los colectivos de buenos aires. or, i feel like a freaking genius!

that's right, this is an entire post devoted to figuring out a form of public transport. 

one of my most favorite things to do in this world is to figure out how to get from point a to point b and full-time travel provides that opportunity in a big way.

a sample of "los colectivos" in buenos aires taken from our bus stop in el barrio de palermo.

the wife is good at research, very good in fact, and loves to make lists. this is where the team effort comes in and just one of the many reasons why we travel together so well. she makes a list of the places she would like to visit, hands said list to me and says "get me here." i smile, find map, and off we go...

we added it up and figured out we've taken some form of public transportation in 23 countries.

linea a, buenos aires metro system.

we're now in buenos aires and it has a subway system with, as they will proudly tell you over and over and over again, "the oldest underground line in the southern hemisphere, linea a." it's really quite cool, in fact. sure it's a bit gritty but it gets us some places and it gets us there in style. they've preserved the old cars and stations; check out the seats and lamps. during a particularly brutal rush hour we also experienced our first attempted pickpocket here. fun!

to buenos aires, an open apology

we've been in buenos aires for three weeks and we've lost count of how many times we've spoken the single most useful piece of spanish we know, "lo siento por nuestra espanol." "sorry for our spanish."

needs no translation.

sure, it's a weak ploy to elicit someone's empathy where they then speak to us like children, but that's the point! and it works, too. :) however, we learned today that although it's correct to say it in other spanish speaking countries, in argentina it's typically used ironically. oh, that's just great!

we've taken spanish classes for 20 hours, diligently done our homework, conversed with our teacher, studiously read signs around town and tried to interpret them, and asked questions to others in lines. we often get shrugs but sometimes we get a "conversation." each day, in the privacy of our apartment of course, we attempt to have entire conversations with each other solely in spanish and if locals were listening in i'm sure they would think we were mentally deficient or they would just roll around laughing.

but then, then we step out on to the street and it sometimes seems like we've learned nothing. we take the bus everywhere with conversations being the soundtrack around us. and buenos aires presents a very fast and quirky kind of spanish, too, almost italian sounding, which adds a certain amount of, oh i'd like to say spice, but it really is more of "what the freak did he just say? i mean, i heard 'tambien,' and 'bebida,' so has something to do with drinking also..." that's our internal dialog. then, just as suddenly, the next sentence is completely lost.

buenos aires first impressions

the argentinian flag, buenos aires.

the jet-lag has started to lift. after a 28 hour travel time across 12 time zones from kuala lumpur, malaysia to buenos aires, argentina we were slammed. we're happy to report that we're now falling asleep and waking up at normal hours, like normal human beings.

it's autumn in south america but the sun is shining in buenos aires. yesterday it reached 80 degrees. that's some autumn.

first impressions: this city is HUGE! there's a ton of people, a lot of cars, a lot of meat, a whole lot of red wine, lots of statues, very long streets and the spanish spoken here is fast, quirky and almost italian sounding. we like a lot of those things.

luckily, we have an apartment ten floors above the traffic and the streets with big windows and lots of light.

so long southeast asia, it's been a great ride!

way back in november of 2011 while walking around istanbul in our "these were never meant for cold wind and rain" kind of clothes, we looked at each other and said "it's time." that day, we booked a flight to thailand and landed where any sane, reasonable human would like to start a trip through southeast asia, a tropical island in the andaman sea.

bai sao, phu quoc, vietnam

it's been four and a half months and five countries, not counting a 36 hour layover in kuala lumpur. if you're the kind that counts passport stamps, i guess that would make six countries.

bayon, angkor thom, siem reap, cambodia

southeast asia has been rewarding beyond anything either of us expected. before arriving, we knew the most about thailand, of course, as thailand's a very well-worn traveler's route. but we had no idea of what we'd find in laos or cambodia, and just a little bit about vietnam. and what we knew absolutely nothing about was myanmar (burma). in fact, we were surprised to learn that we were allowed to even enter the country at all. the u.s. fear machine, being what it is, makes it seem a place like myanmar is the most dangerous, forbidden territory on the globe. well it's not, and we loved it.

but we're saying goodbye to all these incredible places and saying hello to south america.

buenos aires!

this is a short post because we're packing as we type and we're stoked to get going. we're not so stoked about the 3:30am flight departure time and the 28 hours in the air, however, but it was the best deal we could find and we're willing to bear it for the pleasure of argentina where we have an apartment rented for the month of april. muy bien!

adios, we'll report back.

this is clearly NOT vietnam. kuala lumpur, malaysia.

smiles, everyone, smiles

readers of a certain age will remember ricardo montalban's reminder to his employees on fantasy island. that's exactly how it felt to us as we rounded the headland on the west side of koh rong saloem, an island off the shore of south cambodia in the gulf of thailand, a two hour boat ride away from sihanoukville.

here's a little video of our arrival.

pier at sunset, koh rong saloem, cambodia.

the golden sand of "lazy beach" came into view complete with a jungled shoreline, basic wooden bungalows popping out of the greenery, a rickety old wooden pier jutting into the blue water and smiling employees making their way from the breezy bar down to the boat to welcome us ashore.

our first thought was "THIS is the southeast asia beach we'd been looking for." aside from the four other boat passengers, the driver and the staff approaching us on shore, it was our beach. and one of those wooden bungalows popping out of the jungle was ours, too, complete with a hammock for each of us.

not one, but TWO hammocks at our bungalow, "lazy beach,"
koh rong saloem, cambodia.

as we carried our packs up to the open-air bar/reception/restaurant/hangout space, someone approached with ice cold glasses of some fruit drink and said "drop the bags, have a drink, carry on to your bungalow when you're good and ready. i suggest a swim first, however."

well, this was off to a good start. and it only got better.

koh rong saloem quickly became our favorite beach in all of southeast asia. it filled that fantasy, deserted island idea of empty stretches of beach set in clear blue waters we've all dreamed of. directly out our front door, a mere 30 second walk led us down to a stunning beach with gentle waves, an endless blue horizon during the day and, it facing west, some mind-blowing sunsets.

a 30 minute hike through the jungle to the other, east-facing, side of the island brings you to this.
a completely different type of sand along with stunningly clear, blue water. koh rong saloem, cambodia.

a sad fact of life in southeast asia is the sheer amount of trash that washes up along beaches all across the southern coast. not here, though, it was clean. occasionally an old net would wash ashore from the fish and squid boats constantly bobbing offshore. this bay was framed by rocks at either end of the beach which provided some pretty good snorkeling. no effort. just rent a mask and fins for $1 and float a few feet into the water... FISH! and sea urchins, and coral.

our bungalow came with a pair of  charming, and LARGE, geckos who helped to keep other critters to a minimum. we named them nick and nora. they were charming most of the time, until they found our bag of muesli at 3:45am.

and these were no ordinary geckos, these were geckos on steroids called "tokays." they sit completely still, too, like statues. when michelle first spotted one, she thought it was a decoration. i thought "there is no way i would have opened that door and NOT noticed that thing before." i poked it with a broom, it jumped, it yelled and skittered away. so did michelle. :) and when you hear them chirp, you understand the onomatopoeic name. apparently they're territorial and consider your cabin as their "turf." we watched a high-speed chase around the bungalow when an interloper appeared. these things went from dead-stillness to the speed of light up the walls, across the ceiling, under the beds... we didn't know where to stand.

pretty much says it all. koh rong saloem, cambodia.

back to that ricardo montalban comment earlier. i asked the young dude behind the bar "come on, be honest, do you feel like ricardo montalban from fantasy island each day that boat pulls around the headland and in to view?" <blank stare> "too young to know the reference?" <nod> "give me a beer, please."

it's now been a few weeks since we spent these days doing absolutely nothing at lazy beach but i'm certain it will continue to stand out among all the beautiful beaches, cities, villages and towns which we've been lucky to visit. if only lazy beach would give commissions for blog posts like these, we'd write one every day.

"our" beach at sunset, koh rong saloem, cambodia

an indulgent photo but this pretty much captures the vibe. this may be the
most relaxed russ has ever been.

they told us this would happen

before we left home, back in july 2011, we read a ton of travel blogs and talked to as many people as we could to answer the millions of questions we had. one recurring theme was "you're going to get tired. you're going to reach a point where you need to take a break. when that happens, forget the budget, find a nice hotel and enjoy it for a few days." essentially, take a break from your break.

our view from breakfast this morning where we're writing this post.
villa paradiso, phnom penh, cambodia.

we thought "no way, how could travel fatigue ever set in? travel is awesome and you're literally on vacation every single day." now, this is in no way a complaint but truth be told, travel is a lot of work. well, we seem to have hit that moment.

we wouldn't necessarily call it fatigue as much as "this city is freakin' hot and we're covered in sweat five seconds after we step out the door. perhaps it's time for some creature comforts, like an a/c unit that functions for the full 24 hours promised?"

after weeks through the serene countryside of northern laos, then through the quiet southlands of cambodia we arrived in phnom penh, the chaotic capital of cambodia. as i type this at 10:00am it's already 88 degrees. when we arrived on the bus the other day at 1:00pm, it was 97 degrees. being budget-conscious, we duly checked into our cheap but well-reviewed guesthouse and were happy to find ourselves in a cool, quiet room. but after a couple of times walking through the bar at the front of the guesthouse, we started to feel a little queasy when it dawned on us that the only people there were pasty, middle-aged white guys with young, beautiful cambodian girls. as a german woman described them to us back in thailand, "transactional relationships."

welcome to phnom penh. bus station upon our arrival from kep.
just LOOK at all those people. 

then 6:30am the next day, BBBBBBBZZZZZZZZZZZ! outside our window! turns out, we checked in on a sunday, all was quiet, but on monday morning a coffin production workshop (yes, coffins!) was a few feet from where we were sleeping and the grinding and sanding and pounding and yelling sounded as if they were in our room. michelle popped her head up, looked at me and asked "we should move, yes?" i nodded, now wide awake. we step out of the room and a rat goes shooting down the hallway. strike three. i mean, it's a big city in southeast asia, rats happen, we get that but it was enough.

view from the 'foreign correspondent's club' on the
river front, our happy hour location for four nights running.
the serenity of the riverside belies the hot chaos behind us.

we scoured the town for another place, got a reservation from a highly-rated little guesthouse, returned to get our stuff from the first place (BBBBBZZZZZ still going on in full force) and upon arriving again were told, "i'm sorry, while you were gone someone booked your room online, now we have no place for you." wait, what? well, awkwardness followed (he was french, after all :)) and i suggested he just say no to the online booking. he grunted and relented. that kicked off an awkward couple of days in a dark room with an anemic a/c unit.

SCREW IT! we're moving across town, we're blowing our budget and finding a pool. done. we're now at the villa paradiso, a green, lush, quiet oasis in the middle of a loud, dusty, chaotic city with the temperature quickly rising and we love it.

we have had nothing but wonderful luck with our accommodations. we are not complaining in any way, travel really is as awesome and fulfilling as we ever dreamed it would be. but you know what? others were right, it's good to blow some cash and remind yourself what a great shower, a nice pool, working appliances, fantastic staff and an oasis to return to each day feels like. listen to your elders.

if EVER there was a worthy world cause. phnom penh, cambodia

our $12.50 bungalow

our bungalow, with wifi!, nong khiaw, laos.

here's the thing about southeast asia, it's cheap. no news flash, i know, but it's still mind-boggling.

that bungalow over there on the right, the one in front, cost us $12.50 a night. what you can't see: from that porch is an amazing view of the nam ou river in northern laos. this is their "top-end" accommodation at nam houn bungalows in nong khiaw. for us, it was one of the best places to pass hours in the hammock doing nothing but watch the boats go by and the sun set behind the mountains. incredible.

we'd just floated downriver to nong khiaw from an even smaller town called muang ngoi, which will forever hold a very, very affectionate spot in our hearts. it's a village only accessible by boat and there we had a bungalow for $11.50. think about what you would get in the u.s. for that much money. you couldn't get anything, could you? maybe $60 will get you a room at a motel 6 along a freeway off-ramp somewhere.

nam houn riverside guesthouse, nong khiaw, laos.

any bus ride through laos will illustrate why things are cheap, i mean there are people living with not a whole hell of a lot. this didn't seem to affect their outlook on life, as we met some of the most wonderful people on our travels in that country, but it's clearly evident there's not a lot of cash flying around.

now, thailand's a different story: i had a conversation with a friend in chiang mai about world currency, something i thought i once almost understood. or maybe value is more accurate a word. now i definitely understand a whole lot less about how the world works. in chiang mai, where we stayed for $20 a night in a very fine room for a few weeks, where said friend was also staying, we ate some incredible food, had massages nearly every day, cheap transportation wherever we needed to go, and these things barely cost us a couple of dollars each time. life in chiang mai is really, really good. infrastructure is there for pretty much anything you need. people aren't living hard lives as you would expect in a place with prices like that. i talked to a guy from the u.s. who, with his thai girlfriend, bought a home in a nice neighborhood of chiang mai, completely gutted it, and rebuilt it from the inside out for a total of $60,000. all this with a view of the ping river. i sat open-jawed with my beer halfway to my face when he uttered the total.

medications, too. we purchased tylenol for $1.50, cold medication for $1, an entire course of antibiotics for $4-$5, and these weren't asian brands, either, they were companies like phizer, glaxo-smith-kline, merck... american companies we all know, at a fraction of the price. why is that? another friend was in town and needed a visit to the emergency room. he's a retired doctor who reported "that was one of the best medical experiences i have ever had. top-notch doctors, outstanding diagnosis and prescription filled, all for $25. i was in and out in under an hour."

our $10 bungalow, koh lanta, thailand.

on koh lanta, an island in the andaman sea, we paid $10 a night for a bamboo bungalow a few minutes walk from the beach. $10! we'd walk out in the morning to be shaded by palm trees in the breeze and eat breakfast of fresh papaya and mango and, i might add emphatically, really good coffee.

we're now in cambodia and have been here for nearly a month. so far we've stayed in a guesthouse in siem reap for $16 a night, a bungalow on otres beach for $10 a night, a bungalow on a nearly deserted island for $40 (this was a splurge! but worth every bit of it.), and a guesthouse in kep for $20 a night.

what you get for the cost spans everything from air conditioning to just a fan, a cold water shower or sometimes even a hot water shower and surprisingly, more often than not, comfortable beds. i remember only one very uncomfortable bed and it was basically a futon seemingly gone flat back in the 90s. a word about the bathrooms, too. typically they're tiled rooms with a toilet, a sink and a shower head. no shower stall or curtain, just a shower head. if you think about it, where else could you take a pee, brush your teeth, have a shower and clean the bathroom all at the same time? it's win-win-win-win.

almost every one of these rooms has had a mosquito net, and thank god. for the entrepreneurs out there, here's a suggestion. if you care to start an import business to bring window screens to this part of the world, you know, the part of the world with ALL THE MOSQUITOES? you'll be rich. there are none to be found, it's truly astounding. you're welcome.

hammock rentals, $2 for all day, along the sea.
they would even make you fried rice or noodles and
bring it to you while you swayed. kep, cambodia.

if our cambodian visas weren't about to run out, we'd still be in kep. if you're thinking of traveling to cambodia, and if you aren't, you should be, find your way to kep. seriously, now. kep has been a sleepy backwater on the south coast of the country, "the little sister" to kampot, as they're fond of saying. well, kampot is cool, but kep is on the water with some of the freshest crab in the world. that's their major claim, fresh crab. i would add an ever-present breeze, lush greenery, a tremendous national park with the best-marked system of trails in all of southeast asia and the most laid back population we've ever met. we sat in our restaurant and ordered the "kampot pepper crab." then we watched the woman wade out into the waves, retrieve a crab from the basket floating in front of us, take out a crab and walk back. minutes later, that poor sap was on our table and wow, was he tasty. if you aren't a big crab fan when you arrive, you will be when you leave. but things are changing, the money is pouring in, you can see it all over town. the people aren't here yet, but the hotels and roads to support them are going up as i type. oh, and that crab meal? $4. see what i'm saying?

our bus on the road between kep and phnom penh.
it's a beauty, no?

we took a bus from kep to phnom penh this week, a distance of 90 miles. ticket price? $4.50 per person. granted, not business class on british airways or anything, but a fine bus with full size seats and air conditioning. the funny thing is, the longer you're in this part of the world, the more skewed your expectations become. upon arriving in phnom penh, michelle noticed a sign for the bus in the opposite direction but here it was priced $7. "my god! $7? that's insane." let's be honest, we're talking the price of a large latte at starbucks.





being in phnom penh, the prices of things reflect "city" living. what we're talking about here is that entrees are now $4-$6 and tonight with dinner we purchased a "jar of beer," a pitcher really, for $3. and it was happy hour so we got another for free!

as i was typing this post, sitting in our $25 a night guesthouse (city prices) in phnom penh, the power went out. did we mention it was hot? no? well, it's nearly 10:30pm and it's 86 degrees. so long air conditioning. when the power goes out, they shrug their shoulders and say "we get our power from vietnam," like that explains everything.

here's a parting shot: a scooter ride along the south coast of cambodia.

no one else around to take our picture, so we did it ourselves. that there is the
gulf of thailand in the background. believe us, although we've been traveling for
seven months we are still astounded by the places in which we find ourselves.
and by how goofy humans look in helmets.
kep, cambodia. 

cambodian life as seen from the back of a scooter

they say travel changes people and it's true. take my wife, for instance, who from the back of a scooter across several southeast asian countries now has morphed from holding on like the responsible woman i used to know to something akin to buffalo-freaking-bill leaning out to the side with a camera in her hand.

road from kampot, on the way to market, kep, cambodia.

these were all shot from behind my head over the last couple of days as we've driven around kep and kampot, cambodia, on the very southern end of the country. it's the former vacation hang out of the french before being run out of the country in the 50s. 

luckily, we rarely exceed 35mph on these roads, otherwise said wife may have been long gone.

muslim girls on mopeds, kep, cambodia.

lunch can be had at 30mph... that's a huge vat of
steamed rice on the back there. kampot, cambodia.

holy monks in a minvan, batman!

about these roadside restaurants, reality hits home regarding the food you're eating when you take a stroll through a market like what this little video reveals.  but talk about fresh!

"restaurant," where typically we've found some of the best food.
side of the road, emissions and all. kampot, cambodia.

just chillin' after school, kampot, cambodia.

that's right. that there is a HUGE bronze durian, a.k.a. the worst smelling fruit in the world. it's right smack in the middle of the main traffic circle in kampot, which bills itself as the durian capital of cambodia.

life on the side of the road, near kampot, cambodia.

it's always a surprise when they actually drive near the shoulder and not in the middle of the road.

cambodian people's "pRaty."

cambodian people's "praty": maybe you'd think this party would start promising more money for schools, huh? just a thought.

road from kampot, and this is the "good" road!

we rode behind this dude for a few miles on a potholed, dusty road. he's on the back holding a five gallon water jug in one hand and a bag of paint cans in the other. his arms have got to be several inches longer today.

ok, not from the back of a scooter but this is a typical gas station stop in cambodia. $1.25 per liter. he hand cranks the gas from the 55 gallon drums up into the glass containers on top. then points his finger so i can watch a liter drain out. when i speak even one word in khmer he lights up and starts babbling on like i know what he's saying. it's total entertainment every time. i'm sure my reply to him, in khmer, meant something like "elephant poo, nice sunset." my khmer's not that good. 

so long laos, we hardly knew ya

wow. just wow. that's how we describe the last couple of weeks.

nam ou river, nong khiaw, laos. our view nearly each day.

it started way back in december while standing on the deck of a boat floating up the irrawaddy river in myanmar (burma) where we met a guy from the czech republic. seriously. he was traveling with his girlfriend and they had just come from laos. "oh, we're heading there soon, too," i said. "where's your guidebook," he asked "i have to show you what you should do."

book appears, maps are consulted and an itinerary is born. here's the key piece of advice: "everyone crosses at huay xai and turns right down the mekong for luang prabang. YOU want to turn left and head north."

so we did.

village on the road to luang nam tha, laos.
note the satellite dish next to thatched huts.

we crossed the border from thailand at chiang khong across the mekong river to huay xai, laos on january 29, 2012. we arrived just behind a tour group full of australians heading down the mekong on the slow boat. chaos? yep. did we know what to do? nope. by the time we made it even close to the first window, it was a scrum. bless my 4'11" wife who wedged her way to the front and pressed our passports, applications and photos through the window. someone behind the glass took them from her hand and we prayed for the best.

two hours later, laos visas in hand, we found a tuk-tuk to bring us to the bus station, which is inexplicably seven miles out of town, and bought two tickets to luang nam tha. happily, we met two brits, two germans and one israeli while waiting to depart. a ukulele and a guitar were produced and we filled the station with a mix of music. i hope the locals enjoyed it, we did.

bus to luang nam tha, laos. we have no idea if
the tickets in the aisle cost less.

bus rides in laos are one of the things that really bring home the fact that you are in southeast asia. all the seats sell out, then they load the aisle with bags of rice and fertilizer and whatever else people need to transport and they sell tickets to those willing to sit there. a bus meant for 40 people suddenly contains at least 65. air conditioning? ha.

we made a loop through northern laos over two weeks with our itinerary including luang nam tha, nong khiaw, muang ngoi, back to nong khiaw and down the nam ou river to luang prabang. each leg became more and more beautiful as we headed deeper into the hills that border myanmar to the west, china to the north and vietnam to the east.

boat to muang ngoi, laos. up the nam ou river.

our new love is muang ngoi, a tiny village up the nam ou river only accessible by boat. there are no cars, just one street (unpaved), no internet and electricity between 6pm and 9pm each night. we spent each day following the same agenda. breakfast, hiking to a village or up the river for a few hours, nap, dinner, beers, rinse and repeat. and all of that for a daily average of $30 for the two of us.

we took hikes out to villages a couple of hours inland surrounded by rice fields, spires of karst and water buffalo. we would stop, look around and think "this is why we travel." of course, a couple of times, we would just break out in smiles and say to each other "holy freaking cow, we're in laos!"

trail out of town, muang ngoi, laos.

needing to meet a friend in luang prabang, we took a six hour boat ride stuffed into a long tail boat for 70 miles downstream. average speed? mmm... about, 12 mph.

compared to the rest of northern laos, luang prabang turned out to be a little bit of carmel, ca in the middle of southeast asia. that's not a bad thing, either. with the lingering french influence from colonial times we suddenly had available to us croissants and baguettes. after days of rice and noodles (no complaint, mind you) we loved the bread. and, in addition to that, the best part of our arrival was seeing a dear friend sitting on the veranda of our hotel as we arrived. there she was, our friend jayne, in the middle of southeast asia. she traveled 36 hours to meet us on our travels. we had countless friends tell us "we'll meet you on the road, we can't wait." jayne is the first to make it a reality. how strange, however, to disembark from a boat on the mekong river after 6 hours, pull up to a hotel deep inside of laos and see a friend from san francisco looking like it was the most normal thing in the world.

our friend jayne crossing one more thing off her list: scooter
ride through the countryside of southeast asia.

it's been a good ride and we can see how attractive a return trip to laos could be. might be sooner than later, in fact.

but first, cambodia up next with the promise of old temples at angkor wat and blue seas off the shore of sihanoukville. we'll report back. 

a day in northern laos

objective: rent scooters, ride 40 miles through green mountains across the nam ha national protected area to muang sing on the chinese border with two germans. note: germans optional.

we opted for germans.

luang nam tha, laos

luang nam tha sits in the northern part of laos near the myanmar and chinese borders. it sits smack in the middle of one of the largest protected nature preserves in southeast asia, the nam ha npa. arriving by night, we had no idea what it looked like. all we saw was the main road in town lined with guesthouses and street stalls. in the morning, however, we saw green hills all around, especially to the north where a small road led to muang sing about 40 miles away, right through that beautiful nature preserve.

lina and flo from heidelburg, germany and us at
phagneung waterfall, laos.

lucky for us, two germans we met on the bus over asked us to come along. why yes, yes we'd love to. having already spent a day in luang nam tha we exhausted its, um, "charms." we wanted to head to the hills.

right out of town, the road headed upward. past hmong, akha and khmu and black tai villages built up the hillsides. we spent two and half hours gawking at the greenery, being chased by children yelling "sabaidee, sabaidee, sabaideeeee...", closed in by the mountains, the jungle, and darting around dogs and crazy-ass chickens.

although, we wouldn't have minded taking out a rooster or two as payback for all of the sleep we've been deprived of since arriving in this part of the world.

deep in the hills above luang nam tha, laos.

as we crested the mountains an hour up the road the sun started to shine and the entire world was green. like, REALLY green. and a few miles on we came across the phagneung waterfalls lured in by the "welcome to visit" sign. perfect timing to rest the butt, enjoy the sun and stretch the legs for a short hike. but first, there's the obligatory, confused conversation with the guy at the pay booth. it's always a small victory to survive one of those. and on we went up one of the more beautiful trails we've ever seen. and not another soul to be seen.

laundry and "broom grass" harvest outside muang sing, laos.
seriously, they make brooms. and somewhere over there is china.

another hour later, we made it to muang sing. a mere five miles from the border with china. borders are arbitrary but it seemed so cool to have come so far overland and be that close to yet another country, deep inside the republic of laos. anyway, muang sing was a hole! a flat, dusty grid of a village surrounded by beautiful rice paddies and broom grass harvests leading to a range of hills separating laos from china.

stop for gas, somewhere in the villages above luang nam tha, laos.
one liter for $1.20 purchased from a shack on the side of the road.
that lady there holding the bottle? she's the, um, "attendant."

noodles were eaten, fruit was purchased and two and a half hours of riding back to luang nam tha needed to be covered before nightfall. we filled up our tank in luang nam tha in the morning and used about half a tank to get over the mountains. perfect, we thought, another half tank back. well, apparently, gas meters on scooters in southeast asia don't act so even minded. suddenly our gas meter plunged to empty as we crested the hills. we had another hour and a half ride to get back home. we found a small village with suspicious looking bottles of liquid. "is that liquor or is that gas?" i turned around, gestured toward the bottles, then gestured toward our scooter and understanding was had. we found gas! we found gas in the middle of the hills, in the middle of nowhere, in a very small village at a hut that also sold lays potato chips, of all things, and cigarettes. sweet... we're gonna make it!

back home with sore butts and windblown faces, over a "beer laos," pretty much the only beer one can find in laos, we dug into a local dish called "jeow." essentially different ingredients boiled, smoked and smashed into a paste and eaten by hand with sticky rice. this was no ordinary jeow, it was rattan jeow. the marrow of a palm stem cut out, boiled and mixed with spices. it tasted like wood. ok, so maybe not a huge success around the table but it certainly put an exclamation mark on a day in northern laos.