Friday, July 29, 2005

Friends in Vang Vieng

We're in Vang Vieng now. It's a beautiful setting with limestone karsts and rivers. It's a small town that sprouted about around a now-disused landing strip (from the war?), and now filled with backpacker cafes with episodes of "Friends" playing back-to-back -- strange, I know, but the surrounding is fantastic. We visited a cave today and swam in a cool natural spring coming from the mountain. This place is magical. We've decided to forgo going to the Plain of Jars for more rest-time here. From here, we'll head to Vientiane, the capital of Laos. Coming down through Laos, I ran into a couple of friends from Mae Sot, Hanna and Caroline, who were headed up the Mekong. I've also run into a Dutch dude that I met in Mae Sot on my last night there, saw again in Chiang Mai, and again in Luang Prabang, and again today. This is a small world. It is wierd how well-tread the beaten path is in Southeast Asia. When I was leaving Chiang Mai, I ran into a whole group of Mae Sot volunteers in a bar. We had a good time hanging out -- I could have sworn I was still in Mae Sot!

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