I recently returned from a 5-week trip spanning Oregon, Washington, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Japan and Hawaii (and Korea and China if you count zombified airport feasts). Some scattered highlights of a very memorable trip:

  • Getting turned on to some Somali heartbreak music by an Uber driver in Portland
  • Staying in a fire lookout near Mount Hood that creaked and swayed in the wind at night lookout
  • Wandering down to the Boeing factory in Renton, WA to snap pics of a 737 MAX 9 weeks before the disappearing panel incident jet
  • Running into the Pacific on January 1st (disappointingly balmy)
  • Live snake milking in Bangkok snake
  • Trying to approach the Hanoi presidential palace from back alleys and getting blocked by military goons with submachine guns (no pics obviously, but here’s a temple scene from earlier in the day) bonsai
  • Witnessing the expanse of the Guangzhou metro area from the air guangzhou
  • Playing solo salaryman in Tokyo: wandering, shopping, dining and drinking alone before retiring to a capsule hotel (that wanted to record my sleep?) capsule
  • Skiing waist-deep powder in Nozawaonsen (too stoked to take phone out all day)
  • After getting snuck into a traditional fire festival in Nozawaonsen, making the frankly dumb call to walk 5 miles home on a mountain ridge in the snow, getting seriously cold, then hitching rides from an exceptionally kind local skier and his mom in a tiny Japanese pickup truck fire
  • World’s smallest bathroom in Shimokitazawa (leg cannot fit between toilet and door) bathroom
  • A day of swimming, saimin and sunburn in Honolulu (I would rather broil than pay $15 for sunscreen) sunscreen

But the highlight of highlights for me was my time spent in Laos.

Flying into Luang Prabang from Bangkok, my first impression of the country was of overwhelming beauty. This is the view before you even hit passport control: airport Luang Prabang is gorgeous in both its built environment and natural surroundings. The backdrop to morning coffee at my hostel: hostel View from the stupa atop Mount Phou Si: phousi The people I met in LP, both locals and fellow backpackers, were also lovely. I couldn’t mention them all here, but I can say that of all places I’ve been Laos hurt the most to leave.

Random scenes in and around LP:

  • Chien français qui aime les baguettes dog
  • All Lao people across the country must be solidified and join hands to materialize the implementation of the National Agenda on drug control make drugs go away from the society drug
  • UXO planters uxo
  • Wat Xieng Thong xt
  • Mindblowing khao soi at a random street joint across the river (no food pics sorry) khaosoi

From the former capital I proceeded north by minibus to Nong Khiaw, a hilly town that serves as a base for all kinds of outdoor adventure. nk After a quick bite in town, hostel friends and I hopped onto a small boat up the Nam Ou river to the village of Muang Ngoy. namou The river was so shallow in spots that our skipper had to hop out and haul the boat over rocks, and midway through the northward trip we even had to bail out onto the shore and wait for an even smaller boat. haul Muang Ngoy is a fairly remote place, disconnected from the road system and embedded between Hmong villages, but squarely oriented around tourism and possibly overdeveloped (there seemed to be about 5 guesthouse beds per tourist present). mn Complicating matters was the fact that there was no ATM in the village, I was almost out of kip, and striking out asking random people in the street to sell me cash. I also found myself in the middle of some sort of business dispute between two feuding guesthouse owners, one of whose rooms I’d booked and then bailed on, and seemingly on the bad side of the substantial stray dog population after wandering into some wrong alleyways at night. I skipped town after one night and caught a boat+minivan back to Luang Prabang.

I then took a lovely day trip to Khuang Si Falls, which is massively popular for a reason (but very quiet if you head up early morning): khuangsi Like an idiot, I lost my prescription sunglasses after hucking it off a rope swing at the top of the falls. But I managed to organize a search party among my hostel buds (love you all) and we dived and groped the riverbed until Joseph miraculously found them, saving the day and beyond. pool Pretty soon after that, right when everything was really starting to flow, as now, as forever, it was time to leave. tuktuk