The Vang

Vang Vieng can best be described in one word: unreal. It is, to the best of my knowledge, the town of all towns in Lao (intentionally no 's') in that it is the biggest and has the most tourism. Located right along the Nam Song river lined with those limestone cliffs that I remember seeing on the discovery channel, the main activity is tubing down the chocolate river. Sure it sounds nice and relaxing and I guess it would be should I not have decided to stop off at the numerous bars along the way where buckets and beerlao never stop flowing and makeshift rope swings allow drunken farang to fly ... although despite my flapping while mid-air I still plummeted down into the river below.

Needless to say, insanity ensued 6 nights in a row. Four solid days of tubing shenanigans, motorbiking, a few sleepless nights and kayaking down to Vientiane has left my body bruised and broken and my mind struggling to retain the surreal imagery.

A shoutout to the crew:

I've said it before but I'll say it again, you guys are amazing. Jon, brother, sad to have you gone but we'll be enjoying carne asada in no time back in the states (rosco's even???)

Amy, Emma and mama Tina, good looking out and thanks for the well needed mojo boost ... stoked to be traveling with you guys. 'Shooter' and Lisa, I'm glad I rolled up on my sweet ride in Luang Prabang and that we were able to share the craziness of Vang Vieng together. And lastly, my Swedes, well ... you already know.

Much love to you all, much love.

Back in Asia

I know not where to begin as this past month has been a complete blur. To start I my crew and I had a series of unfortunate events ranging from theft, being punched in the face, being run over by a motorbike going at least 40km/h as well as enjoying the greatness of stand-by flights. We did however get to pet tigers in Kanchanburi.

Since then I've been to three places: Sangklhaburi, Chiang Mai and Pai. Sangklhaburi was great in that I sobered up, finished reading The God Delusion (Dawkins) and Naked (Sedaris) and got to a bit of volunteering. By volunteering I simply mean that I was invited to be a part of taking the local Burmese children to go swim. Although no substitute for the Bal Ashram boys, these kids were equally cute with smiles big enough to match my own.

Chiang Mai was simply ridiculous. It was Songkran, their new year, which they celebrate by having an all out water war on the streets. Although I don't know what the top 5 experiences of my life will be, I can say with certainty that this will be a contender. My voice was strained, my liver was dying, had bags under my eyes and often not the slightest bit of me was dry ... jeez it was amazing.

Pai was great too. I wound up paying 50 baht (less than two dollars) for a bungalow on the river and even got to play two open mics to which I had quite the crowd. Well to say I had a crowd is misleading ... I happened to be playing while there were people present is more accurate. Whether or not they listened or just applauded because they should is another story.

Now I'm preparing for the next part of my journey: ziplining through the Bokeo reserve and then making my way through Laos. All the best.