Waterfalls
Hello friends, I had another delightful day in Laos. I woke up this morning at 4 am to the sound of monks banging on drums and cymbals at the Wat (Buddhist temple) across the street. This was slightly unpleasant. I took a nap around 3:30 pm and was awoken by the same thing at 4 pm. They must have some sort of 12 hour, drum-banging rotation. I tried to ask the lady at my guesthouse what it was all about but she just nodded and smiled. It's lost in translation somewhere.
I met 3 Chilean guys somewhere along the way yesterday and had the pleasure of dusting off my Spanish again. For those who are unaware, I did an exchange in Chile in high school for a summer and in college for a year. Its nice to know my Spanish still exists in the recesses of my brain.
Me and my 2 travel buddies and the 3 Chilean guys visited a really beautiful waterfall today. It took about 3 minutes to get out of town on a pickup outfitted with benches in the back. We drove through rural villages for a while and got to the waterfalls. The water was a beautiful turquoise blue. We went swimming in one of the pools.
They also had a tiger and some bears that were rescued from poachers. The tiger was beautiful, although I'm glad there was a fence between us. In Taman Negara I wanted to see a tiger, till I thought I heard one in the underbrush. Then I really didn't want to see one. I'm going to a park in Nepal where over 60 tigers live. Maybe I'll see one there.
There are lots of Hmong handicrafts on sale here. Funny thing is, they remind me of home! It's all the same stuff we can buy at the farmer's market in Minneapolis and St Paul.
George, thanks for your comment! I'm glad my blogs aren't boring you. I think once the culture shock wears off, and things don't seem as new and crazy to me, I forget that they are still different and interesting. I guess it's funny to be so used to squat toilets, no hot water (or sometimes, as happened in our guesthouse last night, no water at all), not understanding what anyone is saying around me and monks beating drums at 4 am. I also don't feel that far of the tourist track, even though I'm one of 3 people I know from home who've been to Laos. There are so many foreigners everywhere, all the time, wherever I go!
I decided to book my 21 day Annapurna circuit trek in Nepal with a company called Himalayan Humanity www.himalayanhumanity
Stay well, friends!
Lauren
posted by Lauren at 4:15 AM
1 Comments:
Hi Lauren:
Seriously, how do you find out about all these attractions that you've been visiting (e.g. the waterfalls) I'd guess that it has a name but who, outside of those in the immediate area in Laos has really heard of it? And how do you arrange transportation to the site, or are there "touring companies" on every street corner?
When one pictures you travelling through the Asian cities, the discomforts that you mentioned above (lack of hot, or any, water etc.) didn't really come to mind 'til you mentioned them. You are the ONLY person that I've ever known to have travelled (voluntarily) to Laos or to most of the other locales that you've been visiting. Other than a couple who travelled to Singapore, pretty much on a first class basis, I can't think of anyone that I know of who has done such a trip under the relatively primitive conditions that you're travelling. So you see, your blog entries are indeed most interesting. I am especially looking forward to your reports from Tibet. When I was a kid, I always wanted to travel to Switzerland (Zermatt) to see the Matterhorn. Having accomplished that goal, my unfulfilled (and likely to remain so) dream would be to see the mountain terrain of Tibet. I anticipate the reports from your trek there with great interest. Having checked out the itinerary of the "counter-clockwise circuit" trek to Annapurna, I hope to locate a map of the area and plot your progress. I realize that your trek blogs may well be less frequent, but I'll be looking for them whenever I turn on the computer.
If you haven't already heard from others, we, in Minnesota, are anticipating an actual snowfall over the weekend. There could supposedly be as much as 16 inches by the latest report and believe it or not, there is almost as much hoopla and hype as there was for the super bowl. It is covered in every newscast and everybody that one talks with mentions it. I told Karen that I almost feel I should go out on my clear-as-a-whistle driveway and practice shovelling snow so that I'm ready when it comes. WCCO even had a reporter covering the Mpls. impound lot this morning to report that at the present time, the lot was nearly empty. Now THERE is some news you can sink your teeth into! And you thought that your blog entries were becoming less interesting........!!!!!
Is the diving phase of your journey over with or might you still find some locales to once again visit "Davy Jones locker"?
Is your weather still hot and humid? Since you haven't mentioned the heat lately, I gather that either you've become acclimated to it or you're enjoying a smoewhat more temperate climate.
Anyway, think of me this weekend as I go out to get the mail, dropping bread crumbs along the way and paying out a colored rope so that I'll be able to find my way back to the house in the snow.
George
8:48 PM
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