Luang Prabang

As I begin to approach the plane, all I hear are damiens warning words telling me not to fly on any airplane that's not an airbus, or doesn't begin with two specific letters... What were those letters? Sure as hell they weren't the ones painted on the side of this flying coffin I was about to step into. 4 seats per row, 20 rows, 2 propellors, little chance of survival. it was a 50 minute flight (taking the place of an otherwise 2.5 day bus and slow boat) that had me at the window, with no one next to me, and a free funny meal (fish burger, tiny oranges, sticky banana cake). The fat man nearby snored during the entire duration of the trip, only stopping to eat his fishburger without the bun.
When we landed we went to get onsite visas which cost $35 for american, $30 for most other nationalities, and $40 for some sparse others. I also had to throw in an extra dollar since I didn't bring a photo of myself, but they gave it back for some reason.
Here the currency is called kip, and it's about 8,000 kip to 1 usd.. Millionaire once more at the first atm trip. as I was taking out money some man was pestering me to share a cab to save money, but all the airport shuttles were price regulated per person and we were going in totally different directions. Fucking fast talking nutter. Address in hand I finally made it out to the khammany guest house, being welcomed by tons of shoes left outside indicating a large crowd. I took mine off (oh reminds me, I totally forgot to mention, on my second to last day in chiang mai I destroyed my flip flops in a feat of total self retardation. I was on my way to secure some much needed internetting, and whilst approaching the sidewalk's curb noticed that the street looked a bit odd, covered in dark black rocks. Without giving it much though, dumb fuck jennie decided to step down onto the freshly laid asphalt, so fresh as to not even have been rolled over yet by that massive rolling truck I shouldve also noticed down the road. Once I stepped, I understood, so quickly, but hilariously cautiously, did I make my way to the otherside, immediately relieved at having caused no burns. The man sitting at a cafe outside asked if I was okay, and said he was going to shout out to stop me, but it looked like I was aware of the ground's heat. He said 10 minutes earlier a british lady, also in flop, had to go to the hospital for severe foot burns. Flip flops lost, but lesson learned).
I checked in and was escorted to my dorm upstairs, where canadian molly immediately welcomed me and helped me figure out plans for my short stay there. I also met jessica and khal, two others in my room (arizona girl, and syrian/french/boston dude). Khal, the mit graduate, phd physician, gone round-the-world photographer had just come back from shooting and was going through photos, simultaneously trying to pick his best photo so far to send to a photo competition. I helped with narrowing them down, and my god his work was amazing. Photography, as such an accessible art, has always found struggles with me in determining what's art and what's not, similar to djing as music. Khal's photos were brilliant, and my favourite was an unexpected, usually ignored, but his favourite as well, shot of a busy japanese street crossing, with the focus of the picture being very interesting and almost hard to settle on.
Eventually we made our way out to the night market and out for dinner, stopping first for a fruit smoothie- these are impossibly good, impossibly cheap, and so addicting. I got one that was purely dragonfruit-- resounding success. We ate at some found restaurant where I satiated my pizza cravings with a massive pie and beerlao. I think chang is still my favourite. We shared stories of medical history and then went back for a stroll through the market, where my eyes locked with various items I had to struggle not to buy. Then we went to utopia, a hippie haven backpackers bar. The tables are on the floor and you can smoke shisha there. It was great, albeit the music selection a bit weird, but by 1130 we were all getting forced out, hustled out of our seats, and given plastic cups to finish our drinks on our way home. Hheaps of people went on to the bowling alley, one of the few places that remained open past the town's midnight curfew, but the 4 of us opted to head back and get some shut eye.
Come morning I enjoyed the free breakfast, which is really just some baguette with a few spreads, tea and coffee, before heading out with jessica to the massive waterfall. About 30km away, we got a tuktuk for 35k each (though we had to tell the people we shared it with that we were paying 50) and after the long ride, got dropped off at a little spot, with a trail leading us to the waterfalls. First en route was a spot to look at these asian black bears which were caged off but pretty cute to see. Then there was a tigerless tiger enclosure, and then the many siwmming holes began to appear. Gorgeous lakes filled with travellers swimming and jumping off of ledges into the waterfall's spillout. As we continued up, we saw waterfall tier after waterfall tier, until reaching the final grand stop, the massive waterfall. It was mental. So gorgeous, so worth going to see it. We hiked up the side of it, a grueling vertical climb that reminded me how shit I am at hiking, but getting to the top of it was really cool. Hiking down as a bit more of a mission, but jess was really helpful to barefoot, cautious me, and I had my own extra sense of security as she is a girl scout leader (whether or not that should actually make me feel better). After we made our way back to the first swimming hole where we went for a wuick swim, watching people jump off the side and do flips in, or more often embarrass themselves with bellyflops. Eventually we were on our way out, stopping for kebabs and grilled bananas first. When we got back to our hostel, the khammany inn, we showered and looked at gopro footage of the day. Jess then was off, bussing to her next stop, and I found molly again to get in some food and shopping. I had a massive sandwich before spending too much money on opium pipes that I'm not even positive I can get back into america, and lao wine, which is whisky with a snake inside (I mean, not too much... If I have to ditch the whisky it was $3 lost). The lady I bought the whisky from made us try all of her alcohols which was kind of nice, but more likely a sales tactic. Lao rice wine is awesome.
Molly haggled hard for a necklace and some clothing items, getting into a hilarious price war with a lady about some harem pants, going up and down by 12cents.
After I ate more as we went to a food alley and I saw two tiny birds on a kebab that looked worth trying. It was hard to get meat off of the tiny creature, and I wasn't too fond of its head being so apparent, but it was yummy. They had buffet options as well where you could fill a plate for 10k, but I was too full. On our walk back we stopped for little coconut dessert things, similar to what I had in chiang mai that was filled with squid, but less savoury. I packed for a bit, played on the internet stressing about having no accomodation for christmas nor new years, and then was heading to bed, but got distracted by the people on the terrace chatting. I met a canadian guy who was struggling to make a decision after just getting an ultimatum from his at-home girlfriend, telling him to come home immediately or they were over. He was traveling with a female friend of his, and jealousy was taking over his girlfriend, quite early into his trip. I think we all convinced him to stay abroad, hopefully!
My alarm went off at 545am and I went out with hendric, a singaporan 25 tear old in my dorm room who similarly wanted to get up early and watch the monk procession, where they all walkin in a line and get offerings (sticky rice) from locals waiting outside scopping it into their baskets. We missed their passing our hostel, but caught up with them a little ways away, watching the trail of extremely young monks get their feed. It was very interesting to see, though we felt a bit like rude paparazzi following close. Hendric was also taking the 830am bus that morning with me to veng vieng, so after a brief nap at our return, we were off.
The first hour of the bus ride, as suggested by various sources online, was absolutely hellish, with the windiest, crappiest roads I've ever experienced, and no space on the mini bus. It was cramped and hot and horrific, as I sat there trying to close my eyes as to not vomit. Once we stopped and overpaid for bags of chips, I felt a little better, with 5 more hours of travel to go. The rest was a bit easier, and I took the headrest off my seat, resting it on my shoulder as a weird side pillow.