i have even more time to share with you guys now that the trekking agency I was supposed to climb with ditched me on Lombok island, Indonesia. So I had 2 choices, try to find these guys which would include paying 30$ for a taxi ride to the middle of the jungle hoping they even existed and would still take me OR convince this new agency that they should take me up rinjani by myself with a night accommodation before and after the trek and transportation to and from the harbor for the same price. I went with that idea, my bag is sitting in their office and apparently I'm getting picked up at 3:30...I ate a whole roll of Oreos in anticipation of the stress of waiting out these next 2 hours.
Ill let you know how that goes, or maybe not but at least this restaurant has wifi.
So left off with Tyler leaving, I watched 5 episodes of the office till the sun rose in mourning of his departure haha and then I thought hmmm I think I'm ready to go to the next place so I booked a bus ticket to Chiang rain and got ready to make a move to Laos.
Chaing rai: wandered into the cat cafe-exactly how it sounds, coffee and about 50 cats, I didn't know how to feel about it either. Still had an hour to spare before another bus to Huay Xai so quickly figured I had enough time to quickly see the white temple and get back in time to hop on the bus. Success. Got on the bus and got to the border around 5 pm. Met a group of European guys on the bus and once we decided Huay Xai sucked we got a bunch of hostel rooms to share, grabbed dinner and headed straight for the bar (there was only one cause there was only one road in the village). Since it was low tourist season the bar owner invited us in with a 2 for 1 deal on beers and we planned our next move to take the slow boat down the Mekong river to Luang Prabang.
that morning I went for my first run of the trip, 3 mikes down the road and 3 miles back just short of the Myanmar border. now, there are two types of people that take this slow boat-the whiskey drinkers and then everyone else...ended up splitting from the Europeans seeing that they were one type and I was the other, I'm sure you can't figure out the sides haha
Met Beth and Ed who I stayed with at the half way point in Pak Beng, learned an awesome new card game ate more Oreos and crashed around 10pm. the second day on the slow boat dragged on FOREVER. Either you drink whisky or eat Oreos or try to convince yourself not to eat lunch within the first 3 hours otherwise you will me bored AND hungry for the last 5. Made it tho and ended up following Beth and Ed to their hostel and getting a room there. Found an amazing buffet with lots of veggie food for dinner, booked a trek for the next 2 days and also booked a flight to Hanoi for 4 days later. PRODUCTIVITY. Okay gonna add more pictures now and check to make sure my bag is still in the trekking "office"-literally just picturing them taking down all the fake signs for their agency and running with my bag leaving an empty room. And it's raining, it's okay tho cause I'm pretending I'm staying at this nice resort so I can eat here. Okay bye
