Not to make you jealous, but....

I just had the perfect day. Seriously, most days are pretty awesome, but this one was pretty sweet...The day started off with a supremely chocolate croissant (as all perfect days do), followed by a walk around the "town" of Vang Viene, which is pretty touristy on the main road, but as you get further to the outskirts you see more authentic stalls and houses and people! Then, as the day got swelteringly hot, a bunch of friends and I rented tubes (huge tractor inner tubes) and went floating down the river...The view was fantastic (see pic 1, you can kinda see the outline off all the tubers floating down the river in the distance), and even though it was a super touristy thing, it was beautiful and peaceful and an adventure, and you got to meet so many people as you floated down (which takes about 2 hours if you don't do stops...). dotted along the banks of the river are makeshift bamboo bars selling drinks and they pull you in with a long stick as you pass by...super sweet. even better, one of the bars had a volleyball court (i got my fix :D) and all of the bars have these kinda insane rope swings (i didn't get a pic of myself doing it, but there's a pic on here of one of the swings and two guys jumping at the same time; the huge bamboo structure you jump off is on the left side of the pic)...of course i had to try my hand at that and the extreme-sport-lover in me was satiated. needless to say, i spent too much time visiting these rickety bars and somehow the sun started setting and i was still over 1 hour away from the end. this is bad, unless you like floating down rapids in the pitch dark, which would be fine if there weren't pointy rocks and sticks poking up everywhere and random shallow parts in which the rocks stab you in the bum (i know, i know, not everyone's idea of a relaxing ride down the river, but you know me and my love for danger!). anyways, after floating down the river for a while and meeting lots of people to laze down the river with for a while and chat (there's something about sitting in a huge rubber inflatable tube that makes people really friendly) i eventually got dragged to shore by some random laos kids who promised us a tuk tuk (3 wheeled open air taxi) home. a few other people i had met also came to shore and we ended up sitting around for a bit chatting with these kids and playing with them...good times. we eventuall caught a tuk tuk home and i made it back to my guesthouse, where i caught the most amazing sunset falling down through the mountains (see pic 4 on left)...the view is sensational from my beautiful room (only $3!!, laos is fabulously cheap and quality!) , and the limestone peaks are gorgeous.
even though it had already been a great day, it only got better. i joined one of the groups i had met on the river and we ate a local stand (you can see it in the background of last pic) instead of one of the crappy tourists restaurants where they serve pizza and play friends or simpsons NON STOP. the people were so friendly and the food was AMAZING...i took pictures of it all cause i have no idea what the names of any of the dishes were (though i do know at some point i ate a fish on the stick...i hope i don't regret that later!). anyways, after gorging ourselves, the price came to 12000 kip, which is like, $1.30. THEN, one of the guys we were with whipped out an ACCORDIAN and started playing it, and one of the other guys grabbed my arm and we danced on the street!! we were grabbing locals, and people from the restaurant across the road were running across to join the party (see last pic)...it was so amazing, and tons of laos people riding by on bikes stopped, jaws on the ground, gaping. i'm sure they've never seen anything like it.
after the hoedown we decided to get laos massage (clearly needed after such a stressful day)...the place was full at the time so we went to the local bakery and ate amazing chocolate cake. after this i was fully ready for a massage, and it was unbelievably good...kinda similar to thai massage, but a million times less involved and intense, so you come out feeling super sleepy. so, of course, to round out a perfect day, we went in search of a bonfire. We found a group of Laos people (prob in their 30s) drunk off boxed wine and we joined them for a while, and they fed us more random stuff. the locals here are really great and friendly and the ones i have met don't seem to be jaded with tourists at all. Then, we found a fabulous bonfire that wasn't busy and we all laid around, watching the stars and chatting and drinking beer Laos until 5am.

life is good....