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jungle 2, nancy 1

wrote this earlier, so some is repeat, but tells story of boat trip and pics are now uploaded:

what was that, one week without fingers touching a keyboard? I think that drove me a little insane, really!

but happy to report all luck turned 100% in opposite direction within hours of that last post. the sun actually came out (tho only for one day), I joined a 2 day trek to the most remote jungle village I've ever been to (the first villagers we saw were toothless, shirtless women with boobs in full view and baskets full of jungle booty on their backs. jeeze it was like national freekin geographic!). but on day 2 the rains came in torrents and mucked up the hike out. so our last river crossing was too huge to be safe; never mind it was dark too. so we had to do an emergency camp out with this farming couple at their hut in the middle of rice paddies nowhere. they spread out matts on their wooden porch (tho porch it really too nice a word for the cobbled-together boards that became 'mattress' for a night) and we ate pig (the pig they killed special for us in the village) for the 3 meal in a row. bleh....

but lucky for us, no more rain so next day we could easily wade across the river. I was keeping mental spirits up cause that same day I planned to hop a 'from 8 to 24 hour' songtau bus to the thai border (still running out of money, if you recall, so have to git!). but while I was asking my butt if it was ready for it, a guy overheard me talking about the bus and instead asked if I'd join their group on a 2 day boat ride down the nam tha river. well, this is what I orginally wanted to do and now here's this tiny miracle landing in my lap! easy decision, needed 10 seconds to make it. 'yeah, for sure. but, ummmm, do you have money I can borrow?'

we left the next day in blazing hot sun, 7 hours later we stayed overnight with local villagers down river, then left the next day in a 4 hour downpour. imagine me curled in a tiny ball with my feet stuck in a plastic bag to stay warm. lucky for us the rain finally stopped. and everything dried out 3 hours later... but along the way, I'd also met the most amazing travel partner - nachum from israel - he's been traveling for over 5 years now. we kept popping our heads out from under our rain jackets and smiling. what the hell else are you gonna do?

whew. finally all is grand again and after 10 months traveling, I think I just had 3 of the top 5 best experiences here in laos. so after every low point is a high one and in this case they were extremely high.

ps - only bummer is I have some strange rash-thingy. been told everything from spider bite to ring worm. good god, DOGS get ring worm....what messed up place have I been in that I could too?? headed to doctor as soon as I get to chiang mai....

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