A Long Walk - Luang Prabang - Vientiane

Whew..I'm kind of buggered..but it's done - my solo experiment walking from Luang Prabang - Vientiane.

Tab's little feet have been so happy, so content, so...lazy..for so long, it's time to let them do more of the work. I travelled from the north to the sunny south of Laos, one colorfully dressed, flowy foreign woman walking the heights and the hills of the breathtaking landscapes, low valleys, tiny towns and dizzying mountains of Laos.

So why walk when you can have the totally bland, impersonal and regulated experience with 60 other foreigners?

Something that has become increasingly uncomfortable for me travelling well-travelled countries, is tourists. The sheer mass of Western bodies moving through Asia is incredible. But the way that people travel. Without the thought that they can have a different experience, happy to be led from bus, to taxi, to hotel..without a thought

This really frustrates me. So, I got off the bus and decided to walk.

The road from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng is full of mountainous passes and green countryside. Tiny villages on the way with gorgeous cheeky children and laughing people...to be honest, they were mostly laughing at me. It's a strange tourist who decides to walk these parts.

Along the way I was given rides in trucks, utes and a very nice man on a scooter took me to a hillside wedding party, haha, after beers and lots of lovely kids and people, dropped me to the highway again!

The time spent communing with sun-beaten country roads gave me a lot of time to think...mostly about contentment, the kind that is found when you simply have to put one foot in front of the other..when there is no other choices to make but keepin' on walking or sittin' down :) Ah, the utter simplicity.

So now back in Vientiane, I am now happily about to head back to the quiet and solitude of Dreamtime..I'm ready for more bliss!