Sarah's pictures!

This is just a quickie to say that I have finally uploaded pictures. It took forever, so i'll have to do it in installments. A brief update of my life: Vang Vieng was nice. I lay in a hammock by the river. Went for a run through the most magnificient scenery ever. The weather was cloudy the whole time, and it turns out that cloudy weather creates the most dramatic mountain scenes. Vang Vieng is small. there is a river with mountains on both sides of it. and with the cloudy weather, the mountains look huge and black and seem to stretch up high into the clouds. My run through a tiny path to a cave was scary, almost--every time i looked up (which wasn't very often cuz i was afraid of stepping in cow poop) the mountains and dark clouds were looming not just above me, but all around me.

V.V. is mainly for backpackers--as of about 4 years ago; before that, there was nothing there. Now it is filled with guesthouses and resturaunts, all showing episodes of Friends and random movies at all times of day and night. And basically everyone sits around, either in the resturaunts or by the river, and gets really stoned and really drunk on happy pizza and happy milkshakes and tons and tons of Beerlao. The one activity in town is to go drunk tubing down the river. There are stops along the way for beerlao and cocktails. (I neither like water activities nor beer, and it was shabbos, so i sat that one out.)

So as I was saying, i was sitting by the river in my hammock all day, reading and napping, when...all of a sudden...BOOM!!!!...right in the middle of the "dry season" a HUGE rainstorm and hailstorm poured down on us. Now, we were staying in a little bungalow style guest house by the river and rain started pouring into our room and hailstones started destroying everything in sight. We tried (successfully) to salvage our stuff while we looked out our door and saw roofs (rooves?) in the river and trees fallen and just a mess everywhere. And then it calmed down. And then...BOOM!!!!...it happened again.

Have I mentioned that Lao people are the nicest people on earth? They just smiled and said they would take care of everything, and they did. THey bought new mattresses and sheets and blankets and gave us candles and next thing you knew, we were all cozy and ready for bed. and then...BOOM!!! Another downpour, but this time, it was going down and not slanted, so it stayed out of our room and we remained dry all night.

One day is all you need in Vang Vieng. So this morning we kayaked to Vientianne. That's the capital of Laos. (It's okay...I didn't know that either.) I rowed with the guide--he must've seen the worry in my eyes--and we only capsized once!

Vientianne doesn't seem like a very exciting city, so I think tomorrow night I will take an overnight bus to the 4000 Islands in Southern Laos. I will spend a couple days there and then I will take another overnight bus to Siem Riep in Cambodia.

I am very tired. I'm afraid that has affected my wit and intelligence and maybe this email is not topnotch. Better luck next time. Please enjoy the pictures! (note the personal message in the box below).

sar