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When life is tough I look back at photos to remind me of places and people.
A few years ago, I was in Northern Laos and spent three days traveling around.
There really aren't 'sights' there, just heart stopping rural beauty.
We were up near the town of Muang Sing (top of Laos) which is in the center of the Golden Triangle, going around on rented motorbikes, little Hondas.
To give you some idea how 'far away' that is.
22 hours to Bangkok by plane, stopping in Kyoto.
overnight train to Nong Khai, on the Thai side of the Mekong, then a short bus ride over the Mekong to Vientiane
We traveled by bus from Vientiane to Luang Prabang 11 hours - about $10
Then, a couple of days later, another bus from Luang Prabang to Luang Namtha - as I remember about 9 hours, not counting the breakdown in the mountains for about an hour.
Then Muang Sing was only about 2 hours by bus.
My companions were a young Chinese woman and a 6'8" Welchman, quite a sight in rural Laos. Two of us rented motorbikes to go around outside the town; the Welchman was a jock and rented a bicycle.
Not many roads there and virtually all are dirt and usually end up as paths on paddy dikes, navigable by the Lao without ending in the water - not by me.
We got lost several times, were pulled in to have a drink in a Lao wedding (rice whiskey at noon in the sun is powerful) and then eventually stopped for lunch.
These pictures were taken at a tiny (one table) roadside restaurant.
The 'restaurant' was actually just the front of a house and from the looks we got from the locals hadn't seen many non-Lao or non-Chinese.
The road was well paved because there was a Chinese factory nearby and the factory paved the road between where we were and the Chinese border - (about 8 miles)
When we stopped our motor bikes in front of the house, the older girl, who was the waitress was stunned into immobility and the younger girl, who was drying thatch on the road was tickled.
Eventually she handed us a menu, written in Lao and we picked food at random.
Evidently her mother was cooking because we saw no one else.
Food was OK, she wrote the cost on a small piece of paper and never made a sound the entire time we were there.
A few years ago, I was in Northern Laos and spent three days traveling around.
There really aren't 'sights' there, just heart stopping rural beauty.
We were up near the town of Muang Sing (top of Laos) which is in the center of the Golden Triangle, going around on rented motorbikes, little Hondas.
To give you some idea how 'far away' that is.
22 hours to Bangkok by plane, stopping in Kyoto.
overnight train to Nong Khai, on the Thai side of the Mekong, then a short bus ride over the Mekong to Vientiane
We traveled by bus from Vientiane to Luang Prabang 11 hours - about $10
Then, a couple of days later, another bus from Luang Prabang to Luang Namtha - as I remember about 9 hours, not counting the breakdown in the mountains for about an hour.
Then Muang Sing was only about 2 hours by bus.
My companions were a young Chinese woman and a 6'8" Welchman, quite a sight in rural Laos. Two of us rented motorbikes to go around outside the town; the Welchman was a jock and rented a bicycle.
Not many roads there and virtually all are dirt and usually end up as paths on paddy dikes, navigable by the Lao without ending in the water - not by me.
We got lost several times, were pulled in to have a drink in a Lao wedding (rice whiskey at noon in the sun is powerful) and then eventually stopped for lunch.
These pictures were taken at a tiny (one table) roadside restaurant.
The 'restaurant' was actually just the front of a house and from the looks we got from the locals hadn't seen many non-Lao or non-Chinese.
The road was well paved because there was a Chinese factory nearby and the factory paved the road between where we were and the Chinese border - (about 8 miles)
When we stopped our motor bikes in front of the house, the older girl, who was the waitress was stunned into immobility and the younger girl, who was drying thatch on the road was tickled.
Eventually she handed us a menu, written in Lao and we picked food at random.
Evidently her mother was cooking because we saw no one else.
Food was OK, she wrote the cost on a small piece of paper and never made a sound the entire time we were there.
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