November 2010

Nature and decadence at the heart of Laos

We landed in Vang Vieng after six-hour drive through the countryside of Laos. We knew the reputation of the place. Since the beginning of our travels in Asia, we met young backpackers wearing t-shirts with the inscription "In The Tubing Vang Vieng. Young travelers come here for the "tubing" (down river on an inner tube), which is just an excuse to binge drink decadent. This is obviously not the kind of experience we were looking for during our trip, but to step in Vang Vieng we could cut the journey to Luang Prabang, and we had heard about the beautiful scenery. It also allowed us to measure all the immaturity that is capable of exercising young gang Western and far from home.

Laos is one of the poorest countries in Asia. Especially in the countryside, people live with little in huts of bamboo or plank houses, eat two meals of rice a day, work hard in the fields. And like everywhere in Asia, the Lao are rather modest.

It was so incongruous to say the least, on landing in a small city like Vang Vieng (30 000 inhabitants), to encounter hordes of drunken youths, drinking alcohol in their beach buckets, noisy and in bikini shirtless in the streets, while local residents going about their business as if nothing had happened. In small restaurants in the area, young Soulon engaged all afternoon in an exciting activity: watching old episodes of Friends

The next day we went on a kayaking trip on the Nam Song River, whose waters are pretty calm in this period (end of dry season). Emily and Marianne sat on the back of our boats, his feet in the water as we paddle between steep cliffs and strange pointy hills in a beautiful setting. Suddenly, round a bend in the river, the sound of techno music loudly spat broke the quiet surroundings. As we approached our amazement grew: the bank on a bamboo platform overlooking the river indolent, hundreds of young half-naked and drunk swaying drinks in their same colored buckets. Others play to engage with water after balanced after a Tarzan rope, while others slipped into the river on toboggans rudimentary facts of scrap metal. Young put their tubes to allow water to go down to the next step: another bar of bamboo with music just as loud, cheap alcohol and games of older children. On this small stretch of the river, in lush nature, there are a dozen of these bars bush. When they made all the stops, the "tubers" are completely drunk and let the current carry to the village (but there is not much power at this time of year, the descent is long and they may have time to sober up a bit ...).

We therefore paddled among the fauna entertaining. We would have preferred something more rugged (in the sense of "nature"), but this trip will have at least had a sociological interest.

At the beginning of our trip, wilderness

And now the party!

Last Bar!

Tuber

Remnants of War recycled

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Hannah Montana Pink Skirt Season 3

Hiking Family Spaces

Spaces magazine just put on its Web site's article on our hike Marco five days in the Annapurna, Nepal, last year. For those who have not read the paper version, click on this link:

http://www.espaces.ca/categorie/destinations/famille/article/517-un-trek-avec-de- young children-

Pus Nobody Can Save MRAX (formerly "Save MRAX!")

Thursday, November 18, 2010

1 Package Of Vanilla Sugar In Teaspoons

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Hannah Montana Pink Skirt Season 3