My Continuing Love Affair with Laos

This place just keeps getting better! Every new place I go is great in a totally new way, yet the qualities that make Laos great are always present. It's beautiful, it's rugged, it's fun, it's friendly, and it's the most chill place I have ever been. It hasn't bumped Italy for favorite country status, but its way up there on the list for sure. But Laos falls short in two of the most important categories, food and music -- the food is just average and a bit limited, and the music outright sucks (in fact, I'm here at the internet cafe right now because there is a party with a live band in the yard behind my guesthouse, playing music that would make a deaf person cringe.)

I read a few things in the Lonely Planet that are really telling about the people of Laos. They believe in karma; specifically, that a person's fate is already determined, so it doesn't really matter how hard you try, things will still turn out the same. They also believe that too much thinking can be bad for you, and that if something isn't fun, then it's not worth doing. Add 30 years of a communist government on top of that, and you have the slowest moving, most laid back country on earth! It's a good thing too, because the territory is unbelievably beautiful, and if it were inhabited by a more ambitious people, much of it may have been razed and developed.

This is the kind of place where you get in the habit of going to eat about an hour before you know you will get hungry, because the food usually takes about that long to come. You can walk out of a restaurant without paying and no one will say anything (did that by accident actually, and when we came back to pay they still hadn't noticed, nor did they remember what we ordered.) And the tuk-tuk drivers, who will practically chase you down the street to offer a ride in other countries, can often be found sleeping in hammocks in the back of their tuk-tuks.

The most bizzare thing I've experienced so far though is the Luang Prabang night market. It's pretty big and they sell all sorts of handicrafts and nicknacks. The vendors just set up right on the ground with little lamps, so you sit down with them and shop by by the light of a single bulb. The bizzare thing though is how quiet it is. Markets anywhere else would be buzzing with activity and noise, but this market is downright serene. There are plenty of people too, but no one really makes a lot of noise. It's wonderful too.

I have about 2 weeks until my visa runs out, and I plan to spend all of it here.