luang prabang.

the hills and clouds of a summer in laos.

after a very windy bus ride - during which a tiny laos woman continuously vomited so very quietly, so very politely, into a paper bag next to india - bryn & india arrived in luang prabang. knowing very little about the place, they had borrowed a lonely planet guide from a british couple on the bus and had scribbled down some suggestions in to their notebooks. they headed towards the main stretch of street, th sakkarin, and dipped into a few guest houses before finally deciding on one for 40,000 kip (or about five u.s. dollars) owned by a sweet single mother and her three children. retrospectively, bryn & india are still amazed by this: for a mere five dollars a night, they slept in a clean room with a ceiling fan, a strong shower, a television equipped with cnn and bbc, and were greeted each morning by a smiling and fussing family who offered sturdy umbrellas and cheap laundry service. incredible.

luang prabang was the first part of laos that bryn & india were able to truly feel the french influence on the country. the buildings resembled those in the french quarter of new orleans - skinny balconies, bright wooden shutters over every window, tall double doors leading into grand entry ways. the food was seafood with french flair; delicious buttery white fish caught fresh from the mekong river that wound its way around the peninsula city. the wine was warm and fruity. the weather was sticky. and the art was detailed and bright. bryn & india immediately fell in love with luang prabang.

wine and fish on the french boulevard. 

their days were spent roaming the tiny town, dipping into dozens of buddhist temples that dotted the emerald and sand colored city. the details of wat xieng thong particularly spoke to them; each hand painted wall showed pictorial stories of the history of both the religion and the city. the open air gardens smelled of the fresh river that flowed around it and smokey incense that was pitched tall in each temple. the mornings were spent in a discovered coffee shop, saffron, founded and owned by a northwest native. he had single handedly replaced the opium fields with coffee fields and was buying exclusively from the laoian plantations he had helped facilitate around luang prabang. the afternoons were spent swimming in waterfalls with new friends, ankles nibbled at by tiny biting fish. bryn was taught how to properly rope swing into the watery abyss while india remained in the sun, nursing her fish bitten feet. evenings, the two ate the most delicious mekong fish they could find - each restaurant grilling butter and herbs on fire fueled grills on the sidewalk. after, full and tipsy, bryn would barter hard for hand painted art and silk bedding in the night market - the best that they found in all of asia.

an interior of a temple in wat xieng thong.

mingling with the locals.

french boules played next to the mekong.

practicing meditation.

bryn learns to rope swing properly.

afternoons at the waterfall.

 after a slow week of quiet days, writing and reading and lounging and exploring, practicing their french and avoiding the night monsoons, bryn & india discussed their next move. back to thailand and trek the north? head south to cambodia and find ankor wat? spontaneously, the two booked a flight from the tiny luang prabang airport headed for hanoi, vietnam in hopes of finding hot bowls of pho and some scuba friendly beaches.

the most beautiful airport she'd ever seen.

vang vieng.

after a boat from koh tao to the mainland, a luxury bus to bangkok, a sleeper bus through the north of thailand, a stopover at the laos border for visas and fees, and a public bus up through the mountains, india & bryn arrived at their first official stop in laos: vang vieng.

boats on the nam song river in vang vieng.

here is must be said: vang vieng is exactly what you think it's going to be. like shasta lake on memorial day weekend, or vegas on new years eve, vang vieng is a non stop party, a rustic disneyland-like natural adventure park for twenty something travelers. it is, truly, a different world.

bryn & india arrived knowing very little about vang vieng other than it being party central. the majority of what the knew sounded like an urban legend: rope swings over rivers, homebrewed booze flowing, loas hospitality bursting at every open cafe, each equipped with old televisions that blared fuzzy viewings of your favorite american sitcoms.

turns out, that's exactly what it was.

making friends with the livestock on the side of the road.

bryn & india were dropped off in the middle of the six block stretch of road that made up vang vieng. they walked three yards to the first hotel and booked a space - a creaky corner room with big windows and a lavatory that held the toilet in the very middle of the tiled room. they paid about 50,000 kip (or 6 u.s. dollars) a night, and were pressed to take off their shoes at the entrance, as keeping the floors clean kept the maids happy.

after a breakfast at one of the dozen cafes on the street, bryn & india followed the small but steady crowd of white tourists to the rent-a-tube station in the center of town. here, they paid 8,000 kip each (or about 10 u.s. dollars) to rent an industrial sized black rubber inner tube and hitch a ride in a crowded truck towards the start of the float. perhaps two miles up river, bryn & india were dropped on a muddy bank among a thick green jungle, and dove into the rushing brown river.

tubing is for lovers #1

tubing is for lovers #2

because this is why tourists come to vang vieng: about ten years ago, a pair of australian boys (or british? or american? is it urban legend?) came to vang vieng and saw the potential of it. it was a tiny native community with zero tourists but beautiful scenery - and a river perfect for tubing to boot. they built a river side bar where inner tubes were rented out and the rest was history. today, about two dozen bars dot both sides of the murky river for about a five mile stretch. some have rope swings, or gigantic slides, that will push you back in to the water after a few beers, a few shots. some will hand you a pre-rolled cigarette filled with dry marijuana if you purchase a fifty cent beer. whichever ones you stop at, you'll meet friends and have fun. (though favorites are inevitable: bryn & india were fond of rope swings, power slide, and 'slingshot bar'.)

beer pong at the first annual 'tubefest' on the nam song river.

one of the many rope swings.

the rope swing before an impressive cannonball.

team u.s.a. - clearly a dominating force.

two days of tubing left the pair exhausted. beer pong tournaments, shared shots of warm liquor, countless jumps from the rope swing, high fives between new friends, buddhist blessings for safety in the form of colorful bracelets.

for a brief moment, after making friends with a brit who had been there for months, india & bryn entertained the idea of staying in vang vien. work in my bar! i'll pay you in room and board, and you'll drink whatever you like, whenever you like. but as the liquor wore off, the charm wore off, and as gorgeous as the surrounding jutting mountains were, bryn & india left on their third morning, exhausted by the tourists and the alcohol.

view from the pitstop on the bumpy bus into laos.