The Land of Smiles

Here is Laos everything is different. Traveling here makes me feel like someone cannot possibly be complete without traveling, especially to this part of the world. The people here have a philosophy that is so different than that which is witheld within America citizens. I will not bore you with details yet I am starting to see why people get depressed when having to go home, although believe me we are excited as well. Thinking about the next trip is becoming a consuming thought though.

Laos is vibrant in basically every way imaginable. The peoples smiles, their generous and always happy attitudes and the colors of the temples and the rainforest surrounding us. There are new types of flowers and plants everywhere, and on a more negative note bugs. We have had plenty of run ins with the massive insect and spider population here in Asia. Our first couple days we stayed in an Eco Lodge out in the rainforest right on the Pha Nam Tha River. We were the only guests at the lodge since it is the slow season here in Lao so we got a personal bungalow for no money at all right on the river. It randonly downpours throughout the day but it never gets cool andit is humid but not unbearably so. I couldn't imagine visiting during the hot season, during the tourism peak, because boy oh boy that would be miserable. The locals working at the lodge and within the surrounding villages are all shy, and supposedly view foreigners as "superior", but they are extremely curious and always look while you walk by, smile and then say hello. Some will approach you and smile and touch you like you are the most gorgeous thing you have ever seen and they have been waiting all their lives to meet you, where as others will just approach you in hopes to better their English and ask you a series of questions.
There are lots of children running around, all are adorable with the msot creative hair cuts, and every morning we woul wake up and go to the floating restaurant that would have a bunch of local children running around and fishing on it. We were so smitten with the people we were with we never wanted to leave, it was complete paradise for us. There are butterflies the size of birds floating around everywhere; however, the downfall is that there are also bird sized spiders that you have to try to avoid walking into. Thankfully there are no poisonous spiders in Lao but that does not make them any less creepy.
The man who runs the lodge is british and a couple other workers speak english so it is great to get to communicate with the locals. Every day I would go to the floating restaurant and sit in and help with the english lesson that our british friend would be teaching. Along with helping them learn english they would help me learn lao and they slowly got less and less shy around Jef and I that they started joking, eating and playing games with us on the regular.
The first day there we were reading the menu and it said that every once in a while they have snake that they serve. Instantly Jef and I were completely interested and couldn't wait to try it. While we were sitting at the restaurant I saw a river snake start booking it across the river. I turn to Jef and say (in a rather unexcited manner) "Oh look a snake" and at the mention of the word snake everyone perks up like dogs hearing a squirrel and literally hop onto their feet asking, "Snake? Snake?" A young 17 year old boy named Dalat jumps into a flimsy little canoe that is hardly staying together and starts to paddle (against the fast current) towards the direction of a snake that was way out of sight. I thought for sure it was on the other side by now but we sit and watch him patiently. He is on the other side of the river observing the bank slowly, standing/balancing on the front tip of the canoe until all of a sudden he swings his paddle and smacks the water! Before we new it he was paddling back over with a snake in his hand, and his dad was beaming. We watched his dad, named Boon, prepare our dinner for that night. And it did taste like chicken :)
We fished for a day, which cracked me up because Jef behaved exactly how I did when I started fishing as a child, impatient and anxious and always getting the hook stuck. He ended up just helping them with the fishing net used to catch small fish, which we caught hundreds of. The locals are always laughing with you and sharing with you and trying to bring up new and cool bugs to show us and then stick in our hands. When you're walking and you hear a crack you know to run because fruit is about to fall from above, and it is covering the ground. We can just pick it up and crack it open and enjoy! For the first couple nights we fell asleep to the sound of rain, falling fruit and the geckos which cover every guest house in Lao. They make that unmistakable gecko call that sounds like "Gecko, Gecko, Gecko".
We went to the local Hmong village. They are the tribe that helped America during the Vietnam war by giving us a pathway through their country and aid to our troups. After the war some of them were offered sanctuary in our country (mostly in California) however not all were helped. So they were treated as  terrorist race herein Lao and were forced to live in the mountains to starve. They have survived though and are recognized as equals now by the rest of Lao. They believe that their ancestors were wherewolves who flew down on magic carpets to Lao, where they avoid the major communities. We rode bikes to their local markets and bought TONS of weird fruit to share with those at our lodge and just soaked up the scenery of families working in fields of rice patties with the raisforest mountains in the distance.