A Painful Two Weeks.

Nov 14, 7:41 PM
Wang Nam Khieo, Thailand




          As the title would suggest the past two weeks have been painful for me. Physically. I spent one week in Singburi, Thailand participating in a Muay Thai boxing class and this week doing a cycling tour and trekking through Wang Nam Khieo, Thailand. For those of you who are unaware what Muay Thai is, it's one of the most popular fighting styles in Southeast Asia. Also known as the "art of eight limbs" because you use both your elbows and knees in addition to hands and feet. Let me run you through the past fourteen painful days of my life.

         Last week was my Muy Thai class. You have to take into consideration a few things. One being that I hadn't been keeping up with my fitness since I left the states about 2 and 1/2 months ago. I haven't been eating clean, I haven't been doing cardio, lifting, anything really. You also need to consider that my history of fighting lessons is minimal to none. Sure I did some Tae Kwon Do when I was younger like every other 13 year old ever, but that doesn't really count for much. I'v'e also never been in a fight, well kinda, but lets go with no. So needless to say this week was going to be a wake up call, and I knew that. I would be waking up at 5 AM to make my way over to the gym, warm up for an hour with running and jump rope, and then train for an hour. Then head back to my accommodation and rinse and repeat at 4 PM in the afternoon. All together it was three to four hours of training a day. My body was not happy with me.

        By the second day I was already struggling. By the end of the week I was in even worse condition, my ankle was swollen from kicking so much, my whole body was sore, my shins were broken and bruised, and it was a painful chore to even walk. But in all honesty I loved it. It was a different pace then other things I've done like the gym, or biking, sports, cross fit, anything really. It kept me very engaged the whole time. The family that was teaching me consisted of a father and two sons. This family made me look like the fat kid in P.E. class on the day when everyone had to run the mile. The sons were in amazing shape. I wouldn't be surprised if they were handed a pair of gloves and thrown in the ring soon after coming out of the womb. The father, who must have been at least 50+ years old never did get tired, and was the one letting me take breaks during training. And although I was battered and broken by the end of the week it was an amazing experience.

      Week two was a cycling tour through a part of Thailand called Wang Nam Khieo. At least 35km a day through the countryside. I have a new found hate for hills. This part of Thailand, with gorgeous rolling hills and countless farms and resorts sprinkled across the landscape. We made our way through vineyards, flower gardens, national parks and even a mushroom farm. They had everything mushroom you could imagine. Mushroom jerky, mushroom fries, mushroom bread, mushroom lotion, mushroom balms, and even mushroom wine. At the end of day three we drove to the top of a national park. It was about a 20 minute ride to the top with a fairly steep incline. The view at the top was tremendous and when we were done I asked if I could take my bike down this beast of a hill. My guide gave me a resounding "Yes" and that's all the motivation I needed and I fired up the GoPro and was on my way down this beast of a hill. I'll be honest, before I even committed to going down this hill I had already accepted the fact that I was probably going to crash. The bike I was using was technically a mountain bike but it wasn't a great piece of human ingenuity by any means. In addition I consider myself a fairly advanced rider but I'm no Dave Mira. I gunned it down this hill as fast as I could without flat out smashing my face into the ground and made it a good 9 minutes until it happened. As I came around a sharp corner I hit the breaks too hard, my back tire slid out and down I went, using my knees and elbow to soften my graceful demise into the dirt, sand and stone. Standing there, bloodied and bruised I waited for my ride. The look on my guides face when she came down in the truck was quite enjoyable when she saw the blood streaming down my legs from the crash. Off to the clinic we went to patch up my poor and bloodied knees. A successful yet painful day of riding.

Later that week instead of cycling through the countryside as per the norm we had scheduled a trek.  For those of you who don't travel much, treks are just trips in which you trudge through the jungle and enjoy nature and shit. Real good stuff from what I hear, even if your not one of those tree hugger types. So I was looking forward to it, but I was in for a surprise. The list of things that made this trip go south quick is fairly extensive. So let me elucidate for you. First things first our guide. Holy shit our guide.

This guy was a moron. He looked like a moron, acted like a moron, sounded like a moron (even though I don't speak Thai), and if I had gotten close enough to him (which I fucking didn't) probably smelled like a moron. The man was probably in his mid to late 30's. He had brown, beaten and weathered skin, obviously from the village life he'd been enjoying for the past thirty whatever years since he crawled out of his undoubtedly just as ugly mother's womb. Please, if you can imagine, for one moment, the skin of one of those old Scottsdale grandmothers with way to much money who have spent more time in a tanning bed since the early 1930's than a normal person spends in a normal bed their whole lives, to the point where there skin is so dark and wrinkled it looks like a Mexican's ball sack... Okay, did you imagine that pretty little picture in your head? Well great, now stretch that ball sack across a 5 foot 6' Thai man's frame, put the brain of a mentally disabled 12 year old in his head and that was my guide for my lovely day trekking through the not so wonderful jungle of Wang Nam Khieo, Thailand. If I haven't't given you a good enough physical description well lets just name the guy Mowgli (Pronounced Mow-glee just in case you had a horrible childhood and never saw the movie and don't know how to speak) for all respective purposes. You know, Mowgli? Mowgli the man cub from the Disney movie The Jungle Book. The one who makes friends with Baloo the bear and gallivants around the jungle avoiding Shere Khan the big bad tiger. He looks, to put it simply, like a monkey boy. Similar to if Mowgli's aspiring acting career took a dive and he fell into a deep depression filled with alcoholism and extreme drug abuse. That is a pretty spot on description.


                                                             Mowgli from the Jungle Book.

Now with Mowgli being our tour guide and all you would think he would have some semblance of the word "hospitality" or "guide" or some general regard for the well being of those he was dragging through this forest. But you would be wrong. Dead wrong. Because if I didn't know better I would say that Mowgli forgot we were there half the time. There were a few times where he would walk so far ahead of the group that I couldn't see him anymore, and I would just be hoping that I was going in the right direction. Then out of nowhere he would pop up, smile his stupid little smile, and keep on keeping on, without a worry in the world. This guy wouldn't know hospitality if it walked right up to him, greeted him with a warm "Hello sir, how may I assist you today?" upgraded him to the Presidential Suite at the MGM Grand in Vegas, handed him a beer in one hand, a pack of condoms in the other with a hooker wrapped around his waist and sent him on his merry way. A total dipshit. I think Mowgli would have actually have preferred it if we got lost in this mad house of a jungle. Then he could just run off and do whatever the fuck he pleased, whatever that may be, whether it consisted of eating bugs, or swinging from vine to vine or smashing little rocks with bigger rocks to make more little rocks or whatever. Who cares.

Now regardless of the misfortunes of our guide today I still had hopes that this trek could be cool and enjoyable. And even if it wasn't that great, it was only 3 hours right? Or at least what that is what they had told me. The first few hours were fine. My knees were bandaged up from the previous days biking antics but they quickly were torn away by the constant tearing and scraping of the leaves, grass, vines, and every other plant that somehow managed only to hit my newly acquired gashes, leaving them bloody and open for the whole jungle world to do with what they pleased. After awhile I just ignored the pain and just kept on trying to enjoy what little I could of this jungle. But it was hard, I was hot, sweaty, bloody and being lead by someone with probably less of an IQ than my dog. Three hours passed finally and we came upon a river that we were to cross before we arrived at the waterfall, our destination. This supposed waterfall was the reason we trudged through mud, dirt, and spider webs, and razor grass, jungle vines and all such things a normal person would rather avoid. Like I said, in order to get to the waterfall we had to cross this river. So naturally you would assume there would be some safe way to get across this river that our oh so valiant guide had previously fashioned. But no, that would be asking far too much apparently. I see him pull up his pants up to past his knees and waltz right in. Now this river wasn't the Mississippi but if you had lost your footing and slipped into the river there was no way Mowgli or anyone else was going to save you as you helplessly floated away to your unfortunate and wet demise. Again, Mowgli's regard for our safety as his trusted followers was about as apparent as his knowledge of Quantum Physics, which I can only assume was less than none. But alas we made it across unscathed albeit fairly soaked. After we crossed the river and walked downstream a bit we arrived at "the waterfall". If you want to call it that. If I wasn't so exhausted and hungry at this point I would have voiced my displeasure at putting so much effort into trekking towards and looking at such an mediocre and unsatisfying thing as this. If you can imagine a bunch of big black rocks with water pouring over them in every which direction you pretty much have imagined what I was looking at. Now I wasn't expecting Niagara Fucking Falls but seriously? This had to be some sick joke someone was playing on me, getting back at me for some stupid drunken and rude thing I had done long ago and long forgotten about. 






                                                             
                                                              Worthless "Waterfall"


After a surprisingly not so horrible lunch and faking my interest in this excruciatingly uninteresting pile of wet rocks we started to make our journey back. At this point about 5 hours had passed and I was dreading the journey back. At some point the 3 hour trek that I was promised had turned into what was now turning out to be an 8 hour trek. Now I'm not sure if it was a miss-communication of language, or someone had mixed up a 3 and an 8 somewhere (they do look similar I guess?) or if it was just the total incompetency of Mowgli, or a horrible mix of the three. But whatever it was it was apparent that this journey was not 3 hours and that it never, in fact, was supposed to be three hours. I angrily accepted this fact as I bore through the forest only finding comfort in the fact that this journey was finally closer to its end than it was to its beginning.

As we made our way back two things became apparent to me about Mowgli. One being that throughout our little trek he had constantly been filling up his water bottle with river water. Now in Thailand your not even supposed to drink tap water let alone stagnant creek water that probably has diseases the human race hasn't even discovered yet in it. The phrase "It must be something in the water" came to mind and it suddenly became clear to me that this deranged fool had probably been affected from drinking dirty creek water his whole life and that contributed significantly to his stupidity. Or maybe I'm wrong and he was just born dumb. That's probably it. Whatever the case may be the second thing I realized was that Mowgli had a machete. Now I'm no expert but I can guess that a jungle guide uses his machinate to cut through brush that has grown over or vines and plants that have fallen over into the pathway, in which case you cut through them so you and your group can proceed. Pretty basic stuff. But as Mowgli stomped through the forest instead of cutting the debris and vines out of our way he found it a much better use of his time to pick up random tree branches and fashion himself various walking sticks with his machete. He would then use these walking sticks for a short period of time before tossing them off into the wilderness and start laughing hysterically. I'm not sure if it was at this point or before that I realized he was probably not just retarded, but mad, like the crazy or slightly insane kind of mad. Which lead me to another thought. Here we were out in the middle of nowhere in the jungle with a half brain dead, crazy local Thai man brandishing a machete. For all we knew he could be leading us into a  total death trap in which he kills us, cooks us, and eats us out in the middle of nowhere and no one would ever know except his village people, who were probably in on the deal as long as they got some human flesh out of it. Fuck! We were dead for sure. Or maybe I was just being paranoid and my mind was wandering to try and keep myself preoccupied and not thinking about how miserable I was. At this point I didn't even bother with scraping off bugs or brushing away the spider webs I had walked through. It was pointless. Mosquitoes were gnawing at my bloodied knees but at this point I could care less. I was too focused on the light at the end of the tunnel.

Finally after what seemed like ages the staff member that was with me, Tuk was her name, piped up to announce that we had only about 10 minutes to the edge of the jungle. Back to civilization at last! It was like sweet music to my ears. It was like Pamela Anderson in her prime before she had been deflowered and filled with putridness and STD's, whispering sweet nothings into my brain on an abandoned island somewhere of the coast of Indonesia with nothing but the warm sun on my face, a cold margarita in my hand and my new found love Ms. Anderson to keep me company. Yeah.. that's pretty much what it sounded like. Freedom. Finally we broke through the dense jungle and I saw the light of day. I was filled with new life and within the next 30 minutes I was back in the truck on my way back to my wonderful hillside resort with my WiFi, hot running water, normal human food, filtered water and bed.

Now I could be all morbid and say there was nothing to gain from my 8 hour trek through the deep bowels of the Thai forest. But that would be selfish and negative of me. True it is that if someone had informed me previous to going on this trek that in fact I would be spending 8 hours (not three) in the hot and humid jungle, that I would rip open my freshly acquired wounds only to be feasted on by half the mosquitoes in Thailand, that I would be lead and guided by Forrest Gump's long lost retarded Thai step brother, and that we were going to go look at a glorified river, I most likely wouldn't have gone. But that would be putting a negative spin on things. And I like to think of myself as a positive person. Shit, I mean I have "Don't worry be happy" tattooed above my Johnson so how negative can I really be. So here goes. If I hadn't endured these 8 hours of pain there is absolutely NO way I would be able to bring you such an enthralling account of my horrible experience. And as my reader you can both live vicariously through me and enjoy my displeasure and discomfort while you sit on the other side of your screen enjoying your overpriced Starbucks coffee while your wrapped up in your Snuggie. The other positive thing about my experience was... well..? I suppose lunch wasn't that bad.

So as you can see, a painful but not uneventful two weeks for me. That is all for now. Good day and goodbye!
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Bangkok. (Parental Advisory: Explicit Content)

Nov 3 2013 12:12 AM
Bangkok, Thailand

              Before you read this one. This one's gonna get down and dirty, so if you are under the age of 18 or you are my mother. Please, for your own sake (and for whatever morals, ethics, and dignity I still have intact after my experience in this city) close this now.


                Usually I have some sly, witty, sarcastic thing to say or open up with. But Bangkok has left me at a loss for words. I've been to clubs, I've been to Vegas, I've had my fair share of partying and doing dumb and crazy shit, I've seen a naked girl or two, but this place is on another level. Lets see if I can find the right words in this brain of mine to paint you an acceptable picture. One that tries (but will ultimately fail because simple words cannot do this place justice) to put this insane city into the slightest of perspective for you. Keep in mind that as I write this, sitting out in front of my hostel, it is almost 1AM and there is club music coming from every corner and crevice, people walking, dancing, drinking, partying, eating, living.. and probably dying in the streets. And there is no sign of this ebbing. Now down to business.

Now, dear reader. I have an interactive reading activity for you.

-If you have been to the Las Vegas strip raise your hand.
-If you have not been to the Las Vegas strip, use said hand, grab your mouse, book a flight and a hotel, and go. Now. Stop reading. And go.

This city, Bangkok, is Vegas on drugs. The type of drugs that don't let you sleep and make you do things that no sane person would do. This city is cheaper, faster, crazier and deserves the nickname "The city that never sleeps" much more than Vegas ever has.

          Lets start from the top. I was like a lost puppy when I got dropped off by Mr. Pong, (an ironically fitting name for this city, you'll find out why later) my cab driver from the airport who, when he didn't understand what I was saying just smiled and laughed and said "Yes yes yes". Nice guy. But like I said, I was like a lost puppy who had just been dropped off in lost puppy paradise filled with treats, toys and owners who were willing to give you what you wanted, when you wanted it, no questions asked. The street is named Khao San Road, and prior to coming to Asia I had never heard of it, but it is infamous in every sense of the word among backpackers and travelers alike.



Khao San Road At Sunset

           I proceeded to walk around a bit, taking in the scenery and sheer feeling of being overwhelmed. Stands of every type of clothing you would want with anything and everything you could think of plastered on said clothing, watches, wristbands, purses, backpacks, electronics, food stands, fruit stands, massage parlors, tattoo parlors, clubs, restaurants, bars, fortune tellers, and suit shops, all in once place for your viewing and participating pleasure. Like I said, overwhelming. I think it was pretty obvious to the locals on the streets that I was a newbie, practically staring, wide eyed, with my jaw just about hitting the floor, not knowing which way to look, like a 10 year old who just saw his dads Playboy for the first time and was trying to keep any sense of composure. At least, I can only assume that is what I looked like, because I had about 100 offers for just about anything and everything from the street salesmen within the first 10 minutes of walking down this road. But I'm a resilient kid, so after 100 or so "No thank you I don't want to buy your shit"'s later, I found myself a hotel and set up shop.

        My first night out and about was pretty standard. Found myself some Wi-Fi and some food, had a few drinks here and there, met a few people around town. And bam! Before I know it I'm stumbling around, dancing in the streets with some English people I met, rapping Biggie Smalls and Tupac songs or cozying up next to some bar blasting Avicci and Steve Aoiki and making an obvious fool of myself dancing around. At one point I was convinced to eat a fried scorpion. Which tasted similar to if you took slime, covered it in charcoal, and fried it. My stomach then decided that "You are a fucking idiot, get that out of me now" so the sidewalk and I got real well acquainted as I threw up scorpion all over the ground. To my surprise no one batted an eye, but I'm sure this isn't the first time they've seen a white guy throwing up bugs. But hey! At least I can say I've eaten scorpion. You can't. I win. Needless to say, I got too drunk and stumbled home at the ripe old time of 12AM. It was an early one for this Arizona cowboy. Welcome to Bangkok Benjamin.

              Then came Halloween, my favorite holiday of the year. Any excuse to dress up and act stupid and have a good time is my cup of tea. What happened next wouldn't have ever happened had it not been for my new friend George. George owns the hostel that I stayed at. Cheap rooms, free Wi-Fi, and he offers a little extra something something. He knows this town like the back of his hand. Want to sightsee? He'll tell you what to go see and the cheapest way to get there. Want some good food? He knows where to go. Want to see the things that make Bangkok famous? He'll take you. If you find yourself in Bangkok and have no idea where to go, he can help you out here. And that's exactly what happened to me. Except tonight is special, because tonight is Halloween. People are out in droves, some dressed to the 9's, some who think that covering yourself in fake blood is a Halloween outfit, and some who are just out for a night on the town. I had no idea what to expect.

          The group for the night was just a few people from the hostel. A German, a Puerto Rican, two Canadian girls, our chauffer George and I. First stop was a sort of red light district where hookers line the street outside their clubs. The street is about half a mile long and they are everywhere, apparently this is a hotspot for Japanese men that live in Bangkok. Too many girls, I didn't know what to think... some things that DID come to mind though:

-"Wait, are those braces? Is that girl even 18?"
-"Um that's someone's daughter."
-"You should have retired a long time ago lady, you need a cane, not a dick."
-"People pay money for that one?"
-"If I go in one of those places I am going to get some type of dick flesh eating disease."  

       This was just the start, we proceeded to go through an area that was a mix of gay bars, regular bars, ladyboy bars, regular clubs, strip clubs, ping pong show bars. All blasting music and covered in lights everywhere you looked. Pretty mesmerizing until you remember where the fuck you are and what the fuck is going on in these places. Now this is where it gets weird... and explicit. Hi Mom if you are reading you can stop now. Kay thanks. :) Do you know what a ping pong show is? Depending on where you go, its about 200 Baht (about $6.50 and that includes a free drink). We walked in the door only to see a woman pulling a 15 foot string out of her clam like she's Harry Houdini doing magic tricks. That was the least of it. I won't go into extreme detail, its something you have to experience yourself, but ping pong balls flying all over the place, pictures being drawn (and not with their hands), cigarettes being smoked (again, not with their mouths), razorblades..yes I said razorblades, and I almost got hit in the face with a flying banana. I didn't know whether to be horrified, impressed, depressed, or just plain happy that I wasn't the one on stage... probably a little bit of all of the above?

        After a healthy amount of shock, awe, and a pinch of disgust we moved onto the ladyboy cabaret. The place was crawling with them. We must have been outnumbered 4 to 1. And just to clarify, I'm not gay but some of these girls or boys or "its" or whatever you want to call them were hot. Except for the fact that they had dicks or used to have dicks. That's still weird to me. Most of them have had operations and made the switch. And actually they were all very nice, especially the one that told me she was in love with me. Real nice girl.. errrr...boy or whatever. Shout out to Lanny the Ladyboy, I'll always remember you.

        Next up were the clubs. Now I've been to a lot of clubs before in my life. Its nothing new, after awhile they are all the same. I've just never had to walk through to the back of a 50's style diner to get to one. Standard club, cheap drinks, and plenty of dance beats to keep myself occupied. Met myself a fantastic tatted up Thai woman named Nadia and we proceeded to dance the night away. And the morning away. Because three clubs later it was 830AM and I walked outside only to be assaulted by the horrible sun. I felt like a vampire walking into a deathtrap, which was fitting considering it was Halloween.

         You would think that's where it ended but Nadia was having none of that. Back to Khao San we went. Got ourselves some grub and a few beer towers. I can drink a lot, my friends can drink a lot, but at some point you have to throw in the towel. It's simple science that your body will give up before the bottle does. If it wasn't for me pumping the breaks at 1PM that afternoon and stumbling back home, now with a half asleep drunken Thai girl to take care of, we may have never made it back alive. The look on my newfound friend's faces was fairly priceless when we showed up on the doorstep of my humble Bangkok abode. A mixture of shock and awe at the fact that I was indeed not dead. A shower, a good nap, and dinner was in store. Afterwards with a quick kiss, a Facebook request and some cab money I said my goodbyes to my newfound Thai princess and we parted ways.

         I don't think I could have asked for a better introduction to this city. I am still dumbfounded and speechless as to how this place works and everything about it. I can't tell whether I want to run far far away or stay forever. Whatever expectations I had were taken from me, slammed into the ground, torn up, spit out, crucified and then burned to the ground. This place simply blew me away and I hope that the picture I have painted for you has given you a slight insight into what this place has to offer. Whether that is a good thing or not I haven't quite figured out yet.

Welcome to Bangkok Benjamin.

I think all I can really say is this.


I tip my hat to you Bangkok.


Thank you, and goodnight.


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The Not So Fucked Up Thing About Laos is...

8:27 PM
Oct 31 2013
Bangkok, Thailand


           First things first HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Here's to all you folks back home getting too drunk, wearing tiny outfits that show too much skin, and gettin' spooky. Now that that's out of the way...


             Alright alright alright. Just to be fair since we talked about the The Fucked Up Things About Laos lets talk the good stuff. Like I said before Laos is an awesome country. Lets take a minute and go over the cream of the crop, the crème de le crème, the dopest of the dope, etc. And maybe by the end of this post you'll be on a flight to this fascinating country.


Awesome Thing #1 (We'll call them AT for short)
-The Landscape

             Lets get one thing straight. This country is gorgeous. The Mekong river winds and weaves through the whole country's landscape. The mountains, beautiful and huge, resemble guardians  against a soft mist that never seems to quite fade. Out in the countryside small wooden huts and house dot the miles upon miles of rice fields. Villagers sit outside of their homes weaving baskets out of bamboo, children and dogs run wild through the streets, and packs of water buffalo causally stroll by as you go through and take in the beauty of this country. I spent two months in Laos and never got over how magnificent the views were whether they were from temples atop a hill, a village out in the middle of nowhere or at the gorgeous infinity pool nestled atop a beautiful resort located in central Luang Prabang. If nothing else come here for the scenery.

AT #2
-The People

            If I had to sum up the majority of the locals of Laos that I met in one word it would be genuine. America has plenty of people who say one thing only to do another, places that try to be something their not, things that aren't always as they seem. Laos was a breath of fresh air. These people live simple lives and when you talk to them you can tell they are truly content with what they have, their culture, their families, and their well beings. Every time I needed something I was met with a smile and even if they didn't speak a lick of English you could tell they still wanted to help. There was no ulterior motive, no expectation of reciprocation for their help. Simply a genuine sense of hospitality, pride in their country, and gratitude that you chose their country over everywhere else to see.

          Another thing you can't ignore about these people is they work hard. Their work ethic baffles and embarrasses me at the same time. It makes any work I've ever done look like vacation.
A typical day in the life of many of the novice monks I taught goes a little something like this:

-4AM: Wake up to start the day
-Go out and collect their food for the day from the locals (also known as collecting alms)
-Go to monk school to learn about Budha and other subjects, Math, Science, English etc.
-12PM: Eat lunch, then proceed to meet me at the local library for 2 hours of English lessons.
-Proceed to go back to the temple to do work
-Leave again to attend yet another English school
-Do homework and study until about 10PM when they went to bed
-Rinse and repeat.

Unless you are one of the following you PROBABLY do not work as hard as the Lao people.
1. A crack cocaine dealer workin' the streets of Harlem.
2. A college student who just blew four lines of Adderall (ADD medicine) because you are cramming for your finals and haven't slept for over 24 hours.
3.Work in a sweat shop somewhere in either Asia or Africa.
4. Your a hooker.

If in fact you ARE one of the 4 types of people listed above. I feel bad for you and you should probably work on getting your life together instead of reading my blog posts.

              Anyways! At the same time there is such a laid back sense to this country. A kind of "no worries" attitude about everything. It was a refreshing look into another world's way of living. They might not be at the top of the list for world GDP or income per capita or whatever financially economic standard of living you feel like throwing out there to make yourself sound smarter, but you can't help but think that somewhere down the line they got something right whereas a huge majority of the rest of the world missed the mark.

AT #3
-The Price

             I am by no means rich. I have a budget (although I'm not very good at sticking to it all the time). But this place is cheap. The food is cheap, the booze are cheap, the transportation and accommodation is cheap. You can live like a king out here for what it would cost you to barely stay off the streets back home. On a heavy night of drinking the most I maybe ever spent was $20. The most I paid for a meal? Maybe $12 at one of the nicer restaurants in town. A six hour bus ride down to another town on the "VIP" bus (which is anything but VIP although still very manageable) is $15. If you know what your doing with your money you could stretch a months worth of rent, bills, food, and booze back home into up to 3 months out here in Laos. I had a lady on the main street who always made me some of the best sandwiches I have ever had for less than $2. I can't stress enough that if you can get the plane ticket the rest will be smooth sailing as far as finances go. Awesome.



 AT #4
-The Culture

         This is a totally different part of the world than most of you who are reading this are used too. Seeing as this country is communist they do a better job than most of keeping their culture and way a life intact. And it is very high on their priority list to do so. Buddhism, although very big in Southeast Asia in general, is prevalent everywhere you go in Laos. I can't begin to tell you how many temples I walked through during my stay. There are shrines on every street for Buddha. The monks and novice monks are always strolling through the town in their bright orange robes, whether its collecting alms (their food for the day) in the morning from the locals, walking to school, or simply going to meet up with their other monk friends.

       Their music (which is horrible and probably every westerner ever will hate it) is everywhere. And although it generally sounds like someone is being beaten by a myriad of musical instruments and screaming in agony... it actually starts to grow on you. Not in the way that I will every willingly listen to it, but it becomes standard and you start to appreciate and expect it.

       It all really blends well together. The food, the music, the lifestyle, the scenery. When I first arrived I met people who had dropped everything moved to Laos. The first thing I thought was "Why the fuck would you do that, what happened that was so horrible in your life that you decided to come to this place of all places?" But then after a while I realized. In Laos you can live a good life that is devoid of all the superficial, corporate, mediatized bull shit that comes with Western life. And although Laos personally isn't where I want to settle down, I can't blame those who do. I've said it once I'll say it again, this country is another world and it is amazing in so many different ways. If you find yourself stumbling through Southeast Asia throw this bad boy on your list of places to see, you won't regret it.




     
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