1950 km (savannakhet).

have you ever tried a custard apple? i feel pretty mixed about them.

well, i'm back in laos after a quick trip through thailand. i didn't stray too far from my original path; i just followed the mekong on the other side. i decided, rather last minute, to do this, because i'd heard the roads and scenery on this leg were better in thailand.

the two (tourist spot) highlights from my six days in thailand were the sala keoku sculpture park, just outside of nong khai and wat phu tok.

sala keoku is a collection of sculptures created entirely out of concrete by one man (ban leua sourirat) after spending several years studying buddhism in a cave with a hermit whose lap he fell into one day (or so the story goes). the park was really unexpected, grotesque and fantastical to the extreme. the highlight was an interactive wheel of life sculpture that you had to crawl into, but photos of it didn't really turn out.

the temple at wat phu tok is nice but not the reason i visited. the monks of wat phu tok have built seven levels of meditation huts into the limestone hill that rises behind the temple. the different levels are connected by a rickety maze of wooden bridges. i spent the night in the town of ban phu tok with a family who ran a small restaurant on their front porch. the restaurant owner's husband was pretty excited about my bike trip and would occasionally tell my story to fellow diners, pointing me out and yelling 'you! bicycle! vietnammmmmm!'

my favorite meditation hut, on level 5.

i also really wanted to see northeast thailand as it is by far the most remote area in the country (as well as the poorest). called isan, northeast thailand is actually more lao than thai, and maybe more lao than laos itself (in the late 1700s, vientiane was sacked by siam and thousands of lao peasants were forcibly moved into northeast thailand and reduced to serfdom. now, many more ethnic laos actually live in thailand than in laos itself. this was further compounded in 1893 when the french created an administrate unit, named laos, that was half the size of the former kingdom known as lan xang). to me, isan still felt very thai, although there were a lot of things that reminded of laos (what does it mean to be lao?). the most noticeable difference is the wealth, though, creating a social and economic infrastructure that is still impossible in laos.

with that being said, it feels wonderful to be back in laos. savannakhet is a beautiful town on the mekong, famous for its crumbling french colonial architecture and palm lined dirt roads (reminding me constantly of st. louis in senegal). yesterday (as so many of you remembered! thank you!) was my birthday and the full moon festival. it made for a great evening. a few other travelers in my guesthouse joined me for an evening along the river, eating street food, drinking beerlao and watching hundreds of lao families place candles and incense on the mekong. unique and wonderful.

before i go, i'll leave you with two photos from rock climbing in vang vieng, and two photos from na nam, a village i stopped in on the way to vientiane.

limestone cliffs outside of vang vieng.

i really do almost always wear a shirt - this is a hot country though.

ang nam ngum reservoir.

rattan ball in na nam village.

the festivities continue today with boat races, street food and more beerlao. tomorrow i'm off again, heading east towards vietnam, before turning south. my route is more uncertain in this part of the country, although i'm aiming to be in cambodia within about ten days or so. thanks again for the birthday wishes! more soon.