How to quit your job and travel around the world

Hello Hanoi! Arrived this morning from Laos after almost a full month there. Left on a really fun note: yesterday was the first official day of the New Year, so there was mass Beerlao drinking, enormous water fights that now included flour and paint and a lot of peeing on the Mekong beach. Will post pics tomorrow but it was some party and I was sad to leave. The whole city really went wild. I really enjoyed with my new friends there too ... but more about that it in a bit.

So now I am here - in the wonderfully temperate climate of Hanoi. I really think I am built for a climate of 25 degrees, not 40. Met my mom at the airport and we checking into the Sofitel for a splurge. Once my backpack was in a controlled and clean environment, I can tell you that my stuff officially reeks. In fact I am too embarassed to even get my laundry done there (that. and the fact that the cost to do it there it like twice the value of my nasty Khao San Road tee shirts.)

And the verdict is in: I am staying on for more travel and will meet Juliette in India after Vietnam. Don't want to get ahead of myself but I am thinking Tibet after? Into trans Siberian from Beijing to Moscow? Holy shit, I may just go to the moon! Ok, so I am officially infected with the travel bug and am kind of getting into the living out of a backpack thing. It's a disease. If you're sitting at your desk reading this, just say that I warned you. If you quit your job, you're going to want to see a lot of the world. It's big and weird. They eat embryonic ducks in an egg! Children still like to play with just a stick and have fun with it! Women can balance entire sacks of flour on their heads! Babies eat dirt and no one freaks out! And did I mention the amazing lyrics to Asian pop? "Take me to your heart, take me to your soul." It's deep.

Ok, off for some Vietnamese cold ones with mom.

Water throwing on the main street. No one is safe. The teenage girls seem to take a special pleasure in completely soaking everyone.



Monks preparing for New Years. I believe they are carrying a golden statue covered in a saffron robe. But I can't be sure.



Views from the top of the Wat in the center of Luang Prabang.

At waterfalls cooling off.



Young tiger (5 months) at the waterfalls near Luang Prabang. She was rescued from poachers.



Village kids hamming it up for the camera.

Despite the overwhelming heat here in Luang Prabang (which is part of the reason everyone throws water), I managed to do some things in the last few days besides lay in a hammock under a mango tree (which I need to do more of). On Monday, another traveler we befriended had news that we could attend a Buddhist ceremony in a village. My undertstanding is that it was part funeral and also part iniation for new monks. Anyway, it basically involved an enormous amount of chanting but many people just milled about including most of the village kids. We played with the children (maybe a group of 25?) for a couple hours and they were pretty awesome ( and tireless). I did a lot of dance improv things with him and apparently cracked them up when I "Walked like an egyptian" across the yard. They all did that too for the rest of the day. Some rounds of lao lao followed later with some village men and then after six hours of chanting and no stop in sight, I had to head back to the guest house to rest.

Yesterday we assembled a group for a more indulgent outing to some local waterfalls, which above all, were so refreshing. It's probably topping out at around 40-42 degrees in midday heat, so it was a good place to go for the afternoon. There was sort of an animal sanctuary attached with animals that had been saved from poachers, including Peng, the 5-month-old tiger in the picture.

Anyway, Luang Prabang is filled up for the New Year and it's a little overwhelming to me to be surrounded by so many westerners. Part of me is really happy to meet people and part of me kind of wants to run over most of them with a tuk tuk. Pretty much every conversation starts with: Where have you been? Where are you from? How long are you traveling? All good questions, but it can be hard to have any conversation more meaningful that, which leaves you bored to tears in the end. And everyone is about 22. And now I feel like a hateful old woman. Hee!

Oh! And the best for last. Sort of a reader participation: Should I extend my trip and continue on to India for another 4-5 weeks with Juliette? Or be all responsible and go back as planned and take summer school for Stats and Research methods, the first class in the potential 6-year school marathon in front me? And, yes, this is a rhetorical question, because I think we all know the right answer here! But send me email anyway ... please!

Sun Hi and Juliette in Muang Sing enjoying our favorite afternoon beverage: Beerlao



Novice monks ride a bike down main street in Muang Sing.



Fisherman haul a good catch - a 16 kg Mekong catfish - down the street in Muang Ngoi. This sold for $205.



Town of Muang Ngoi on the Nam Ou River. It's only accessible by boat and there are no cars or vehicles there. Power is only on from 6 to 10 p.m.



In the back of the pickup truck traveling from Udomxai to Nong Khiaw. I've really gotten in touch with my inner Bedouin.


Back! Just arrived back from a few days of no phones, no electricity and no cars in Muang Ngoi, a small village one hour north (by boat only) of Nong Khiaw. It's sort of destination for backpackers and a good place to do .... nothing! Juliette and I found a decent guest house, which then had people in it that she had met in Burma and then some other people knew them, etc... Traveling in northern Laos is like being in a small town and, oh boy!, what fun to gossip about reoccuring characters. Let's see, there's the handsome but creepy Argentine everyone seems to know, the older Swiss guy who's hilarious, the guy-no-one-can-understand, the couple who is traveling around the world ... the town is set on Nam Ou river (I believe) and in between dramatic limestone cliffs. The river is ideal for swimming (alongside water buffalo). At night, for two nights in a row, we had massive thunder storms roll through with the sounds of thunder richoting of the cliff walls, creating astounding noise. I have never been in rain like it rains here - absolute sheets of pounding water. I guess it's sort of pre-monsoon stuff.


Anyway, now there's a mass gathering in Luang Prabang as it's the Lao New Year at the end of the week. Lots of Lao and travelers are here as the city has one of the most elaborate celebrations. It officially begins on April 14, but the pre-festivities have begun. Among other things, the big thing to do is throw water and everyone is a target. It's a little bit commando - us VS. a roving pack of 9 year old boys with super soakers. We were a group of 8 in the back of a tuk tuk from the bus station and basically one huge target. By the time we got to the guest house, we were completely drenched.