a hollow horn, he kept feeding everybody lao lao all day.
-Colin bought a case of beer lao, because there were no cups, we filled a bucket with ice and beer and passed it around. some how i wound up with a rediculous hat, and we went dancing to the Keyboard Kareoke set up, i traded my hat with people maybe three times. a lot of fun being in a big crush of people all dancing their asses off sharing a big bucket of beer. after a while dancing we went to catch a boat back, but wound up spending maybe 20 minutes dunking one another in the Mekong.
-walked around for a bit, had some more waterfights, then went to bathe in the mekong because there was no more water in the tap.
-mellowed out at the guesthouse, ate some dinner, went to bed early, drinking all day.

Luang Probang Pi Mai

4/11/2011
-slept in in my huge fancy bed and took a shower that was both hot and cold, crazy.
-Although Pi Mai (Lunar New Year) wasn't supposed to start for four more days, got sprayed with water on my way to the crepe spot for breakfast.
-chilled out with colin and clay at the guest house, and walked around for a bit.
-worked on my playlist for Utopia
-Beer (Bia) the guest house owner's son was trying to figure out a DJ program he had just installed, i helped him play with it for a bit and he gave it to me on a flash drive so i could put it on my computer.
-ate dinner riverside again, then headed to Utopia to see about DJing there
-went to bed early.
4/12/2011
-spent most of the day working on the playlist and figuring out the DJ software, after morning crepes.
-dumped some music onto Beer's hard drive
-went with clay and colin to eat some Lao Barbecue, were joined by a strange french programmer, then we all went down to Utopia, where i was supposed to DJ.
-when we arrived,  Rob said he had found two acoustic guitarists who were scheduled to play, so i wouldn't be DJing.
-Beer showed up with some freinds, told him the story and he suggested we go to this other, local bar. Which was great, better then DJing, we bought a case of beer Lao, and these two ladies stood around in bright yellow skirt suits refilling our glass everytime we finished (the standard beer glass is very small, and they drink it with ice, so this was a neverending job).
-the bar was centered around eight Petanque (french Bocce ball) courts, so after a few beers we rented a court and played an intense game of petanque, it was Beer's younger brother, the french guy and me, vs. three of Beer's freinds. needless to say, we lost.
-took a tuk tuk back to the guest house. the whole time Beer and his freinds followed very close on their motorbikes, Colin successfully tossed a lighter from the back of the Tuk Tuk right into the basket on Beer's bike, they were that close.

Luang Nam Tha

4/8/2011
-slept in, when i awoke went to the travel office we had booked our tour from they told me that they had already given a refund to the germans who had woken up early to meet with the manager, so they had my money. Then i ran into a strange swiss guy i had mett before with a lazy eye, and evil heart,  he told me the germans did infact have my money and had rented a motorbike for the day.
-went for breakfast at this guest house where another older austrailian guy, Kieth or Kit, i had met before was dating the lao owner, hung out with him for a bit, and then went for a wander.
-took it real easy, was tired from the trek and sort of bored with Luang Nam Tha, didn't have enough time to go up to Mong Ngoi, because i had to be back in Luang Probang on the tenth.
-ate lunch at the "minority restaraurant" just because i liked the name.
-Wandered about some more until i ran into the germans who gave me my money back. spent the rest of the evening drinking and hanging out with the germans and the Aussie guys.
4/9/11
-met up with Keith again and after a prolonged conversation about economics we went to the market, he was looking for trainers, which he didn't find, and i bought a pair of chinese slippers, a water gun for the new year, a alarm clock, and a awesome hand made machete. spent less then $10 for all of this.
-after this chilled out with sean and the strange swiss dude.
-went for a wander, saw a gov't caravan with blacked out windows and police escort
-then went to the night market to eat, got half a duck, sticky rice and a beer for 27000 kp (slightly more then $3), one of the best meals i've had. sat with a beautiful, tripped out, chinese girl named mandala who was around my age, and had been travelling for months.
-met up with keith and sean at Keith's girlfreind's guest house, also met a Canadian guy who had been teaching in china for a couple months.
-talked with them for a while, then Mandala showed up sort of freaking out because she couldn't find her guest house, we all hung out until closing time, then i went with Mandala to help her find her place.
-When we finally found it, we sat outside for a while and drank beers and talked, then went to the night market and bought more beer (it was the only thing still open), and sat on some innoccous looking steps drinking and talking more, she was stressed because she had to return to china the next day, and was really an outcast there, a non-conformist in a conformist society.
-While we were sitting a pick up rolled up and two lao men got out, and came up to us, they were very shy and sweet, and communicated that they were tourist police, and we were sitting on the steps of their office, way past curfew, and very politely asked us to leave. So of course we left, sat at a table a little bit down the road. til we parted ways to go to bed because we both had buses to catch early in the morn.
4/10/2011
-saw Mandala again at the bus station, said goodbye and she boarded her bus, i still had to wait a bit for the bus to Luang Probang.
-wound up sitting way in the back of the bus with a Lao family with three kids, i was crammed into the corner, but they kept giving me good food, until they fell asleep, then the little girl had her head pressed into my ribcage almost the whole ride.
-about six hours in we stopped in a little town near Nong Khiew and the majority of people got off the bus, i immediately grabbed a spot closer to the front, even though there were plenty of seats the same lao guy came and sat next to me holding his daughter, and i still had a little head pressed into my ribcage, also the lao dude's hand kept winding up on my leg while he was sleeping. very odd.
-Arrived in Luang Probang, and shared a Tuk Tuk with the only other falong left on the bus.
-got dropped off near the guest house where i had a reservation.
-when i arrived the family was very appologetic and stressed because they had screwed up my reservation, but it wound up working out ok, i got a huge $40 room for two nights, for $15 a night, which is still more then i spent anywhere else, but it was super luxurious.
-ate some dinner on the river and played cards with Colin and Clay before bed.

To Luang Nam Tha

4/4/2011
-Packed my stuff in the morning, took me a while to find the guest house owner to pay, but eventually succeeded, Paid my bill and walked to the bus station. I don't think i explained that the bus station in Nong Kheiw is really more of a minivan station, minivans from all over show up there and wait until they are absolutely full to leave.
-there were maybe 15 people crammed into a van made for 10, mostly Falongs. i was in the back seat with made for three, with four people including myself. An Italian Poet, a French primary school teacher, and a young Isreali fresh out of military and school.
-it was an uncomfortable ride, there was a seatbelt digging into my lower back and the road was full of pot holes, when i got out there was a big bruise on my back, but the conversation was good.
-also in the van was a German couple i had met on Nong Khiew, we bonded over one of the posters on the boat ticket shack that showed what appeared to be a toddler made out of condoms. we decided the point of the poster is that when you use condoms you wind up with condom babies, but it's ok because they float, which comes in handy.
-We stopped maybe an hour out of Oudomxai, and dropped off the drivers cousin, who was travelling with her child to meet her husband who served in the military in a small town.
-Somehow, we wound up with only three people in the back seat, so there was plenty of room and the rest of the ride was quite luxurious.
-when we arrived in Oudomxai, the bus to Luang Nam Tha was waiting for us, but when we tried to buy tickets we were told the bus was full. not wanting to stay in Oudomxai, the German couple, the Italian Poet and I all said we didn't mind sitting on the plastic chairs in the Aisle, so they let us on the bus. the german couple and i got lucky and actually had seats, i had a window seat near the front, which is about the best one could hope for. I think some nice Lao people gave up their seat for us.
-it was another five hours to Luang Nam Tha, with a lot of stops, because the road is under construction. The Chinese are building a nice road system up north, in exchange for stripping the virgin forests up north of timber. not really a great deal... there are chinese signs and labor camps everywhere
-Made it to Luang Nam Tha around 9 o'clock, but the bus station was about 20 Kms out of town, so it was another hour on a shared tuk tuk before we arrived in the town proper.
-The German couple had a very good guidebook, as have a lot of the germans i've travelled with, much better then lonely planet, which i have found to be virtually useless, at least in Lao. So they went to a guest house a little off the main drag recommended by the book, while the italian and i wandered around for a long time trying to find a cheap guest house. we did not succeed so wound up sharing a double room which was still pretty pricey.
-had some nice conversation with the italian until we got yelled at through the door by a chinese tourist for being too loud, although we were talking at a normal volume.
4/5/2011
-The Italian woke up early to catch a bus to Thailand, he was trying to make it to Bangkok for a flight, which seemed pretty absurd, spending like three days in transport and not seeing anything... but whatever.
-said farewell to him and slept in for a while. Met the Germans at the guest house for breakfast, we were planning to go up to Mong Ngoi in the morning, but they had decided they wanted to take a trek from Luang Nam Tha instead, to see primary forest.
-most of the treks are geared towards village tours but we decided we didn't want to be treating the villagers like animals in a zoo.
-we found a cheap two day trek that was supposed to be through primary forest, with camping in between. we booked this for the next day.
-checked into the guest house the germans were staying in, it was much cheaper and nicer then anything else in town
-spent the rest of the day drinking and talking with the Germans and their French friend, had lots of interesting conversation sitting on the porch of the bungalow overlooking two ponds full of Lotus Flowers.
-got some dinner at the night market, purple sticky rice and some extremely spicy Laap with young bamboo, then back to the guest house where the germans asked for Lao Lao, they brought out some home made shit in a water bottle which was neon green. on the fourth shot, i told everybody that if i took it i was sure to throw up, but they insisted, and sure enough, right after i took it, i yacked all over the german guy's shoes.
-the germans went to bed and i spent a while chatting with the French guy, also met a crazy dude from Tazmania, Sean, who was travelling on disablity money he got from the Aussie gov't for breaking his neck in a motorcycle crash. $750 every two weeks. the french guy went to bed, but i stayed up late hanging out with Sean.
4/6/2011
-Woke up early for the trek, before going to the entrance to the NPA we stopped at a market, where the german guy bought some live birds, we also bought tiny spring powered pellet guns so we could hunt.
-then the Tuk Tuk took us to the entrance to the NPA, we hiked through a village and saw a lady making paper out of bamboo, which was pretty cool. But we were ready to get up into the forest, so we continued on.
-within the first few hours our guides revealed to us that they had never done this trek before, and thus didn't really know where we were going.
-walked along a trail for a while, came to a small stream around noon, the guides cut down some banana leaves, and set up a very nice picnic with sticky rice, buffalo meat, pumpkin sauce, and cooked cucumbers.
-then things started to get weird, instead of following a trail we started to follow this small stream, which was ok for a while, there the stream was shallow so it was possible to walk on rocks without getting yr feet wet.
-later in the day the stream became deeper, and it was impossible to walk and stay dry.
-there were very few large trees left, it was pretty much all secondary or tertiary forest. this was not what we had asked for and no one told us we'd be walking through a stream the whole time. A leech punched a whole right through the "g" on my tattoo, arrived to camp with a sock full of blood.
-around four or five we arrived at our "camp site" which was actually some poor old farmer's house, in a beautiful valley 3 hours walk from the nearest village.
-we bathed in the stream and the guides built a nice fire, and disappeared into the old man's house to make dinner. we made various contraptions of bamboo in an attempt to hang our shoes and socks over the fire to dry, gave up on this plan when the bamboo pole for the T shaped rig i had made with the German's zipties snapped sending our socks plummeting into the fire
-we were to sleep in a small bamboo hut set on poles which was missing half of the roof. we hung out here and waited for dinner.
-dinner was really good, ate with the guides and the old man by candlelight, which was quite nice.
-played a strange and simple card game with one of the guides for a while.
-then bedded down on the floor of the hut. while we were falling asleep, or trying to, we noticed through the hole in the roof that the sky was flashing. Went outside to look, and saw that it was lightning. A storm was approaching.  we moved our bags under a little bit of thatch remaining and covered them with a tarp that was laying around.
-the first gust of wind from the storm took off the tarp and another big chunk of thatch from the roof.
-started to get rained on, layed there for a while, until the guides came and insisted we move into the old man's house which had a solid roof. My new sleeping arrangement lacked a mosquito net, but at least had a roof. the Germans had their own net, which they set up. despite their net, they were plagued by "cockalakas" (cockroaches) all night, i either slept through or did not have any of these even though i was also on the floor and netless.
4/7/2011
-woke up super early to the crowing of roosters.
-while the guides prepared breakfast there was a brutal fight between two cows that threatened to take down the hut.
-the Germans only had one bottle of water left between the two of them, the guides insisted they had more, so they drank their bottle, this was not a good idea.
-the guides initially told us we had a three hour hike for the day, but before we started this turned into six hours.
-after hiking for about four hours, the Germans were starting to become seriously dehydrated and unhappy, I only had one bottle left myself, so was unwilling to share, the only other water was brackish looking boiled stream water. the germans drank some of this and immediately started to feel ill. so there was no water.
-when i asked the guide how much farther, at the three hour mark they said six hours, when pressed, admitted they had no clue. the whole time we had been climbing along the top of a ridge, with no trail and consistently up hill. Keep in mind also that this area was heavily bombed during the secret war and we were passing bomb craters, rule one of areas with a heavy concentration of UXO is that you stay on the established path. Also this forest was even more cleared of old trees then the previous day, we saw maybe one tree older then 10 years every hour.
-Also, the guides were supposed to know about the forest, but only showed us wild corriander, young bamboo, and painted out that the plants we were passing were in fact bamboo, over and over and over again.
-after maybe 5 hours we reached the summit of the ridge we had been trekking along. At this point it was another 3-4 hours to the village where a Tuk Tuk was waiting to take us back to Luang Nam Tha, no one was really sure how long.
-the germans had been with out water for maybe three hours now of serious uphill climbing. to make matters worse, it started to rain.
-At this point the german guy got really angry and insisted we head down, that they could not continue without water.
-After a while arguing with the guide they agreed to take us down. we went strait downhill off of the highest point through bamboo forest, this is where it got really dangerous because of the rain, we were on a 70 degree slope, and the only way down was basically to slide through mud grabbing onto bamboo to slow yr fall. my hands got very badly cut up, and the german girl, Mandy, was really struggling from both dehydration and the difficulty of sliding down hill at high speed. We took a break at a little bamboo hut, while the guides got their bearing and drank rain water.
-at this point i was bleeding and unhappy, the guides were saying that we had maybe a two hour hike to get to the road, and then we would have to walk down the road for another hour to get to the village where the tuk tuk was waiting. i insisted that instead they needed to get the tuk tuk to meet us on the road, or we would just hitch hike back. So one guide split off, and went to the village to get a tuk tuk, and we took a very slippery local trail down the river, the although we were all dehydrated and ready to be out the guide we were left with kept stopping to point out more bamboo plants, even though we were surrounded by them the whole time. where we caught a bamboo ferry to the waiting Tuk Tuk.
-The german guy had totally torn up the crotch area of his pants so by the time we left his underwear was hanging out which was quite funny. while we were on the tuk tuk back, he made the tuk tuk stop and jumped out, with all of his underwear hanging out and no shoes and ran into a local shop and came back with four bottles of water and two bottles of beer.
-when we got back to the tour office in town we spent the rest of the day there camping out waiting for the manager, who obviously never came, but we turned away nine other tourists who were trying to book tours.
-went to bed early worn out from the jungle adventure.

Mong Ngoi

4/1/2011
-Took a boat to Mong Ngoi, which is only accessable from the river, an hour north of Nong Khiaw the town has no electricty and appears to consist entirely of guest houses, shared a 30,000 kip bungalow with Sebastion so wound up only spending 15,000 per night.
-on the boatride, they made us stop and get off and walk for about twenty minutes while the boat went ahead with all of our stuff, because the river was too low and there were big rapids.
-not much to do, ate some food, sat around and shot the shit with various folks.
-Mong Ngoi was heavily bombed during the war, everywhere you see fences and houses made out of pieces of US bombs, its weird.
-chilled out, finished my bottle of Red Bear whiskey, and played cards before bed by candlelight.
4/2/2011
-ate some breakfast, on the way back, saw signs pointing to a cave, so we went up to check it out, wound up hiking to the top of a mountain, with great views of the river and town. 

-on the way up saw a very small entrance to a cave, that appeared to be collapsed, continued hiking until we got to the top then figured the entrance we saw must be the cave. so we went in. Unfortunately i wasn't planning on going caving so didn't have a flashlight, only had really crappy headlamps they gave us at the entrance, at least we had these, because the cave was huge and pitch black, went back maybe 500 meters, we went all the way to the back, saw some big millipedes, and lots of awesome stalactites and stalagmites. very cool.
-went back to town bought some candles for when the power went out, as it inevitably did every night at 10 when the generators shut off.
-ate some indian food, watched a big party going on down the street, found out it was a funeral that had been going on for days.
-bact to the guest house for more cards by candlelight
4/3/2011
-woke up early, tried to catch a boat to Mong Kah, but i was the only one who wanted to go and they tried to make me charter at private boat for 1,000,000 kip, so wound up going back to Nong Khiew, there were so many people trying to go they wound up sending two boats, sebastian and i had to switch boats at the last minute.
-while we were on the way our boat developed a serious leak which started to fill the boat and flooded the engine they made us get off on a beach while they tried to repair the boat. after a couple false starts (the engine would not stay on) and a couple of other beach landings, they finally got it running, and went back to Nong Khiew at full tilt with one dude in back frantically bailing out the water which threatened the engine, even though the boat was just as full as the time they made us walk, they just powed through the rapids.
-arrived in Nong Khiaw a little later then expected, walked to the bus station to try and get transport to Udomxai, but by the time i arrived at the bus station the minivan headed that way was already packed to the gills. so wound up having to spend another night in Nong Khiew, found a nice private bungalow right on the river and spent the rest of the day chilling out by myself.

Nong Kheiw

3/30/2011
-Arrived in Nong Kheiw after 8 hours, on the boat landing was half of a US bomb.
-wandered around looking for a guesthouse, everything was really expensive, so wound up sharing a double room with Sebastion, the german kid i met on the boat, for 50,000 kp each it was actually super nice, some of the most comfortable beds i've had while travelling.
-ate some dinner and played cards til bedtime
3/31/2011
-slept in because the bed was so comfortable.
-ate some breakfast and set off walking towards the caves.

-The caves on Nong Kheiw were where the provincial gov't was stationed during the war, it was very cool to see how they lived for years, a local boy took us through one cave in particular that served as the treasury and was all switchback turns and gutsucking hallways.
-heard that there was a waterfall nearby, so we started to walk that way, walked through a nice village, were invited in by a bunch of locals drinking lao lao, but it was to early to get hamdog, which is what happens when you drink lao lao with the locals.
-found a really good restaurant for dinner, ate some grub and played cards til bedtime.

to nong Khiew

2/30/2011
-Got a boat ticket for 100,000 kip to go up to Nong Khiew, 7 hour ride, upriver from the Mekong to the Nam Ou River.
-Met a nice German kid and a retired Special Ed teacher from New York. Also on the boat were four Polish people who were glued to their cameras, every Lao fisherman and local unfortunate enough to be in the path of our boat was extensively photographed, it was sort of embarassing. rediculous to see four people all taking pictures of the same dude on a boat. admittedly the boat ride was beautiful, but better to see with yr eyes then through a lense. i have a few pictures though:

the boat

this is a power generator, a turbine placed in the river which pulls power from the current, a line runs from here to a nearby  village

Last days in LP

2/26/2011
-spent most of the day relaxing, hanging out with Colin and Clay.
-Went to utopia, where they were having a no electricity earthday thing, which was fun, the whole place lit by candlelight, i was talking to the owner and he mentioned something about wanting to have a fire but his staff being too busy, so i volunteered, dragged half of a fifty gallon drum out onto the volleyball court, filled it with wood and gasoline, and set it ablaze, set woven mats around the fire, it was a good spot to chill. met some french folks, and we went down to the beach on the river to chill after Utopia closed.
2/27/2011
-another day chilling, trying to sort out plans for leaving, took a nice photo of one of the older Wats at sunset.

-another nice riverside dinner, then an early night a Utopia.
2/28/2011
-spent most of the day packing and getting organized to leave.
-figured out where i needed to be to buy boat tickets to Nong Khiaw
-Met colin and clay at this place we found with super cheap beer lao for afternoon snacks and drinks.
-the night at Utopia as usual.
2/29/2011
-woke up early ready to leave, but it was pouring rain, decided it was not a good idea to take a boat in the rain for 7 hours.
-spent most of the day lounging around the guest house because of the rain.
-met clay and colin at their guest house and played some 500.
-went to utopia but left early because i knew i had to wake up early again.

3/24-

3/24/2011
-spent the morning seeing the crew of the Hounde off on their journey (the boys from Vermont who built a boat to sail down the Mekong). they took with them 5 gallons of water, and 5 gallons of "True Manhood" whiskey, among other supplies, haven't heard any word on whether or not they made it, my guess is that they didn't make it past Vientiane, the boat is totally illegal (falongs aren't allowed to own property in Lao), also, they were having engine trouble almost immediately after setting off.

putting the Lao flag on the boat

-the boys left around one, didn't do much the rest of the day, spent some time wandering around the city to new spots, and swam across the Nam Khong river, until dinner time.
-Met Clay and Colin for some Lao Barbeque, which is a really excellent thing, i wish i had a picture, but basically you have a table with a hole cut in it, and they bring out a big pot full of hot coals, put this in the center of the table, on top of this goes a tin half sphere, with holes cut in it to let the heat out. this is surrounded by a small round basin where you pour a stock out of a teapot. generous slices of pig far are used to grease the sphere bit, which you use to cook yr meat, and then the surrounding broth takes on the flavor of all of the meat and pig fat in addition to a whole medley of delicious veggies and glass noodles to make a delicious soup.
-then to Utopia...
3/25/2011
-spent the morning doing interweb stuff, and the day, chilling by and swimming in the river, another delicious riverside dinner.

way behind...

didn't have the computer so no updates for a while, been a busy two weeks, hope i can remember most things.
2/23/2011
-woke up had a crepe, and met my friend to go to the waterfall, got a tasty pineapple shake and negotiated with the tuk tuk driver to go to the waterfall, wound up paying $5, which is a little much, but it was a long ride and the guy sat and waited for us the whole time we were at the falls.
-At the entry into the falls they have a bear rescue center, spent a while watching the bears. 

-Playful critters they are, they had all sorts of toys and bear hammocks set up. funny to see a big sun bear hanging in a hammock just like a person.  they also had a strange and completely inaccurate portrayal of other bears from around the world set up.

-

-From there it was just a short walk to the waterfall, which has these beautiful blue pools underneath the main falls.

-There were a lot of people around, so the lower pools were crawling with falongs, to avoid this scene, we hiked up to the top of the falls and swam there.

-headed out to the front to buy some beer to drink before we caught the ride back, on the way back with our big beer Lao(s) we passed the british girls we shared the tuk tuk with, they were ready to go, but we were not, so they had to wait for us to be ready to get the ride back, but we drank quickly and were back before an hour had elapsed.
-sat and talked music for a while before going our separate ways.
-Ate some indian food for dinner, ran into colin briefly, but he was on a mission. spent the night hanging at Utopia until closing time as usual.

more Luang Probang

3/20/2011
-Met my freinds from Washington for breakfast Crepes.
-Took a walk to Phosy (pronounced "pussy") looking for replacement shoes, mine are completely coming apart, no luck on the shoe front, but bought a carton of cigarettes for 20,000 kip (thats 25 cents a pack), and a massive bag of peanuts.
-Stopped on the way back at the Kaysone (the leader of the communists in Lao) Memorial, which had remarkable views of the Mekong.
-Beautiful sunset:

-Had dinner on the Mekong with Clayanne and Colin then went to Utopia where i met up with another freind from Cali and chilled there til sunset.
3/21/2011
-woke up feeling like shit. Another damn cold.
-spent a while on the interwebs, drank some tea, ate some sudafed.
-went out to eat some soup, trying to feel better.
-felt a little better so down to the river, where these three crazy kids from Vermont were building a boat, Hounde, to sail down the Mekong, hung out with them on the river for a bit, then sat at the guest house with a lot of folks drinking beers and eating rice cakes and peanuts.
-Then to Utopia with the Hounde crew and Oren, where we met up with American girls, and two great french guys.
-When they gave us the boot at 11:30, went to a local bar that stayed open later, Yen Sabai, then to the bank of the river where the boys had a fire pit, so we built a fire and stayed up late with a whole lot of people drinking and talking shit, i went to bed at 4 AM and i think people were down there til almost 5. fun night.
3/22/2011
-woke up late, still feeling shitty, walked into town to sit on the river and have my morning caffeine and cigarette.
-after this walked down a bit and wound up running into the same San Fran folks from Tat Lo, Psyched to see them, we sat and talked for a while and made plans to go to the waterfall the next day.
-ate some lunch, then met up with Colin and Clay Anne, had dinner with them, then down to the night market where i recorded a street musician playing the Erhu.
-back to Utopia

Luang Probang

3/18/2011
-woke up late, catching up on sleep. had a banana pancake and tea at the guest house.
-walked around town, trying to get my bearings, the usual, whenever i get to a new place spend the first day walking around figuring out the lay of the land.
-Walked up to the huge gold stupa on the hill in the center of town:

-heard over amplified chanting in the distance coming off the river.
-followed the sound over the old soviet bridge that goes over the Nam Khong, and into a sort of residential area, wound up at a Wat at the elbow of the river on the far side from the old town. they had a huge PA set up with air-raid style speakers, and a single monk was chanting into a microphone, surrounded by people paying their respects and the metal trees hung with offerings. i made a sizable donation and asked for permission to record. they said it was ok, so i set up, unfortunately there was a dog in the temple that hated white people, standing next to me and barking, sort of ruined my first recording. went outside the walls a bit, and recorded off the PA speakers. I watched the same dog bark at every Falong that came through. spent maybe a half hour recording, and amassed a small army of curious children, hard to keep them quiet, you can hear them in some of the recordings.
-spent a while there, then wandered back into town.
-went to the night market, they shut down a main street everynight and there are tons of vendors selling handicrafts, bought a nice shoulderbag for $2.
-Ate a big dinner, called it a night early.
3/19/2011
-went for another walk around town but took the camera instead of the recorder, took some pictures:

-wandered around, saw three kids run up to a tree with a big bamboo pole, and excitedly pull a huge milky white spider out of the tree, which they grabbed with their hands.
-there was a young german watching this spectacle as well, went for a beer with him, he'd been studying abroad in Thailand, and was visiting Lao before heading back to Germany.
-wandered around some more, wound up stumbling upon an Erhu player at the night market, sat and watched for a while, but unfortunately didn't have the recorder.
-went to this place called Utopia for dinner, truly a Utopic spot, watched the moon rise from a huge bamboo deck over the Nam Khong. 

-went to another bar, Hive, where unbeknownest to me they were having an "Ethnik" Fashion show, which was super weird, a lot of Lao girls in traditional garb walking the runway. That was followed by a group of Lao B-Boys doing a breakdancing show which was pretty fun, reunited with the american girls there, and met an awesome dude from cali, Oren.
-Hive sort of cleared out, so we returned to utopia, had a nice time, got a hookah. The girls had taken to much Valium, and the drinks on top didn't help, one girl wound up disappearing, and around closing time we found her passed out on the floor of the bathroom.
-The bars here close at 11:30, police enforced curfew, so the girl that had passed out in the bathroom went back the guest house, but the rest of us went down and chilled on the river.
more to come...

Very Inflammable Persons

3/16/2011
-Spent most of the day sitting at a cafe in deep conversation with Alex, wandered around the city a bit and had some deliciousdollar duck noodle soup for dinner. parted ways with Alex
-caught a Tuk-Tuk to the bus station at 7, bus left at eight. it was rainy and cold outside for most of the ride, the seats were pretty comfortable, but i was definitely missing my sleeper bus. sat next to an 18 year old American girl who was travelling with three friends and a puppy that they had adopted on the road.
stopped at about one AM for a snack, the food was free, but i didn't have any because i was already struggling to fall asleep and figured food wouldn't help.
-then back on the bus, headed up into the mountains.
-at about three AM on an empty stretch of mountain road the bus came to a sudden stop and started smoking profusely from the engine. people started yelling about a fire, and there was a panicked crush for the door, luckly we were sitting in front, so it just took some shoving to get out, Cami, the American girl, got punched in the head. Her freinds and puppy were sitting in the back over the flaming engine, and were passed out cold when the fire started. Left their shoes, bags and the puppy on the bus. when we evactuated the bus it was pouring rain and frigid cold. luckly i had a raincoat and a flashlight in my bag, i was still freezing, but at least not soaked. we had to hike up the road to get away from the cloud of noxious smoke. Took about 20 minutes to put out the fire which had tendrils reaching over the top of the bus. they were pouring water on it, which probably didn't help the situation. but eventually it went out. we went into the bus to try and find these poor girls bags, shoes and pup, rescued the bags and the shoes but no sign of the tiny pup. also opened the roof hatches to ventilate the smoke. finally the pup turned up wandering the street around the bus and crying pathetically. after hanging out in the rain waiting for the smoke to clear, people started to filter back into the bus. most immediately fell asleep, which was sort of a surprise to me, i didn't sleep until the next morning, and then only for an hour.
3/17/2011
-treated to a beautiful sunrise over a remarkable mountainous rainforest, from inside the burnt out bus, also treated to a terrible headache from whatever terrible burnt plastics and shit i had been inhaling in the bus all night.
-had to wait until noon for another bus to pick us up. then still had a five hour ride to Luang Probang. which took even longer because about 20 K out of town the road had turned into a total mudpit and we had to wait for the traffic ahead of us to be extracted from the mud.
-then while our bus was slogging along, a rock busted the brake fluid tank, so the bus came to a stop again and let out some smoke, everybody on the bus, frazzled by the previous bus fire immediately started to evacuate. but we were so close they just topped off the fluid and continued on. didn't make it to Luang Probang til about 7 PM been awake for over 36 hours, with maybe one hour of sleep. Luckly managed to find a cheap nice guest house quickly. Ate some food at the guest house and passed out pretty early.
-what was supposed to be a 8-9 hour bus ride turned out to be 23 hours, the average speed of travel was 15.3 Km/h
Pictures and such from the lovely town of Luang Probang soon.

3/14-3/15

3/14/2011
-Morning tea, then to immigration office, played the window bouncing game, and filled out some forms that made no sense completely wrong. they try to squeeze every last dime out of you at the office costs a couple thousand for the form, more for them to make a copy of your passport etc. finally got shit sorted and went to pay, they wanted $40 US but i didn't have dollars only Kip and the exchange rate was 10,000 to one for some damn reason, even though gov't propagandha is all about using kip over dollars, but the gov't itself punishes you for using Kip explain that shit to me...
-they held onto my passport at the immigration office, so had a bit of trouble getting into the American embassy, but eventually they let me in and i turned in the forms and paid the money to get my passport replaced, had to go back the next day once i picked up my passport, so they could copy it, ah the joys of bureaucracy.
-wandered around for a bit, hung out by a massive bronze sculpture on the mekong, behind the presidential palace, there were a shitload of exercise machines set up in the park as well, just in the view of the palace and nowhere else.
-back to the beer garden where i met a lovely couple from Washington, talked to them for a while, and went to dinner together, had two dollar duck noodle soup which was excellent.
-they went to bed and i went to wander around a bit before going to bed.
3/15/2011
-next morning went to have my morning tea and do internet stuff, and there was a kid with a big black eye and lots of cuts, he had the look that people get when they really want to tell a story, so i invited him to sit with me, and he laid quite a tale on me. he was a wounded Iraq war vet on the tail end of a nine month trip across Asia. Really a cool kid, from a rural poor family in TN, his journey was coming to an abrupt end due to a fiasco on the Slow Boat to Luang Probang. In the chaos of the offload and people trying to sell accomidation, he noticed a girl get offered a room for 160,000  LAK, while he was offered the same room by the same guy for 30,000 LAK, so he tried to get the guy to give the girl a fair price. things escalated, and wound up with the guest house guy throwing a punch. which turned into a brawl, where this kid came out on top in a serious way. guesthouse dude left, but returned a short time later with his brother and two other friends on motorbikes, armed with big sticks. he broke his guitar over the face of the first dude, which incapacitated him, and left him with no weapon but only three attackers. as one might imagine, they preceded to fuck him up pretty bad, broken foot, fat scabbed bitemarks on his back, pitch black eye, and an untold number of scrapes and bruises. he only escaped by jumping in the mekong and swimming to the other side. where he waited to die, until a south american guy he had befriended on the boat, chartered a small boat to go pick him up. spent the next night in jail, for fear that if he was out and about he would actually be killed. the next morning had a meeting with the police, the original assailant and brother. speaking no Lao, of course this meeting did not go in his favor. his choice ultimately came down to $250 or six months in Lao jail. Unfortunately, did not have $250 readily available, so it was looking like he was going to serve time and his injuries were going to go untreated. luckly, the same South American guy showed up to try and get him out, because the boat was leaving, and paid to free him. when i met him he was killing time before taking a plane back to the states. crazy.
-talked until about 1:30, then went off to get my passport and go back to the American Embassy, pretty easy, extension was sorted and passport stuff sorted.
-back to the hotel, ran into an Irish guy, Alex, who was just getting settled and had quite an impressive beard. spent the next two days hanging out with him. Impressive character all round, had a deep interest and skill at picking up language, deep insight into the world, well educated, a remarkable writer, and was on a bicycle journey around Asia.
-sat on the banks of the Mekong and had a drink with him, talked all sorts of things, then went to find dinner, we were both interested in getting out of the tourist district and finding some real Lao food, so we wandered for a while, conversation flowing like water, until we found a Falong free establishment well off the track, had some excellent beef hotpot, but realized part way through we were doing it all wrong.... no matter, was still delicious.
-spent the rest of the night on the balcony sharing music, really a wonderful treat.

dinnertime here, more soon

more from Vientiane

3/11/11
-forgot to include my hospital adventure, all the days blend together and i rarely know what the date is, not to mention what date i did things in the past, anyways, i was having ear troubles, couldn't hear fully out of my right ear, i was pretty sure the problem was just impacted earwax, so i went to the Lao hospital to get it dealt with, went into the ER and they sent me to what i guess was the ear doctor's wing, in a different building and upstairs, when i went up it was seemingly empty until i found a nurse sleeping in a room, i woke her up as nicely as possible and mimed the problem. she phoned the doctor, who had just dipped out (i guess), and he came with the head nurse who spoke a tiny bit of english. i explained the problem, and he started rooting around in my ear with big picks and a little suction vaccum thing. it was pretty painful, but he pulled a big wad of black shit out of my ears with assorted steel picks, and suddenly (30 mins later) i could hear fully out of my right ear. which made me realize i am not hearing fully out of my left ear. walked down by the nurse to pay, wound up costing 170,000 kip or slightly more than $20
3/12/11
-tried to go to the immigration office to extend the ol' visa, but forgot that it was saturday, so was of course sent away.
-walked down the street to the Lao Arc de Triumphe, which was built from concrete donated by the Americans to build a runway during the Secret War. some quality signage:

 hey you! no passing a grass!

-wandered around some more, not much exciting, saw all the gov't offices
-Went to the Lao national Museum, that was interesting, a lot of weaponry and pictures of the "American imperialists" and their "puppets" also a supprising amount of ancient "tobacco" pipes, i think using tobacco in the same sense headshops in the states call bongs tobacco pipes. some incredible old buddhist relics and an extensive section on the various gov't offices and what they are currently doing.
-headed to dinner, there were huge fireworks on the Thai side of the Mekong, not sure why. had dinner at a weird bar/restaurant, five stories up overlooking the mekong, populated about half and half Falong to Lao. ordered dinner and Beer Lao Gold, which was in no way different then regular Beer Lao, except slightly more expensive. Had a weird weird conversation with the people sitting across from me, they were three laotians, with not much in the way of english, a girl who was apparently celebrating her birthday, who told me she had a husband from england, a man around her age and an older woman who spoke no english. I think she (the older one) was trying to sleep with me, there was lots of suggestive gesturing, they kept suggesting that i come out dancing and poured me tons of beer. lots of toasts later i was drunker then i wanted to be and bid them goodnight and went to bed.  
3/13/11
-after my morning tea, went to a Wat known for its hundreds of unique buddhas stored in specially made alcoves all through out the inner sanctuary. very impressive, especially the inner room you're not allowed to photograph, about 25 ft walls with 14 foot wraparound murals done in the 1800s, and more alcoves where another large grouping of two-by-two buddha's sit. lots of pictures:

-wandered around to two more Wats, no pictures but saw lots of incredible architecture, murals, Stupas, wood carvings and sculptures.
-went to dinner at this wonderful indian/malay restaurant on the river and main road, i had been to a few nights before. got a delicious dinner, but while i was eating there was an awful motorcycle crash involving two teenagers. they were both going pretty fast, with no helmets and collided front to front. Both were out for a minute, while everybody around gathered, it was crazy to watch the sudden appearance of hundreds of people on the street, gathered around the crash, people rushed to help, pulling both kids from under their bikes. One kid was passed out cold, a group of other teenagers shook him vigorously after extracting him from the bike, and dragged his still unconscious body somewhere up on the river walk after a good deal of shakings. the other accidentee was conscious but struggling to walk, bleeding from his leg, and holding his shoulder, he was supported off by a middle aged falong and a few twenty something Lao, presumably to go to the hospital.
-The bikes remained where they had fallen surrounded by maybe 40 people, traffic started moving and just skirted the motorbikes which took up a good third of the two lane road. although the right and left lane could not both fit on the road, there was surprisingly little honking or anger. the police showed up maybe 30 minutes later, interviewed one witness, measured the distance across the road and the distance of the motorbikes from the curb, spray painted around the bikes and left.
-beer garden then balcony time...
more soon, have wifi in the current guest house.