luang prabang

we are in the beautiful little town of luang prabang, laos. the town is just so beautiful, situated between two rivers, the mekong and nam khan which is smaller and meets up with the mekong at the border of the city proper.
yesterday we rode bikes all around for hours, they rent out these awesome little cruisers with big cushy seats and only one speed. it was the first day i was able to get out of bed for more than a few hours due to a mysterious illness i contracted on our really crappy trek that we went on outside of vang vieng.
yeah, that trek seriously sucked. on the first day i chipped 2 teeth on a big rock that was in our lunch of greasy fried rice that appeared to have been flavored with MSG, oil, dirt, and eggshell. the trip to the waterfall that we took after lunch was pretty fun, but then after that they had nothing planned for the rest of the day, so the guides set us on the front porch of a shed in the middle of a cowfield with a bottle of liquor the taste of which i can only liken to prune schnapps. we were expected to drink this stuff and have flies land on us for the next 3-4 hours at which time they served us our torturous dinner which was a variation on the lunch--different only in that the vegetables were fried, (saturated), in oil separate from the rice.
we slept in the cowshed that night with about 25-30 spider eggsacks. it was cozy. then there was no coffee in the morning, and we had also somehow run out of water. it was okay though, because we only had to hike for 3 miles to get more.
oh man, it was a really crappy trek. when we went kayaking they didn't have dry bags for our cameras, (the guide assured us that he had HAD dry bags, but that now he didn't, who knows?) so they gave me a plastic bag and the seam leaked water so now my camera is broken.
when we got back i became really sick to my stomach, i couldn't keep any food down until yesterday and i have these weird bruisey-itchy spots all over the backs of my legs. It's really sad, because the thought of rice, or any other asian food now makes me feel like i'm going to be ill. i loved rice before.
then we were stuck in vang vieng, the stoner obnoxious friends-watching backpacker capitol of laos for 2 more days because we couldn't travel while i was sick.
but enough of that general negativity. it was the only really crappy experience we have had in the 2 months we have been traveling, we have been pretty blessed.
we love luang prabang and regret that we don't have more time to spend here. there seems to be about 4 big temple/monasteries in the vicinity and they are all so beautifully painted with red and yellow and gold, and of course it is just a beautiful color, that brilliant saffron that all the monks wear.
so it is very peaceful. laos is very peaceful, certainly the most restful place we've visited in all of southeast asia. today we are going to another waterfall. It's the land of waterfalls.
and monkeys. there are a lot of monkeys here. It's terribly sad to see the way that many of the people in S.E. asia interact with animals, monkeys in particular. there is this appalling brutality, as though it is taken for granted that animals are low and to be dominated and tormented for fun. we have been to many placed where there will be a monkey an a 2-3 foot chain in the hot sun with no water. at one such place, one of the villages we passed through on our trek, there was a monkey on a chain in 85 degree heat with no shade, scrambling around in the red dust. emerson and i stopped and gave the animal our bottle of water which it drank greedily, baring its teeth in between gulps. the monkey obviously was a "pet" to the family who ran a small dry-goods stand near to where it was chained. a man came out and as if showing off to us held some food just out of reach of the monkey. the monkey was frozen, it did not even try to grab the food, as it had tried to grab my camera earlier, then the man stomped his food very suddenly and the monkey screeched in terror and jumped and the man dropped the food and laughed. our lao guides laughed too and one of them shook his head and pointed to the monkey and said, "the monkey is very crazy!" well no shit the monkey is crazy, it's chained all alone in the hot sun with absolutely nothing to do until some asshole decides to come around and torment it! oh it made me so angry and sad! what can you do? can you really say to someone, "that is no way to treat an animal!" there is really no awareness of animal rights over here. it's a matter of cultural relevance i guess.
on the bus trip here from vang vieng we stopped at a restaurant where there was a little baby monkey on a very short rope. it was very sweet and it climbed all over me and i fed it an apple. it was too young to even eat solid food though, it just sucked the juice and spit out the meat. it had this impossibly filthy remnant of a stuffed animal that it would cling to like a mother. it broke my heart.
i have been very preoccupied with animals here lately, cats, dogs, and monkeys, i feel compelled to stop and have some kind of a positive interraction with them. so many of them are so terrified of people, and rightfully so.
i miss my cat aiden.
well, we are headed towards chang mai thailand tomorrow on a riverboat up the mekong. it should be totally amazing.