DAY 40

Sunday April 12th, 2009

I decided to take today to rest and finally get some proper sleep. The past few days in Vang Vieng were awesome, but an uninterrupted sleep is almost impossible. Why? Two reasons: 1. Our door was in desperate need of some oiling, so if i or my roomie needed to get out of the room to use the toilet, you cant help but be woken up by the creaking of the door. 2. Its true what they say, the roosters literally wake you up every morning, so i was up pretty much before 9 every morning, even if i had a late night.

After taking my time getting up and ready for the day i decided that my stomach pains must be due to hunger, so i got out and got some Indian breakfast. Bad choice. Ended up feeling gassy and nautious the entire day. Despite my overall feeling of unwellness i decided to take advantage of the day and get some bike riding in to see what Luang Prabang is all about. I'm very bad for aimless walking without a real idea of where im going, so in combination with a bike i got myself a little lost and found myself near the airport and in dire need of some sugar/liquid. If you leave the main tourist area of Luang Prabang, finding a cold beverage is probably the hardest thing to do. The locals solve the proble,m by pouring the beverage into a plastic bad and cooling it with some ice. Since i dont know whether or not the water in the ice has been filtered or not i disappointedly accepted the warm miranda.
Laos New Years is just around the corner, so in celebration Laos children were taking waterguns, buckets, roses, bottles, pretty much anything that could hold water and spraying people as they pass by. The people who got it the worse were the people on bikes aka me. One group of guys rode passed me and dumped an entire bucket of water over my head. Although i didn't appreciate that so much, some water to cool me down was not so bad. :)
I eventually found my way back and passed out on my bed.

Later in the evening i met up with another Torontonian i had found on Couchsurfing. FINALLY!! Another Torontonian! You'll meet Canadians all over Canada travelling, but to meet a torontonian is rare. I guess it's the big city mentality: people in Toronto are too busy climbing the corporate ladder to travel. I did actually meet a Toronto couple once when i was in Thailand, but there were both doctors and already established and decided to take a month off to travel.
I have yet to meet someone from NYC.

Tomorrow i am going to spend another day in Luang Prabang. I dont think my stomach can handle a 12 hour bus ride to Muang Sing.

p.s. The handicraft market here is AMAAAAAAAAAZING!!!