well, we are sitting in Pakxe watching the monsoon come down, should finish soon cause its been raining for about an hour now. we had a 5 hour bus ride this morning. should have biked but there were no towns on the map and the thought of 230 km without a good curry was a little daunting. Pakxe seems to be a really cool town, although every review ive read of it puts it squarely in the shithole category. will have to see what happens after dark. i have a feeling that bed time here hits at about 7 pm. will have to consume some beerlao before all the bars close.
I"m getting a little tired of being stared at. there was a lady and her 8 year old kid today on the bus who were turned around in their seats pretty much the whole trip. every time i looked up from my book there were eyes. some lao people are in a permanent state of shocked confusion it seems. they gape at us with wide eyes and mouths slightly open. it makes me wonder if they are actually thinking anything because there is no movement in the eyes or glimmer of recognition. just nothing. i kinda want to use the classic "am i wearing something you own? THEN STOP FUCKIN LOOKING AT ME" line, but i dont want to waste it. it must be used sparingly and appropriately.
next few days will be a detour into the lao wilderness, heading east towards Tad Lo, an awesome sounding town with many waterfalls, river elephant trekking and chilled OUT guesthouses with hammocks and all the shit. wouldnt be surprised if i get stuck there for the rest of my life, but should be back to a place with internet access in a week because it will be necessary to change money soon, and today is a saturday so nothing is open, and there will be no places to do it out in the wilds. apparently this is one of the main cofffee growing areas in laos, with some real good arabica, a tradition started by the french in 1920, and continued by the laotians after the french left in 1965, not wanting to get the crap bombed out of them. will be sure to stop at every opportunity for coffee consumption.
check out my cool map. paint is a wonderful thing.
Aux
Haha, aux is going to have nightmares for weeks, just those constant eyes PIERCING PIERCING...aaah yes its very strange, in Thailand people stare but wave and smile at the same time, yep no problem. Here they GAWP, so we have gotten into the habit of waving or saying heeelooooo! if they respond thats good, but 70% carry on staring and don't even notice you've done anything...no souls no souls...
we've been writing on this alot lately as the last few towns have been quite uneventful,which is no problem. have been trying to learn some of the language...it took me all of yesterday evening to get "can i put my bicycle on the bus?". Rocked on up to the ticket counter this morning all prepared with my little phrase, then they ended up just calling someone over who spoke english...what a shame.
Lissaur
