Saying farewell to our gracious host and friend Dan, Mari and I hopped a cab to the airport where we would be heading to our next stop Luang Prabang, Laos. Our head-space at the time was unanimously odd . Mari was anxious about a “break” with her man. Me and mine…well we left on a bad note you could say after fighting the day before his departure. So while we were excited about the new land and exploration, there was this kind of uncertainty and discomfort in the back of our heads about our world back home. We tried to keep it in the back of our heads however as we leaned in and poured over the guide books. We had a few activities roughly noted as possibilities but what did we really know about this town or even this country? I’m gonna say, not-a-thing. Is it terrible to admit the paragraph I read on some crap website at home had sold me and made me feel like I must see this land for myself? Descending for landing I knew deep within I had made the right decision. Mari and I both gasped at the vision below. There was bright green foliage everywhere, so super bright, and wet and glistening. Among the vibrant foliage were roofs of red tiles. The contrasting colors and textures made the decent different from all others to date. It wasn’t all nature and it wasn’t all architecture, but both were present competing for your glances attention. The combo at once had my imagination racing.
When I travel I do tend to be a bit of a romantic. Oh, how ideal life is here! Oh, how lovely the people! How tasty the food! But on occasion I do snap back to see the reality. The beautiful architecture I was fawning over on our descent was not in the traditional Laotian style. It was French mixed with Laotian. This French influence doesn’t come in because the Lao people love French decoration, sadly this was a colonial city. On the other hand this little town is so happy (uh-oh the romantic is taking over again…) the people are soo warm. It’s a subtle warmth, no touching or eye contact but you can still see the smiles as people chat among themselves. The vibe is really genuine. Most people here are Buddhist and practice living their life in the middle way. Meaning extremes in emotion or otherwise are not well looked on. Plus, Mari and I concluded (the results of hard fast scientific research of course) the boys here are by far the cutest! Oh..yea, reality, my apologies. My sister and I learned that health services in Laos are practically non existant, meaning if something where to happen to us we would need to be flown to Thailand. That being a luxury likely only a foreigner could afford. As someone pointed out to us, “Look around you. Do you see many elderly? When people get sick they die.” Also a reminder, that bartering on a small item might be buying some bad karma.
Before we could blink, our tuk tuk had dropped us off in front of our hostel. We could only be excited for our adventures to come. The place looked way more comfortable than either of us had envisioned. In the end when we where leaving for our next country, we only had a few hundred bed bugs bites. Or some freakishly giant cousin of the bed bug that we saw crawling on our beds. Nothing like some scars on the back of your legs, to make for a cheap and memorable souvenir (sorry no photo-it was too gruesome for the younger readers).
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