It's a start

Right, so this is not going to be very long or even from the beginning but at least I'm writing something and making contact. All I can say is that I think this computer and all computers in Laos have been clobbered about their units a few times and are more than just a little bit slow.

Right now all I want to talk about is the self - styled trek Sarah - and I really feel sarah was the ringleader in this as she lulled us into a false sense of security b/c she can read maps and understands how machinery works, Maya and I went for a wander around Nong Khiaw. Nong Khiaw is as maya says 'epic' like the mountains you see in chinese drawings - limestone casks with tons of green vegetation and mist coming in and out, over an emerald green river - the kind of place you expect to find thousands of tourists hopping on and off air-con buses snapping and flashing everything. Anyway I digress.... so the setting wasn't enough for my two companions and after having been on a guided trek - that cost, sarah seemed pretty sure she could handle any stretch. So we set off and w/in minutes we were into the jungle and far away from the noises of boats and fishermen and children washing clothes and lettuces by the stream. Then Maya pointed out what could have been either blood spatter or a berry juice that the villagers suck on and it stains their mouths and teeth red as if they had just ripped the beating heart out of a fawn... or at least that's how I see it. So then thoughts raced through my head - that maybe because we were so close to the golden triangle there were secret opium plantations and that they hacked anyone to pieces who accidently stumbled upon their set up. Then I started to wonder about unexploded land mines and being blown to bits, then I thought about being eaten either by a tiger or a snake or poisoned by a funnel web spider. Or maybe even villagers who were cannibals and preyed upon silly backpackers like us who they could just pick off..... But in the end we made it to a village where everyone was very friendly - either b/c they thought we were ghosts - which apparently they sometimes do if you aren't with a tour guide, or b/c we gave the kids balloons - would win me over anytime.

Then we reached the river and watched the boat men glide past on the wide mekong. Then we got lost for 3 hours trying to bushwack our way back through bramble and thicket and scaled cliff edges and sunk in quicksand and eventually got back to the guesthouse very bedraggled and dirty - feeling like Kathleen Turner in romancing the Stone after having lost my footing on a ledge and landed on my left knee in the splits. Next time, I'm gonna sip green tea at the guesthouse.