Same, same... but different

Laos is seriously known as "Sleepy Laos," and when I first heard this, I thought "oh.. thats cute!" But really, it is such a sleepy and sloooooow country. Most of the time we have to wake up vendors to ask them about prices and what not:

TOTALLY relaxed, chill and you really have to be patient. All and all, the slow pace of life is good training for the inpatient (which, I admit, is me sometimes!). Since coming here, we quickly learned how to greet people (put your hands together in a prayer position and slightly bow your head):

To say Hello is "Sabaidee" (said like Sa Bye Di) and thank you, "Kop chai," and to take off your shoes before entering a place. I really really enjoyed my time here and have gotten accustomed to just relax about things! Its a TOTAL change of pace from China, and I just can't get over how nice and friendly the people are! Even things like bargaining is actually fun and nice! The people genuinely laugh and smile, and even though you know you are getting ripped off, you just feel different about it... in a good way. In China you really had to start at least 80% of what they were asking, and maybe settle at 60%. Here is the happy median, which is a lot less stressful and exhausting. The other thing is that things here are sooooooooooooooooooooo cheap. Even "getting ripped off" literally means by cents and $1-$2. Which after a little while, you begin to haggle over pennies practically, and then just cave in, because you think "no really, its 5 cents. I will survive."

In New Zealand I saw many shirts that said "Same same" on the front and "... but different" on the back. At first I thought it was a new fashion statement that I didn't know about, but then being here, I see its the Lao thing. They don't say "same as" they say "same same." Its soooo cute. For example, our Lao waiter one night was trying to figure out if Char was Lao (for some reason, Char, being Philipina, in every Asian country we go to, they think she is a local. Especially in China) or not. So she said that she was in fact Philipina. So he says, "oh, same same us!" And just started laughing. We laughed too, but were thinking, "umm... no, not really, but whatever!"

So this morning we got up at 5:30am (gasp!) to see the monks process through this line of locals giving away local Lao food to monks in training, such as sticky rice (rice that is steamed for 4+ hours than regular rice, and really is sticky and supposed to make you fuller faster. Its sticky enough that you grab it with your hands and roll it in a ball), baby bananas, and some little cookies:

Its supposed to be this old spiritual tradition and we thought we were special that we woke up all early to see this. But of course we get there just as these hoards of Japanese tourists are getting off a bus to get situated to hand out food. D'oh! Then more and more Westerns emerged out of nowhere to take pictures and stuff. Yes... I know, we were one of them, but it was kinda sad. I felt almost bad for the monks because tourists were all up in their faces taking pictures of them like they were aliens or something. The feeling that this is some authentic tradition was waaaay gone. Yes, I know, once again, I was taking pictures too - but not all up in their face! It was an experience and definitely made up for it that we had some good coffee afterwards.

Oh, we had a funny experience the other day (or we thought it was, but actually, I think it was one of those "you had to be there" things). We were in VanVieng having some our favorite muesli with fresh fruilt at one of those loungy sofa things watching ... I think Season 4 of Friends?, when all of a sudden we hear this crackle, pop! closeby and the power went out. Then all of a sudden all the locals started yelling and were running around like madmen. Not knowing what to do, I looked around and saw that in a blink of an eye, Char had seriously already lept over the side of this little rail thing, and was crouched with her hands on her head. Me being with my gimp foot (refer to previous blog), was a little more slow-mo, not that graceful, and lept over the rail... and practically landed on Char's foot. She yelped and yelled "my foot!" Ohhhh myyy gawd. NOT good to have 2 travelers with gimp foots. In the meantime, we realized we were the only ones that were crouched and in hiding and got up to see find out that it was an electrical circuit outtage (which I guess can lead to a circuit explosion? I don't know!). It was soooooooooooooooooooooooo funny! But really, we were just reading how Laos can be dangerous and there have been bombings to tourist places, so it wasn't too far-fetched that we were scared and thought it was a bomb. Char's foot ended up being okay, and so was mine. Phew, we survived!

Besides just chilling out, Laos (actually prounced "Lao") has a lot of wats, or Temples. But as pagoda's in China, sometimes after you see a dozen, they start to look the same. However, they are still cool. There is this big one called Xieng Thong in Luang Prabang, also known as the Temple of the Golden City. Its known as the "magnum opus" of Lao religious architecture because of the golden reliefs and this big o mosaic Tree of Life. It was built in the 1600th century by King Setthatriat. We also went to "Mount" Phousi, and the reason I " " mount is because its just 329 steps to get to the top and its translated to "Marvelous Mountain," but really, its not a mountain but a little hill. All things considered, it has one of the best views of the sunset over the Mekong River and here is a pict of it with the Mekong river in the background:

We also went to Khoung Sy waterfall, one of the biggest waterfalls in Laos.

It was amazingly beautiful and has cool swimming areas to take a dip in. There was also a small trek to take to get to the top of the waterfall, but after about 5 minutes in flip-flops (again) and walking through slippery and muddy ground, I backed out because of the flashback to the cave and trek from the day before. Ha ha!! It was super relaxing to hang out at the waterfall and that night we treated ourselves to an hour $5 massage for all our hard work (hah!). But really, who can turn down an excellent massage for ONE hour for $5!!! My back has been in knots even from the beginning of my travels and I definitely felt loosened up afterwards and will definitely do it again!!

So besides wats, walking around the small "cities" (usually 3 blocks by 3 blocks), the markets are awesome here and sooooo super cheap. T-shirts for $1-$2, scarves for about the same, and many many other things. If I wasn't to lug around all these things, I would go crazy with the shopping! Its actually kinda cool how underdeveloped Laos is and that it is known as being "untouched" and underdeveloped - there is NO McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken (everywhere in Asia) and gasp! Even NO Starbucks! Luang Prebang (where we are now, but soon to leave) used to be the capital but since it moved to Vientiane centuries ago, it is now a UNESCO World Heritage Village. Although that means that it should really be "untouched," in general Laos is trying to take after Thailand with tourism. So there are many Western-style restaurants here as well as internet cafe's. I REALLY REALLY hope that Laos DOES NOT become another Thailand, which is ALL about the tourism. It would spoil the gem that this country is.

As much as I enjoyed Laos, its time to leave. Its funny because both Char and I really feel like we have become sooo lazy... just from the week we were here. Everything is so slow and relaxed that it takes an effort to even move. We are leaving for Hanoi, Vietnam today and will be back to the grind! I think it will be same, same... but different!