I Heart Laos

They sell t-shirts here with that slogan and it's true, I do. I'm not sure I've ever been to a more chill place. Today I walked around some more and ended up crossing a rickety bamboo bridge which led me to a village where they weave the many silk scarves you can find in the market and make paper out of mulberry, bamboo, even elephant dung. It was a beautiful walk. The weather here is perfect at this time of year - cool at night and hot during the day.

Cristiano from Brazil left this morning and the rest of the gang heads out tomorrow, but I'll be staying on for at least a couple more days. Tonight we hit the night market and Jasper bought some things to try to sell back in Belgium, inspired by my plan. He has so much energy and was a blast to shop with. We were able to pool our buying power as well, which is always good.

Everything pretty much closes here at 11:30, even the bars. So it's maybe a little too sleepy, but I guess it keeps people out of trouble, namely the tourists. Currently I'm outside at a table of a closed restaurant, next to the restaurant where I got tea this morning. This morning's restaurant had free wifi so I am now stealing their signal. And listening to really, really awful karaoke from some bar near the river. Why is it that the tone-deaf are the most enthusiastic crooners? Ay yay yay.


Monk robes hanging out to dry.


Silk worms, right, and the fruits of their labor, left.


Silk thread waiting to be spun into a fabulous scarf.