Left Vang Vieng with everyone who had been staying at the 'Les Jardiens' hotel except the American honeymoon couple. An Israeli family on the bus watched out for me.

Six hours ride with the first two full of gorgeous views of the Vang Vieng mountain range. The next four hours we passed many adorable villages on the roadside. The road was very very windy and it was hard to get any sleep. Arrived at Luang Prabang and met a Canadian couple named John and Jocyln who owned the 'Healthy & Fresh Bakery' on the main tourist street. Jocyln was a looker.

They said it required a $60,000 US investment to get Lao government approval and resident status. That is a lot of bread.

They are not themselves bakers and copied the whole concept from the previous owner of an identical establishment in the capital Vientian (French understanding of the name Wang Chan) which is now owned by John's brother. John got offended when I introduced him to the next person as "a Baker," and corrected me saying he was not a baker "I'm and entrepeneur."

Found a funky guesthouse in Laung Prabang after some looking. No email from Dan san and Hide as planned to tell me which guesthouse they are staying at. I did, however, see many people that saw them.

Ate dinner with Itzak the special forces Israeli badass and Toni the Aussie at a great Lao restaurant – saw Dan San and company there by accident. Made a date to visit Kuang Si waterfall the next day.


Monday Oct 9, 2000

Visited Kuang Si waterfall one hour out of town by boat – very cool – we did yoga as a group on the platform in front of the crashing water, ate chewy water buffalo meat, went to the steam room at the red cross when we got back to town that evening. Went out for beers later with everyone plus two Norweigan girls we met at the falls. I got right pissed.

We played a drinking game called 21. In 21 everyone at the table counts the next number starting at one and ending at 21. This is a memory based drinking game that depends on quick recall. Quick recall and drinking!

Needless to say I was the worst at this and got the most inebriated of the whole group. I think the six of us drank nearly 30 one and a half litre beers.

In 21 each number between 1 and 21 eventually gets replaced with a motion, word or phrase. Also, every so often a new rule is introduced such as "player may not use any proper names of other players" or "left hand only for picking up the glass" etc. For example, by the middle of the game some of our numbers had been replaced by:

1 = saying "oh aw" and throwing both hands up in the air
2 = making a farty noise against the back of your hand
3 = kiss the cheek of the person on your left
4 = deep breathe in while raising arms up to over head with sweeping yoga motion
5 = kiss the person's cheek on your right
10 = saying "luang prabang is nam lai lai" (this means "luang prabang is beautiful")
20 = asking "what do you think of Pousi?" (this is the humorous name of the main hill in town)

Many many rules. I lost and when I awoke in the morning miraculously back at the hotel could not find my pants!


Thursday October 10, 2000

So tired. Just talked with a man named Bong from Hong Kong all morning – may be funniest man I've ever met – laughed me head off. family is from Hong Kong but grew up speaking London cockney. I learned lots of English slang from him.

Did email, steam, massage. Met the Norweigen girls on the street – made a plan for Wednesday with them, made a different plan for the same time period with Dan and company. We all met for breakfast the next day.

Wednesday October 11, 2000

Ended up going with the two Norweigans to Tad Se waterfall. Much warmer and better for swimming than the other fall. Ate many bamboo tubes of Khao Lam (sticky or glutinous rice mixed with coconut milk and sugar and steamed in a sealed off natural length of Bamboo – now that is packaging your snack food organically) with the others and climbed joyfully on the falls with a pack of brave little local boys.