Tony Ja ain't got nothin' on me

I am an elephant commander/protector. If that last statement wasn't enough for you, let me expand. 2 days ago in Luang Prabang Arian and myself attended an elephant training camp. (for the elephant's benefit of course, not ours) The follow commands are what I've retained after 8 hours of training:

pai= go
qua= right
sai= left
how= stop
boo= dance
now!= attack!

(** please note the last two were added for dramatic effect. We tried our hardest to get the elephants to attack... but to no avail)

Honestly, elephant camp was one of the best parts of Lao. Other than that, the last 4 days in LP have been awesome. The town's a mix of French architecture, Falangs (foreigners), street vendors, and loud Lao pop music. One of the days we took a 45 minute ride outside of town to visit one of the most beautiful waterfalls I've ever seen. I've said it before, but I really didn't expect northern Lao to look like this. I also got into a DragonballZ fight with a 6 year old girl at a tourist office. (which I subsequently lost when she pointed a supersoaker at my forehead)

One last note on Luang Prabang, GO BOWLING. It's the weirdest thing I know, but bowling at midnight on Sunday in LP was crazy. I've never laughed as hard as I did when I saw each and every Lao guy/girl tripping all over themselves to bowl. Not that I was any better, but at least I only fell once in the course of the night. (maybe twice)

Yesterday we left LP headed for Vang Vien... which turned out not being the stated 6 hour bus ride, but rather an all day journey. After an hour of riding our bus (which we paid too much for), we hit a small snag... the engine blew up. Not like a Chuck Norris movie "blow up", but it stopped working none the less. Our crew ended up playing cards with a couple of Swiss guys for 2 or 3 hours while we waited for some other form of transportation to pick us up. After all was said and done, we arrived in Vang Vien around 8 or 9 last night. Quick note on the bus drivers in this country: I'm pretty sure they all have death wishes. I never thought honking your horn while barreling down the road in a crowded village at 60 km/h was good enough... but apparently most people get out of the way. Or I'll put it this way: at least we didn't hit anyone yesterday...

Couple more days here then on to Vientiane...