On the Road Again

I have a lot to catch up on. This is partly because of another bonehead move I made two nights ago. I accidentally permanently deleted my Thai Jungle post that I had published the day before. Luckily, despite its length, I was able to rewrite it today almost verbatim. I guess that's the one good thing about my painfully slow writing and editing process; by the time I publish a post it is entirely committed to short term memory. 

I also have a lot to catch up on because since my return from the jungle trek, I haven't had much time alone. I haven't done anything particularly exciting, unless you count reading Speaker for the Dead, but I certainly managed to get myself into a predicament reminiscent of those common throughout a couple of my summers in France. (Check out my first blog if you'd like a better idea of what I'm talking about. embroideredyarns.blogspot.com) I won't get into it now but I promise the details soon. The important thing to know now is that I've acquired a travel companion from all this.

We left Chiang Mai yesterday for Laos and took a pit stop in Chiang Rai to break up the 8 hour bus ride. Chiang Rai is a neat place with a completely different feel. There is a lot of neat art in the streets.

Chiang Rai Clock Tower

Wandering around, we stumbled upon one of the funniest things I've seen on this trip. Imagine an open air Thai aerobics class in which all the participants, mostly middle-aged women, are wearing new style, neon laced western exercise clothing, and are attentively following a flamboyant instructor clapping randomly while bouncing around on a stage between two giant speakers blaring Thai pop music. I saw this. In fact, I couldn't look away. I popped a squat on a nearby curb for a good fifteen minutes and stared until it ended.

Today we left the Garden Guesthouse bright and early to catch a local bus to the Laos border. The two hour ride through the mountains was absolutely beautiful. The old local bus, with its hard, cramped seats and shoddy suspension, was not. That said, the ride was actually quite enjoyable overall since the windows and doors were left open the entire way. It did cross my mind that that might actually be because they couldn't close anymore. Regardless, I love the feel of being on the open road with the wind in my hair, so to speak. 

Getting across the Laos border, dealing with a new currency, and finding the right bus to Luang Namtha was another folkloric adventure. Not to mention the bus ride itself -- four or so hours in what I'll generously call a downgrade from the previous bus, only to get to the bus station here after dark and wait 45 minutes for our tuk tuk driver to do apparently nothing but stand around. The beauty of all this is that I enjoyed every second of it. The people here are so smiley, and what I saw of the country on the drive in was every bit as awe inspiring as any other place I've been.