I do not want to go back to New Jersey

Sabaidee! Greetings from Laos.
I have always said life seems a lot easier when backpacking the most remote places, everything except finding a bus, guesthouse, or your typical drunk tourist stumbling back to their beach side bungalow. Paradise in my eyes is a place where the beach is your bed, the vegetable truck is your bus and the local beer is your best friend. There is something about entering a village where you are the main attraction that makes my blood flow. Living, or should I say surviving like a local can make any spoiled westerner think twice about the problems they face at home and opens their eyes to a world of survival. Getting out of the house and making it across the world is only half of the battle, because in the end, it’s not where you go that counts, it’s how you get there.
When deciding to come to Southeast Asia, I wanted to make it a point to not follow the crowd. So instead I found myself in a village somewhere near the Khong Lo cave in central Lao, sleeping in a hammock near the river. Every night I was around a table of free spirited Laos as we continue endless conversation in different languages, with candles burning out as the night proceeds. These are the nights I will always remember. Most tourists miss out on the local conversations in half broken English and all the smiles of the people just curious your name. Seeing the country through a local’s eye is how you experience the world. Living the hardworking, no money, and rough accommodation, life they live day after day. It gives you appreciation for absolutely everything you have back at home. What I enjoy most about my trips away from home, are the amount of smiles I give and receive every single day. I feel the cold of technology confused Americans when I return, but I just think of all the days I spent riverside, pulling everything I own, out of my bag, just to please the children’s’ pure interest. Traveling is an experience; just make it your own experience.