Vang Veing, Laos- home base

Jesus

rockets

Dark Cave we went swimming in

We ended our stay in Vang Veing (a place that became our home for over a week) with another 4 hours of tubing down the river, some hammock reading, and some more "Friends."
Our second tube ride down the river, we met a lovely couple from Georgia. We had a very nice time chit chatting and swimming with them. You can never go wrong with choosing to float down a river in the hot hot sun.
Hammock reading occupied most of my time for the rest of our stay in this town. I left Steve to his writing while I got lost in a juicy book about crazy suberban mothers and their affairs. While maxing a relaxing, I was able to watch a heard of the cutest cows try to cross the river, stare at the immense mountain that stood directly behind the river, and of course... swim in the river. Upon my two days of hanging out in a hammock by myself, i met a very intesting German gal/lady, not quite sure how old she was. Her "hipness" gave the idea of young, but her face... not so much. Disregarding her age and her height (she was so tall- her legs began at my neck), she was one of the most intersting people I have ever talked to. At that moment she was just on vacation in Laos, visiting a friend she had made while there 3 years earlier. From what I got, she has pretty much been every where in the world twice, except for the United States. She didn't live in Germany, she lived on an island off of Thailand. She had a Thai boyfriend who did bamboo tattooing for a living. I had a chance to meet him and watch him give a Lao man a tattoo on his bungalow bed. Connie, which is what her name was, and I sat in the river on a bed of rocks for about 3 hours talking about everything from yoga to the education system in Germany. She was a nomad who loved yoga, but not enough to give up her partying life style and become a true yogi. I admire her and her bravery for doing whatever the hell she wants. She was one of the few people you will meet in your lifetime who is truely happy and doesn't regret one desision they ever made.
Our last day in Vang Vein ended with us again going down to the river for a big "rocket party." For the Oak Creekians, this party was the equivalent to Lion's Fest. However, all day long they shot homemade rockets off into the mountains. It was fun to watch groups of friends that had gotten together to build a rocket for the occassion. It was almost like being on a co-ed baseball/volleyball team. The team would cheer and root for the success of their rocket, then get drunk off of Lao whiskey and beer, then dance and sing to music that everyone knew the words to.
After we realized that we had seen all the episodes of "friends" that the town had to offer, we decided it was time to leave. Not to mention the Ross and Chandler manurisms steve happened to pick up... we really had to go.
We made it to Vientane where we went to a museum, saw some sights, did a bit of bowling with our tubbing friends from Veng vein, and bought some books. Tonight... we head out for our next stop, Pakse.