Friday, March 30, 2012

Oops

An entire country neglected!  My bad.

Rather than make it seem like a competition blog, I'll propose a partnership between you and Video Blog. (You get first dibs on good stories anyways)
SO!

Vietnam, in two parts
1 - Episode 7: Good Morning Vietnam
2 - Episode 8: Episode 7 Part 2

There we go!  So if you want to know about Vietnam, that's the place to go.  There were stories there, but you (the reader) will just have to ask me about them when I'm home.  Lets go for coffee actually!  That sounds awesome.
If there is one thing I miss about home, it's the people.  Obviously some people I miss much much much too much, but overall I miss all my friends and family back home.  No matter how often we used to hang out (or never hung out), lets change it by upping the anti and hanging out all the time.  I'm pumped for many coffee dates with YOU!  Yes, you.  Say it out loud.  No don't... if you do people will think you are talking to yourself (even though you are talking to me).

Okay!

So I'm in Laos now, and I have a special guest with me.  You aren't allowed to know who it is quite yet because I want it to be a surprise in the video blog (SORRY BLOG!) but I'm pretty pumped with how it's worked out :)

Today we went to waterfalls!  And attached to the waterfalls was a Sun-Bear sanctuary.  So that was pretty cool.  Saw the little guys wrestling with each other which was as adorable as you can imagine.  Unfortunately the reason that there IS a sanctuary is because of the threat of poaching, which I even saw an example of first hand.  On the drive from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang (where I am now) our bus stopped at a rest stop which had "Bear Whisky".  Meaning... it was a dead bear (cub) crammed into a big jar of whisky for drinking.  Apparently people think it's good for health. Sad.

But the waterfalls were gorgeous, the limestone (I think) cliffs made the water runoff this gorgeous blue, and there was a rope swing into some pools near the bottom of the falls.  Very fun.  I don't know what the plan is after this... my time in Laos won't be as long as my time in any other country, and unfortunately much of it was spent in a town that I wish I hadn't been in for so long (due to the heavy party scene), but that's okay.  I used some of the days there to finish and post the last blog and then just get some recoup time while I waited for special guest to catch up.

After the waterfalls we came back to Luang Prabang and wandered around the city center for a while, went to a temple around 4pm when the monks all begin this big drumming thing.  It lasts for about 15 minutes while a group of monks all kept beat with these massive drums and little cymbals.  Pretty cool!

But I am coming close to the end of my time in SE Asia!  It went by so quickly... 2 months, woah!  Nepal will be next... looking forward to that.  REALLY looking forward to that.

This blog wasn't as good, but it's something new.  Which is nice.
I think.