Sa bai dee

(hello in Lao)

I made it here safely. The flight was not as scary as I thought it was going to be. I met a kid who had been here before and he helped me find a guesthouse. I'm paying $7 for a really nice room in a French colonial building kind of overlooking the river. But there's construction outside and it's a shared bathroom with cold water so tomorrow I'm going to move to one further away but my own bathroom with a hot shower. And no construction.

Luang Prabang is really nice. There are more bicycles than motorbikes, a majority of the roads are rocky dirt roads, the markets have a lot less screaming, the food is really good (baguettes all over the place!) and there's toilet paper in public bathrooms. There are also a ton of temples so there are a TON of monks and novices (pre-teen and teenager boys). Chiang Mai has a lot of temples too but I never saw any novices.

So today I decided to just walk and walk and walk. I didn't have a watch or a map. I (with the help of Erica) bought a watch before leaving but ended up keeping in my backpack and usually only looked at it on plane rides. So I took it out on my flight to Luang Prabang and realized it stopped working on the 4th. Oops.

Anyway, I had heard that Luang Prabang is pretty small so I figured it'd be hard to get lost.

I was completely wrong and was actually totally lost but I didn't realize this until I was already safely back at my guesthouse. I wandered around for about 4 hours taking every little dirt path possible. My only goal was to say "sa bai dee" to as many people as possible. I passed a ton of old ladies either cooking or sewing on the streets, a couple of schools with school kids all over and boys playing a soccer version of volleyball (with a lowered net), a dozen groups of monk novices, about six big houses with tables of people eating what I guess was lunch, a university (with kids apparently learning English cause they said "Hello!"), and a bunch of tiny dirt path villages with chickens, goats and dogs running all over. I didn't see white people for 4 hours. It was really cool. I learned a game call Throw Your Shoe Into The Street, Then Go Get It, Then Repeat. It's a hit over here. I also learned that little kids love digital cameras.

At one point I wandered down what I thought was a street but ended up just being a driveway (if you can call it that) to someone's house. Everyone was sitting outside, so it was kind of awkward for a minute but the little kids (playing in a pile of dirt) started screaming "SA BAI DEE!!! SA BAI DEE!!" I looked at the adults, said "Sa bai dee," they said it back and smiled, so I took that as an ok, and crouched down to little kid height. They continued to say SA BAI DEE really loud and fast so I did the same. It's the only Lao I know. I asked if I could take pictures (pointing to my camera, and asking"Ok?" with an Asian accent) and the adults nodded and smiled again. One of the older women came over and said something to the kids and I heard her say "yim" which I knew meant "smile" in Thai so I guessed it meant "smile" in Lao too! Go me! So I said, "yim yim!" I got kindly laughed at.

Later on I ran into the ice cream man so I decided to see if "ai team (ice cream)" was the same in Lao as in Thai but turns out it's not. The ice cream man was not happy with me. "No! Ai team Thai!" I forgot how to say it in Lao. Surprisingly, it doesn't sound anything like "ice cream."

Walking around these villages was really cool. I've never stood out so much in my entire life. Most people would stare for a little bit and then laugh and smile. Jokes on me, they all knew how lost I was. Then I'd say "sa bai dee" and then they'd say it back and laugh and smile even more. One guy (not at the university) saw me and said, "Hello!" so I said hello. He asked "How are you?" and I said "I'm fine, how are you?" and he said, "I'm fine, thank you." So then I decided to return the South East Asian compliment and said, "Your English is good!" (Is that even good English?)He said, "No, no, no, little bit." He was the Lao version of me! When I walked back down that street he had gathered his friends outside and was pointing and staring at me through binoculars. I'm pretty sure that was a first for me. He said "Hello hello" again so I walked towards him to see how close they would keep the binoculars on me. About 30 feet away was the answer. Personally, I would have put them down earlier. I figured since they were looking at me through binoculars, me looking at them through a digital camera screen was a fair trade. I tried to ask him how to get back to the center of town but I'm not sure he knew what I was saying. He timidly pointed up a street so I said thanks and headed in that direction. About 15 minutes later he came up on his bike. Instead of saying "town center" this time I said "night market?" and he knew exactly what I was saying and said he would take me. Turns out the route back to the city center is all kinds of left and right turns and about 10 minutes. I wouldn't have had a clue. Whoops.

My day was really cool. I'm really happy I had no idea how lost I was. I bought a map on my way to dinner. It doesn't cover the area where I ended up but at least if I do end up in the middle of nowhere again I can point to where I want to get to. (I also realize I was very very very lucky to get a ride back from a complete stranger and very very very lucky that the stranger didn't end up being a complete psycho. Any future wandering will be more planned.) When I got back to town and walked down the travel agent strip I realized how little interest I have in doing those things. There are elephant treks (definitely not), visits to hill tribe villages (don't think it could top my Karen experience) and kayak and whitewater rafting trips (easily done at home). They have one day trips to see some cool caves and waterfalls so I'll probably do that one day but I much rather just wander around and say hello to dirty little kids. Pretty stuff can get old fast. Dirty little kids never do.

There were no flights back to Chiang Mai on Friday so I'll actually be here until Sunday. I could go down to Vang Vien (backpcker's capital) and go tubing or check out Vientiene (actual capital) but I don't think I feel like 1) being around backpackers 2) being in a big city or 3) using any method of transportation other than my feet. So I think I'll just stay here. The Wisconsin girl I met in Haad Rin told me a temple to visit and the name of this one monk novice she had talked with a lot and become friends with so I think I'll try to find him. She said he was really eager to practice his English and had all of these stories about sneaking across the river to play soccer or getting drunk or doing normal 16 year old things. Totally unexpected from a boy walking around in an organge robe and not eating past noon. She said when she was leaving she said, "Maybe we can be pen pals and keep in touch through letters?" and his response was, "Maybe email would be better."

Yeah, I want to find him.