One COVID19 Moment at a Time

I haven't spoken about coronavirus on this blog much. It's been fairly intentional in that the purpose of this blog is to provide reflections on my traveling, not provide commentary on current world events. I haven't wanted to post anything that could be interpreted as advice or recommendations for how to procedure during this challenging time.  There's a lot of ignorance and a lot of fear mongering out there, by both the overreacters and the underreacters.  I don't want to be one of them, so I've stayed away from the conversations here on this site.

Considering the frequency of my posting I doubt any of you few readers have been wondering about my realtime thought process regarding being abroad and travel while the virus spreads.  I am touched that so many people have reached out through social media and text to make sure I'm safe and in good health, though. Since I left the US on December 30 I have been following the news about the spread of coronavirus and keeping it in my mind while making travel plans.  Much to my parents' annoyance/frustration/concern I didn't view the virus as a reason to return.  While it was spreading in China, South Korea, Iran, and Italy, it wasn't a major issue is Australia, Thailand, and Laos.  I had to weigh the risks of being away from my home country with the reality that I may never get an opportunity like I've had these few months ever again. 

My mom cautioned me a little while ago that she wanted to make sure I wasn't making the decision to stay in Asia based on emotion.  The assumption that I wasn't looking at the situation intellectually hurt me and angered me. It played upon all my insecurities that people view me as ditzy and not very smart.  It felt like a low blow because it felt like my mom was saying that I was just too caught up having fun to pay attention to how the world was reacting.  I got a lot of messages telling me about the news that I had already seen as if I was completely cut off from western press, despite me saying over and over again that I was reading western sources.  What I think was really going on was that my mom was frustrated/annoyed/irritated/angry/whatever verb that I wasn't making the decision that she wanted me to make - the one that she thought was the right decision.  I can appreciate that both of my parents were very uncomfortable with having one of their adult children away from home during this growing crisis.  My sense was that both of my parents felt I was just digging in my heels. 

In a sense I was. Honestly, I did not feel a threat at all in Thailand. When I was staying in Bangkok I saw regular temperature monitoring of individuals entering public gathering spaces like malls and on public transport.  I saw regular cleaning of then handrails on escalators and on the metro.  At the entrances to those public spaces there were workers who stood offering hand sanitizer to everyone passing.  Most locals wore face masks every day, all day in public. There was so much consideration for keeping people healthy and so few cases that I felt very comfortable. The threat of mass outbreak was growing in the US and the US seemed woefully underprepared, but Thailand had already been dealing with it for months.  There was absolutely no concern in Laos because there didn't seem to be any evidence of the virus in Laos. 

More so than feeling safe in Asia, I felt less and less certain about returning to the US.  Most of what I read talked about how the US wasn't taking the virus seriously and that it was underprepared with few supplies, limited testing, and practically no protocols in place.  Why would I want to return to that when I'm in a good spot, having amazing experiences, and not feeling threatened by this virus at all?  Asking someone to leave a safe spot to come back to an uncertain at best location seemed foolish to me.  Additionally, I was really uncomfortable with the idea that being in Thailand I was safe, but through the process of coming back I could bring the virus with me.  For a variety of health and age-related reasons I didn't want to put my parents' health at risk.  For those of you who don't know, everything I own except what I currently have with me is either in a storage unit or being stored at my parents' house. Coming back means coming back to their home.  If I were to self-quarantine there's no way for me to do that without doing it with them. I don't have my own living space to go back to. That made things much more sticky for me. 

My parents kept raising the concern of "well, what if you get stuck in Thailand?" My response was, "Well, then I'm stuck in Thailand."  There are much worse places to be stuck. I'm lucky enough to have a job that I could do from afar if we stay in social isolation for long periods of time.  If things are so bad that blanket travel bans are in place for long periods of time I don't have to worry about in-person work resuming either. I could do my job from Thailand. The only thing that would stop that is if this virus hurts the economy so badly that my employer closes up shop. Hopefully that's not even within the realm of possibility. 

So, I decided to keep on keepin' on. I decided to stay where I was and enjoy my time, but keep my finger on the pulse of the world. I put myself in the mental state of being able to respond reasonably when I knew it time to change my plans, and be able to do so quite fast if necessary.  I was extremely disappointed to wake up to news one morning of India closing its borders. My friend Liz was due to arrive for a visit with me in Phuket in a few days and then a few days after that we were scheduled to visit Sri Lanka.  If India closed its borders it was only time until Sri Lanka did the same.  Liz ended up cancelling her visit altogether and I swiftly cancelled my flight to Sri Lanka.  We both felt confident that it was the right things to do because there was a lot at stake. We both agreed that it was better for us to stay in place where we were instead of risking international travel and getting each other sick.  It was alright right about this time that New York started ratcheting up its response and most people starting practicing social distancing and working from home.   I'd like to note that throughout this past month, but especially in the last two weeks I conferred with friends, colleagues, and other family members and all were supportive of my rationale for staying, all except for my parents. Go figure. I'm swear I'm not trying to make them sound like bad guys here. I understand their apprehensions and fears. We were just in opposition on this topic. 

Here's what flipped the switch for me.  This morning I woke up to a text that said, "Katie the US State department urges all US citizens to come home or shelter in place." I also had a bunch of news alerts saying the same thing. I read a few articles that made it clear that if I got stuck the US government was not coming to help. This was my warning. Well, poop. 

I considered sheltering in place, but just two nights ago I questioned what I would do if I ran out of my prescription medicines. I'm sure Thailand has accessible medical treatment for asthmatics and narcoleptics. It has a pretty good medical system and there is a substantial presence of western doctors in Thailand too.  The question was going to be how easy it would be for me to get routine care if the hospital system became taxed. I also started thinking about how I would get food if Thailand imposed a required quarantine. I'd like to think that whatever hotel I stayed at wouldn't let me go hungry, but that's a bit of a gamble.  I felt like I had a reasonable rebuttal to every request from my parents to come back to the US, except now.

As new of the virus taking its toll on Italy, it beginning to spread in the US, and governments around the globe responding I began to think about where I could spend my time if borders began to close.  Could I stay in Thailand if my tourist visa ran out? If the US closed its border or if I couldn't get a flight were there any other countries I could bide my time in? For a while I had been thinking about how I had to come up with a plan, and probably a few back ups.  I was considering going to a yoga retreat in Cambodia a few weeks ago but changed my plans earlier this week when I read that their medical system assumes your family will provide some basics like clean linen and food for you if you have a prolonged stay in the hospital. So Cambodia immediately turned into a no go for me. I could go back to Laos, which I loved and seemed to have a low chance of closing. But, I had just read that Australia closed its borders to all foreigners. I started to get the impression that the chances were greater of that becoming the standard across the globe, or at least in countries that seemed relatively untouched by the virus so far. 

After a few days of recognizing that my options were becoming more and more limited and the messages I got this morning, here I am - in the Hong Kong airport waiting for my flight to Seattle to start boarding, which it will do in about 5 minutes.  I know it's the smart thing to do, but I am heartbroken that this experience that I've waited 3 years for is now abruptly over. I'm crushed, but also know that I've had so many amazing experiences so far that it would be a bit inappropriate to be too upset about it. There are a lot of people dying from this virus and a lot more are going to get sick. I can handle having to go back early.  

And I will sing Neil Diamond in my head as I board the plane. I'm comin' to America... today!

International Women's Day

The Laotian people take International Women's Day pretty seriously. It's a proper national holiday where a lot of businesses shut down for the day, the men seemed to really celebrate the women, and the women get certain benefits and discounts. My new friends, Deborah and Emmy, and I were wished a happy women's day several times throughout the day by pretty much everyone we interacted with. 

We learned that the Luang Prabang View Hotel, a hotel that overlooks the entire city and has a gorgeous pool, was offering free admission to all women on the holiday.  I think we would have done it no matter, but it was wicked hot so we took full advantage and went for a dip.  I'm not sure if Baptist ended up having to pay, but we were hoping to sort of sneak him in with us.  We chilled out on the lounge chairs, had lunch and a few cocktails, and had a great time! 

I didn't know it until after the fact, but Baptist was sneaking a few pictures of me because the setting was pretty perfect. He's really into photography and was taking photos with a film camera instead of a digital one. Once Emmy saw that she took a few snaps too. I ended up with a few pretty great pictures. 

The Magic of the Moment

I am so thankful that my last post finally got up. You have no idea how many tries it took to get that working! There was so much to say and so much to share that I refused to give up.

I wanted to take a few minutes to talk about the magic of the moment for me in Laos.  I was feeling pretty good after my first evening in Luang Prabang. It felt this energy coming back into my being that was missing. It was one of those things when you don't realize how much the thing is missing until it comes back.  It was such a relief to be able to connect with someone in English and sink back into interaction. I know that probably sounds a little weird, but I was so isolated in Bangkok that the little interaction I had with anyone was limited to truncated sentiment in broken English while ordering food or buying something at 7-11. (For reference, 7-11 serves the purpose of the local super market. Some have more than others, but it's where a lot of people do their simple shopping. They are also prolific in Bangkok - literally one on almost every block.)   If you do that for a month it really does take a little bit to get back into the the rhythm of conversation.  The people I met at the ecolodge really brought me back to a vibrancy that was missing from my experience in Bangkok.

As I was walking to the tuk tuk shuttle going into town on my first morning (first full day), I saw two women practicing yoga on this large wooden platform near the river. I previously read that the lodge offered yoga, but hadn't asked about it yet. I was really excited to check it out, but I got nervous that it would be serious yoga people and that it would be too much for me.  I had been practicing quite a bit in Bangkok with my favorite YouTube yogi, but there were still a lot of positions I didn't feel comfortable doing because of my back surgery a few months ago.  I couldn't tell how intense it was when I was staring at the practice on my way to the shuttle because it was the very end but I decide to ask about it when I returned to the lodge. 

After my awesome morning at the waterfall I returned to the lodge and signed up for a yin class taking place later that afternoon.  I hadn't really ever done a full yin practice before, but understood the concept. In a yin session you focus on more restorative yoga as opposed to a flow or a power yoga.  On the surface it seems downright easy, but in reality it's physically and mentally strenuous. It's sort of like meditation and yoga combined because you hold each pose for anywhere from two to five minutes each.  The primary purpose is not to stretch your muscles; it's using gravity to moderately stress your tendons, fasciae, and ligaments with the purpose of improving flexibility and circulation.  (Thank you, Wikipedia for putting into words what I knew but had a hard time articulating.)  If you want to see how challenging that is, sit on the floor cross legged. Get comfortable. Don't worry about any special form or anything like that. Now hold that exact position for five minutes. Don't fuss, don't scratch, don't fidget.  Try to slow your breathing down. If need be, breath in for six counts, pause, breathe out for six counts, pause. Repeat. Every time you breath in feeling your body expand. Every time you breathe out, breathe into the spot where you feel the stretch and try to relax any muscles that might be tensing.  For five minutes. Now do it in a pose that is a lot more challenging. You'd be surprised how many poses don't seem to challenge at first, but then after a minute in become so incredibly uncomfortable.

I sound a bit disparaging, but I loved the way I felt after this yin session. I was very uncomfortable during the entire thing and was fighting my mind for at least half of it, but my body hadn't felt that good in a long time.  I had an absolutely awful bed in Bangkok. It felt like a 30 year old spring mattress on a platform that made it hard as the floor.  The Ikea couch in the apartment unfolded to a bed, but it was so soft that it had practically no support. I alternated sleeping on each for a few nights in a row.  My back bothered me a lot in Bangkok.  It didn't help that it was my first month getting back into regular work outs too.  I put a lot of pressure on my back and had very little to support it. Generally speaking I've felt great since my surgery, but there's a spot where the muscle is still quite tight in my back.  The yoga is helping ease that, but it's not without its challenges.  I have to find that sweet spot between stretching what needs to be stretched, but not stretching too far to cause lingering discomfort or pain. Even though my muscles were screaming some days the good news is that I didn't have any nerve pain along with it.  Anyway, my point was that the yin helped release a lot of that tension in my back.  I've continued to do it after I returned to Thailand and plan to do it at least once a week moving forward. Here are some photos of me and my new friends doing some yoga. We took them on our last day together after a vinyasa session. You can't really tell from the photos, but the NamKhan river is right beyond the tree. There were also some bamboo trees to our right and left. The trees creaked when the breeze blew. It was a gorgeous and super relaxing setting. 

  

One real big disappointment I had is that I did not sleep well at the lodge. The bed was pretty great, a major improvement over my Bangkok bed, but for some reason I still didn't sleep well. I normally don't subscribe to things like this, but I really think it had to do with the moon. When I was at the lodge there was that huge special harvest moon and there were a few body-related things that felt a bit different to me than usual. I think it had to do with the moon. I think the switch from loud city noises to mostly quite country noises also messed me up a little. 

This didn't happen until my last two nights, but the lodge had at least two turkeys who liked to gobble a lot very loudly in the morning.  One morning, after I left my windows open overnight to try to get my room to cool off, I was abruptly woken up by the turkey calls. It was SO loud. I couldn't fathom how that turkey was so loud because the pen for it was at least 20-30 yards away.  Well, it turns out the turkey was roaming free because when I poked my head out my window it was right below me.  I then saw a man chasing it with a stick to get it back to where it needed to be. I kind of felt like I was in a cartoon.

  

Anyway, back to the main story here.  At yin yoga I met Deborah, our British instructor, and was joined by Baptist, a very nice Parisian man, and Emmy, a wonderful Dutch woman living in China who was escaping the mainland for a while to avoid coronavirus.  I had met Baptist and Emmy both very briefly earlier and was happy to have buddies for yoga. Emmy was the woman I had seen practicing with Deborah as I left earlier in the day and Baptist shared that he had tried yoga twice before coming to Laos and so was pretty new to it all.  The variety of experience put me at ease and I thought "ok, these are my people." Boy, was I right!

It's a bit cheesy to say that we all just clicked, but it did feel a bit like pieces coming together to form a temporary puzzle.  I spent the rest of my time at the lodge and in Luang Prabang together with these three beautiful souls. We were all pretty different, but had enough interests in common to keep conversation flowing naturally. After yoga each morning we had breakfast together in the lodge restaurant and then mostly spent the day doing activities together.  We talked about books, podcasts, diets, and culture.  We explored the night market and local dining. We tubed down the NamKhan river together. We watched the sun set from a temple at the top of Phousi Hill. It was so... easy.  The companionship really fed my soul and made me feel like I regained something I lost in Bangkok. I'll risk being a little over dramatic, but I really do think that Deborah, Emmy, and Baptist revived my sabbatical. No longer did all of my experiences pale in comparison to the Australian Open. I was able to have something great and feel a joy come through me again like it did in Australia.

I'll post more photos in following posts. I'm a little nervous that if I try to post them all here my internet will crap out and I'll lose this post after a bunch of effort and get frustrated like last time. 

Laos, I Love You!

I was ridiculously frustrated last night because I spent 3 hours working on a post about my first 24 hours in Laos and lost it all.  I had all of the pictures and videos uploaded, it was saved more times than I can count both through the autosave feature and by manually saving it, and then when I went to publish the internet wouldn’t work. When I refreshed the page, none of my edits saved over the three hours. I went to bed disheartened, but hoping that whatever glitch was going on would be resolved in the morning.  It was not. Thankfully, I had written some of the post in a Word document when I didn’t have internet access, which meant I didn’t have to completely start from scratch. So… here is my second attempt at my first Laos post written in the airport.

... and I had internet issues again, so this post was finished a few days after I returned to Thailand. 

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I know I haven't finished my Australian Open, Kuala Lumpur, or Bangkok posts (What emoji do  I insert here to that represents feeling embarrassed, ashamed, anxious, and also like I don’t give a shit?), but I've decided to forgo all semblance of a timeline and post as I can.

I struggled with living in Bangkok a lot and was happy to leave it a few days ago.  I worked on an important step in my textbook development, but it doesn't look like much yet to be honest. I have a lot of anxiety around being able to actually accomplish this and have it be a productive contribution toward my promotion. To combat my lack of confidence I’ve been trying to use positive language and change my mindset around it.  I set the goal of working at least three hours a day, and I know that doesn't sound like much, but my daily tasks were tedious. Plus, one component of a sabbatical is to rest and disengage a bit. Maybe there are differing philosophies, but I don’t believe the purpose is to work as much or even more than one usually does, just on different pursuits. I spent my month in Bangkok developing a survey for sport and social media professionals, gathered over 1000 contacts, and then started administering the survey.  My hope is that this survey will help inform the content of my book. One of the worst things that could happen is for me to spend all this time developing a textbook that isn't relevant, or one that has gaping holes in it.  

Getting the 1000 contacts was boring, annoying, and actually somewhat challenging at times. There is no magic list out there of the people I want to target and many organizations don't have complete, or sometimes even any, staff directories on their websites. When there is a staff directory there is rarely an email address associated with the individuals, the only exception being college athletics. I understand why professional sports organizations and agencies do this, but it's annoying when you're trying to contact people for a constructive, professional reason.  All in all, it probably took me legitimately at least 20 hours of work to gather all of these contacts. 

After I pilot tested my survey with a few people I started sending out the invitation to participate for real.  I am sending out personalized messages, so even though there is some element of copy/paste it still takes a while.  I've sent 100 of them so far, but I ran out of time in Bangkok.  My internet connection has been inconsistent in Loas that it makes internet-based work more frustrating than worthwhile.  The progress feels slow and I am nervous about returning home with very little work product, but I know this is an important step in the process.  (Cue my insecurities about others judging me for not being a workhorse over sabbatical and writing this entire book in the span of 6 or 8 months.) Of course there were a few not-so-supportive messages that came back, but I've also gotten a lot of really positive responses from people in industry. There are a lot of people interested in participating further and willing to help me in my development of this text. It's also confirmed for me that the idea I have for the book is a good one, and I believe would really be embraced.  There were a couple practitioners who talked about their experiences adjuncting and confirmed for me that there is interested in this book. If anything, that’s going to keep me going. I can always ground myself back in that sentiment when I start to doubt myself.

I'm telling you all of this to explain that Bangkok was difficult for me because I felt really isolated.  On top of doing this tedious work that wasn't feeling very rewarding and made me question my approach to writing this text, I had a really hard time not being connected to anyone.  I’m sure every non-white person in America is about to say, “Duh!”, but it’s also really difficult being the only face that look different than absolutely everyone else.  It's one thing to travel and stay in hotels and have experiences around other tourists, it's another thing to live in an apartment in another country, have very little interaction with others, and be different not just in physical appears but also in customs and norms. It’s something that you can know intellectually, but living that experience is something else. I have a lot of travel time left and I'm not going to say that I'm not going to stay in any apartments moving forward, but I'm considering mixing up apartment stays with hotel stays so that I don't go that long in an isolated situation again. Financially it can be very beneficial, but I think it contributed to a less than positive experience in Bangkok.  My challenge is to find a happy medium with interaction with others and the ability to get some work done day to day.  

Coming to Laos for four days was the best choice I could have made.  It kind of a whim and worked out quite well for me.  Coming in to Bangkok and getting a visa on arrival I knew that I could be asked to produce documentation that showed when I was leaving.  Even though my plans were open-ended I needed to have a plan, especially in case I didn’t get a visa extension. My original plan was to stay in Thailand for two to three months, but has since changed. In order to be prepared in case I got asked this questions, which now going through the process I’m 99.9% they never actually do, I found the cheapest flight out of the country I could so that if I decided not to use it, it wouldn’t be a major waste of money.  That’s how I ended up in Luang Prabang.  For your reference, here’s a map because if you’re anything like me you’d never heard of it until you read these words. The blue dot shows where I was.

I had no idea how much I would fall in love with this country.  It’s so peaceful here. It’s ridiculously beautiful; it’s mountainous and somehow feels lush, even though it’s the dry season and all of the trees look almost dead. It’s weird because the trees remind me of New York winters, but the temperature reminds of my North Carolina summers. Speaking of temperatures, I happened to be visiting in Laos during quite the hot spell. Every day the high temperature was at least 100 degrees which I believe is a little bit warmer than normal at this time of the year.

I chose to stay in a place called the NamKhan Ecolodge in Luang Prabang. I found this place on Hotels.com and I couldn’t be happier.  It was a bit of a risk because it’s a good 15-20 minute tuk tuk ride out of town, but it was well worth it.  A tuk tuk in Luang Prabang is like a pick up truck with a canopy over the back and two bench seats. Think of a red neck covered wagon. Aside from motor bikes and then vans that take tourists to a few key destinations, that’s the only transportation I saw.  There’s something both exhilarating and terrifying of riding in the back of a truck like this with the wind blowing in your hair down a dirt road to a place out in the Laotian countryside.

The Ecolodge is the funky open-air type resort with cabin rooms and canvas tents available to rent.  The Mekong river goes through Luang Prabang, but so does the NamKhan and it’s that river that curves around the resort. Some aspects of the resort have a more rustic feel – like the fact that the rooms don’t have air conditioning, despite the fact that I realllly thought the ad said it did. Even though I don’t have A/C, I have a wonderful overhead fan and late into the night it gets quite cool outside.  I learned to open the windows at night to cool off my room, but I do still wish I had A/C.  I haven’t slept that while since I’ve been here and I think being too hot is one of the reasons why.  It is a little weird because anyone could walk past my room and basically look directly in on me sleeping. I don’t feel uncomfortable about it though because the resort is fairly empty because of the coronavirus hubbub.

The ecolodge is a beautiful property. The riverbank is dotted with canvas tents that are more “glamping” tents than anything else.  I stayed in one of the cabins that have beautiful wood ceilings, floors, trim, and furniture.  It’s all got that super glossy finish of a new build.  The lodge opened about 4 months ago.  There is a very nice open-air reception area and restaurant.  Breakfast was included in my stay and it’s been yummy and satisfying for me.  There’s always eggs, cereal, fresh fruit, salad, yogurt, coffee, tea, juice, toast with all the accoutrements, etc. etc.  I’ve eaten in the restaurant a few times aside from breakfast and have been pleased with the selection and preparation of the food.  While it’s much more expensive than the street food in town, it’s still much cheaper in the US.  For example, the other night I had fried spring rolls for an appetizer, pad thai, and a lime daiquiri all for $23.  The portions were also quite plentiful.

In addition to the housing and the restaurant, the lodge has a beautiful garden that you’re welcome to tour. Much of the food served comes from the garden. The pool was beautifully situated, but the water looked almost like it had a lot of sediment in it. I’d say it was about the same color of the NamKhan which is a light jade color – quite clear in some spots and less than that in others. That’s to say I didn’t use that pool at all.  There’s a second café/ bar at the entrance to the complex. There are lots of activities at your disposal – pony riding, hiking, tubing on the river, morning and afternoon yoga, basket-weaving with a local, movie nights, and I’m sure a lot more things that I can’t think of right now. One thing I wish was a bit different was the small fees associated with the activities. I paid $8 per session of yoga, which is quite cheap for the US, but a bit expensive for and activity Laos.  It felt a little bit like getting nickeled and dimed because the advertisements for the resort talk about all the activities and make it sound like they’re included without overtly saying that. I paid $9 for 30 minutes of tubing down the river, which was AWESOME, but we all thought we got to go 2-3 times down the path from one edge of the property to the other. It turns out that once you go with the guide and pay, you can then take a tube and go on your own at any other time. That wasn’t sufficiently explained to us so instead of doing that with the guide early in my stay and then tubing more later, I did it late in my stay and didn’t. Going even just twice would have justified the $9 more. What is great about all that they offer is that it’s easy to stay on the resort property and just relax. It’s good to go into town for cheap food, more variety, and the night market, but it’s also really not necessary if you’re not interested.

"Me" is one of the dogs that welcomed me to the lodge.  "Me" means "bear" in lao.  It turns out there are black bears in Laos, but they are poached and the population is being decimated so there are some black bear reserves. The dog population in Laos is quite high, but when I checked in, the receptionist explained to me that there used to be a major problem with wild, roaming dogs so the government cracked down a few years ago and now they require that the dogs are cared for and have their shots. They are mostly friendly, or if anything they are just disinterested and don't pay attention to people they don't know. None of them have tags of any sort, most don't have collars, and all of them definitely don't get regular baths. 

This is the view of the lodge property from reception. In the distance on the right side are the gardens and on the near left is where the restaurant is.  My cabin was on the near right side. 

I want to tell you about the amazing people I met while at the resort, but before I do that I need to tell you about the two American women I met in the airport.  Before my arrival in Laos I did one of two things – either got bad visa information or didn’t remember to follow up on the initial information I did find. Honestly, I can’t remember which one it was.  I had it in my head that I didn’t need a visa for Laos. That was absolutely not accurate.  I was supposed to have a passport photo with me and 35 American dollars to pay the fee. Once we landed and I learned this I thought I would be ok because in every airport I’ve been to in Asia there were accessible ATMs before I had to go through immigration. I also randomly had a passport photo in my carry-on from my immigration saga in Thailand. (I know I didn’t post about that yet, but I will. I promise.)  What is crazy is that I considered packing those photos in my suitcase, but for some crazy reason at the last minute I moved them to my carry-on. Once we entered the airport and went directly into immigration there were no ATMs.  I have no idea what they do if you don’t have money.  I don’t know because Linda, an amazing New Jersey nurse taking a holiday after working with Nurses Without Borders, gave me the $35 I need. I was exactly in the right place at the right time.  Honestly, I’ve learned that the Laos people are super nice and things are quite lax here, as in Linda’s friend Grace who was already in Laos was chatting with us over a barely-there barrier while we were in immigration. Despite there being “security” no one stopped her from walking in and no one was concerned. I suspect that if you don’t have the cash they walk you to the ATM outside of baggage claim and wait for you to get it. Honestly, they might just direct you to go and trust you to come back. Anyway, I tried to pay Linda back, but by the time we all got through immigration and I got my luggage and found the ATM, she and her friend had already left because they had an impatient tuk tuk driver. So, where ever you are Linda – thank you for being my guardian angel and taking care of me! The videos below are of me telling the story to a few friends on Snapchat. 

The third American in the mix was a 23-year told named Jackie who was from the Buffalo area and actually went to RIT! So here I am entering Laos, stressing about getting my visa upon arrival and one of the people helping me figure out what to do is a young woman who knows exactly where I lived in Rochester. It was crazy! Before we all got separated Jackie and I exchanged contact information and set up plans to meet for dinner. I got settled at the ecolodge and then headed into town on the ecolodge’s tuk tuk shuttle.  It had a pretty decent schedule, but put me in town an hour and a half before I was to meet Jackie.  I spent my time by walking around, looking at a temple, and catching a happy hour beer at a restaurant on the Mekong river.

 

 

Jackie was easy to talk to and we had a lovely meal of super cheap, but good quality street food together.  Jackie, along with several other people to come in this story, talked about how a lot of the food was very similar if not the same as in Thailand. I can tell you that I ate a lot better food in Laos than what I had in Bangkok. The food in Bangkok wasn’t always bad, but the meat was often lower quality. I liked the spices most of the time, but the gristle got to me a lot.  The food in Laos seemed better, of a higher quality.  The flavors were delicious – garlic, chili pepper, and I’m sure much more but I just don’t know! After our meal we walked around the night market in town and then parted ways for the night.

Jackie and I made loose plans to go to the Kouang Si Waterfalls the next morning. We both almost bailed, but then stopped hesitating and met up to go. Jackie had to catch a bus to another city in the afternoon, so we went a bit earlier than is normal and it totally paid off. The waterfalls were gorgeous – again, the water was the beautiful light jade color.  We were both on the same page of “let’s get in, take some photos that will look great on Instagram before there are too many people, and then we can just relax and enjoy.” That’s basically what we did. There are four levels and we took the advice that someone in Jackie’s hostel gave her and we started from the top and worked our way down.  When you arrive you enter at the bottom level so people tend to be in awe taking pictures and going for a swim there. By starting up top we saw what I think are the more beautiful areas, but also got an opportunity to take pictures with fewer people around. When we went to the second area we were alone for a good 15 -20 minutes. Let me write that in a different way. We swam in a naturally occurring beautiful jade-colored pool with a waterfall with no one else around. It was amazing! I almost can’t believe we did it! The water was quite cool, but not too cold to enjoy. There were lots of fish nibbling our toes and in many areas it was short enough to stand up or sit on a rock. 

 

I'm actually standing on a rock in this next photo. It was pretty deep in this little pool.