Trekking in Lovely Laos

Today, with sadness, we leave Laos for Cambodia. The people of Laos are soft, gentle and beautiful. They are small in stature but big in heart and I adore them. We have had a fun-filled stay here and it's hard to believe we've been here for 9 days although it is time to move on. The stay here was rather economical as Ivan got a gig at a place called the Lao Lao Bar. It's owned by an American guy, Mark, who is in the process of transforming this bar into a very cool spot. It's a garden setting with a big firepit in the back where backpackers and tourists come to chill out at night. They set up a good PA system for him and he played there for two nights. While we didn't make any money, Mark fed us up nicely with Laos BBQ and hamburgers and beers (for me) and it was great. Ivan now has the distinction of being the first western entertainer to gig at Luang Prabang! Mark took photos of Ivan and printed up posters that were distributed all over town - there was a big crowd both nights. The second night, however, the neighboring business, who is the landlord of a competing bar, came over to complain and make big trouble so we had to shut down early. You know you're in a Communist country when....A highlight of one evening was a young man from Australia who swallowed a huge sword, majorly impressive. We also did a trekking trip through the jungle for 2 days and had a really good experience. It gave us the opportunity to experience village life and the hillside tribes. We started out taking a bus to a resort where we took a boat across the river and trekked for about 2 hours to a village where we had lunch and took photos of the children. We then trekked through the jungle with our intrepid guide Puaoy who pointed out all the fruits and woods and flowers along the way. The mahogany trees are most impressive. It was a long tiring walk but we finally came to our village for the night. It was a very tranquil and peaceful setting and one of the boys had gone ahead to set up our beds in a hut and to cook our dinners. There was only myself, Ivan and a doctor from Australia in our group so it was very serene as opposed to Thailand trekking where large groups of people tramp through the villages like stormtroopers. Our hut was fenced in and all night the villagers, particularly children, came to stare over the fence at us. We felt a bit like zoo animals but it was fun. The next morning we trekked for about an hour to the elephant camp where we got aboard an elephant and had a ride down to the waterfalls where we lunched. The view from the top of an elephant is great but when you are following another elephant, you do learn about their eating and evacuation habits in short order.

From the cascading limestone waterfalls we then jumped into kayaks and paddled down the river back to town where we arrived wet and tired but happy. Today we catch a plane to Cambodia to Siem Reap - Angkor Wat where the largest temple in the world is located and then we will head to the beach for Christmas. Ivan was very sick the last couple of days but back to form this morning which is a good thing as travel days can be hard on you and you really need your energy. This morning I got up at 6 to go watch the monks as they walk through town collecting alms, food and money from the villagers, very cool. The monks don't really need the dosh but it makes good karma for the towns people. I will post pix on a better computer later, this one is cacking out on me.