Ahhhhh…

Nope, I didn’t get a massage, I just got rid of my backpack. Today was a travel day, which means you’re going to get some serious exercise whether you want to or not. I bought some things in Laos to add to my collection and was planning to send them home. However, as I discovered, it costs way more to ship from here than from India. That seems to be the general theme of this trip: India is super cheap. So I decided to compress them as much as possible and stuff them into my backpack. It worked, but now my bag is chock-full and weighs three kilos more. I may end up giving in at some point.

I definitely have the sense that I’m nearing the end of my trip. It’s a self-imposed pressure, I suppose, but I’m being way more budget-conscious these days. I’m trying to prepare myself for the shock of spending as much on groceries as I can get by on for a week over here. Yikes.

Yesterday I met a guy from Alabama who had spent the past six years in Ladakh, northern India working for an NGO. He also happens to be into photography and is hoping to try to make a living doing that now. His stuff puts my photography skills to shame. Check it out: http://www.photoshelter.com/c/nomadruss. Definitely National Geographic material if I’ve ever seen it. Anyway, he was fun to talk to, and we ended up going to an Indian restaurant. He remarked that even in pristine Luang Prabang, this place definitely had an Indian feel to it. It was rundown, almost a little dirty, but the food was delicious. And the strangest thing is that I actually found myself feeling nostalgic for India. Yes, there are definitely things that I absolutely hate about India, but at the same time there’s something special about the place. I never ever thought I would consider it a cooler place to travel, but it kind of is. Southeast Asia is easy, which is nice, but in some ways it’s too easy. India really makes you work for it. It’s amazing what time and distance can do for your perspective.

Yesterday I went to Kuang Si waterfall, the one my friends had biked to. It was lovely.. Here are some pics from the day.


The waterfall.


Outdoor bath.


Village woman sewing.