Last round of bookings
I just confirmed a flight to Singapore next weekend! I'm going there for a few days to visit my friends from NYC, Eric and Camille, the ones I met up with in Koh Lanta. They've been working there for the second winter in a row, painting roller coasters (they're scenic artists). I never had a huge desire to go to Singapore and they particularly enjoy living there, but I figure why not? It's a free place to stay and friends to show me around, and when else am I going to go?
With that confirmed, I just booked two more tickets: the bus to Vientiene (Laos), and the train to Bangkok (where I'm flying to Singapore from). And now, holy shit, no more travel bookings (since my flight to Hong Kong is booked and I don't plan on doing much travelling around there)! No more logistical figuring, travel agent hassles, timetable juggling, and decision-making: I'm done booking!! So strange.
The standard thing to do when leaving Luang Prabang (which I have been loving for the last four days) is to head to Vang Vieng before going on to Vientiene. Van Vieng is where all the backpackers go tubing down the river, floating from one bar to the next; no one can believe that I'd dream of skipping it. But I'm taking a pass for the same reason that I didn't go to Pai in Thailand: I'm kind of tired of the early-20's backpacker scene. It's not something I really noticed in India, but then again you generally get a different type of traveller there. In Southeast Asia the hoards of young backpackers seem intent on partying hard and moving on to the next place, and frankly that makes me feel a bit old.
So I'm taking a pass on the whole tubing thing in favor of a more extended stay in Luang Prabang. I've been hanging out with a woman I met on the two-day slow boat down the Mekong. She's a year older than I (34), just finished teaching in Thailand, and also exhausted of the party-harders. We've been lazily exploring the town: went to a waterfall, took a boat to some caves full of Buddha statues, stopped at a whiskey-making and weaving village, climbed the big hill in town to explore the temple compound there (it has a Buddha's footprint imprint that I'm not kidding, I could curl up and take a nap in). Tomorrow we're renting bicycles and riding around the countryside. Ahh, the slow life!