Sky-Rocket Festival

So, we arrive in this crazy little town called Vang Vieng, if you haven't herd of it that's okay.  However you should probably work on getting there as soon as you can, before its too late.  After doing some shopping around for a nice place to stay, we stumbled upon this spot.  Top floor over looking the river with three beds and a giant bathroom with two large balconies:  This is pimpin' in VV.

Off the beaten path during a lazy walk to find the river.

We found this head on.

Morning of the festival I met the Caterpillar while hanging in a hammock.

He was quite friendly.

The bars were also a staging area for all the boys to get their pretty on.

The lady-boys are ready for the ball.

This is when the rockets come out.

And Boom!

When they first said they were going to shoot rockets over the mountains, I didn't believe them...  Guess I was wrong.

Only one person out of the five is a real girl, guess who.

Gibson and his mate.

It was hard to compete with all the beauty around.

Sometimes they would go just straight up.  They can reach up to 2 km high.  All the rockets are home made, and people from neighboring towns would come to this rocket festival because it is the biggest in all of Laos.  Families, bars, organizations, or just groups of people get together and build rockets out of PVC pipes and gun powder and bring them on this day to compete with other people.  This is a celebration for fertility and prosperity for the rainy season and the crops.

Some needed to be loaded on trucks.  Before they launch them the rocket is dipped in water.  This precaution is an important step to the rockets because if they don't have water in them they explode when ignited rather then shooting into the air.  A group of people carry them onto some wooden ladders and strap them down.  More recently they've started using remote detonators because it is so dangerous.

Everyone was having a ball.

Many people try standing in the shade to watch the event.  Kids played on the merry-go-round and in the river. while getting their sugar buzz off snow cones and candy.  The adults danced near the live stage or walked around with their rockets trying to find people to compete with.  Groups with a rocket find other groups with a simular sized rockets and start a bet.  The bet will be for 10-15 cases of beer to the winner, and will be based on whether you think your rocket can fly straighter, higher, or longer.  How you measure is by the trail of smoke it leaves, some reaching up to as long as 30-40 seconds.

All this on such a beautiful day.

Not every rocket makes it.

Cooling off down by the river.

The festival goes from 10 until 5.  Rockets all day long.  It was quite a site to see.

The endding to a great day.  And the clouds roll in to start the rainy season.  Seems like the rockets did their duty.

Next day at the caves.

Followed by tubing down the river.

This place is paradise.

Giving In

The art of travel.  Don't fight it and don't have expectations.  The inability to cope could be your downfall.

Life is one amazing moment after another, continually evolving rapidly over every space and alley on this planet.  Wether it be slow or fast, nothing is the same.  As these places change, everybody's experiences are entirly diffrent.  Someone standing down the street from someone else will have a completely different perspective.  Or maybe you cross pathes with someone who is parrellel with you and unexpectedly decide to share that time together.  So as you make your dissisions throughout the day, follow your intuition and embrace your lostness.  You just might get caught in a tropical storm inside a temple during some unknown cerimony.  Or show up at some city the day of an festival you had no idea was taking place.  Some moments may seem difficult, but in the greater scheam of things you may have just gotten your shoes a bit wet.  Don't worry about it, because anything can dry off.

Amphibious Forests and Endangered Dolphins

(Note to the reader:  I had many photographs that I took for this part of the trip, but I've tried loading them three times now and every time it failed.  I've taken it as a sign.)

My goal this trip is not to backtrack.  If I make it to any city I have to be able to continue on from their. When I was figuring out how to continue on from Cambodia to my next destination, I had a tip-off from a dear friend that said go to 4000 Islands.  

If you look at a map of Cambodia there are not many main roads, and to get from where I was to where I wanted to go takes about 12 hours (So I had herd).  Even though they are the main highways, they are shared with school kids, bikes, chickens, cows, tractors, tuktuks, motorbikes, cars, buses, and trucks, and are sometimes made of dirt.  This is why there are no lines marking where to drive, because it doesn't matter where you are as long as you share it appropriately with others.

I looked up a couple other blogs that described the trip from Siem Reap to 4000 Islands.  Both sources gave the exact same story; Shoved in a little van carrying too many people with bags falling on you during the trip that is supposedly takes 6 hours that actually takes 12, which makes you late to the boarder that shuts down at 5 and forces you to pay "stamping fees" (aka bribes) for anyone that was western.  I thought, "okay, because i know what to expect this will not be so bad."  I bought the ticket and was up and ready to leave at 5 in the morning to find myself taken from a van to a roomy bus with air conditioning.  I guess right when I started to think I knew what to expect, everything had changed.

Now, this is the part where I have to remind myself to be careful what I think of.  Everything I had prepared myself for seemed to have disappeared, and I had a very distinct thought go through my head which was 'the only thing that could go wrong is if the bus broke down.'  Surly enough the bus rolled to a stop after half an hour and was broken beyond repair.

Even though most people would see this as a horrible event, I received something special from it.  While waiting for a new bus to come pick us up, I met a girl also traveling alone that I have now been on the road with her for the last week.  It been a wonderful surprise.

Our group arrived at 4000 island at 8 pm, so I had officially been travelling for 16 hours.  I had gone from van, to bus, to bus, to bus, to truck, to boat, and was now going to walk to my pre-booked hostel. After walking 20 mins in the direction it was, it turned out to be another 5 Km more.  I admitted defeat and chose the nearest bungalow in site.  I spent most the night holding my headlamp in fright from all the critters I was sharing my room with.  It was not a good night for sleeping.

But soon enough the morning came and its been a beautiful trip ever since.  I had made a goal on the first day of spring to 'Find easy solutions for whatever I want to happen,' and that is exactly what I have been doing.   Its not every day you get to see a floating forest and share time with endangered dolphins.

Sunrise to Sundown, Cambodia

hour

First day of Tuktuk- 5 a.m. start to make it to the temple. 

Found a seat on a rug, $1 coffee fee.

Lots of fish jumping to catch flies on the lake-puddle.

First peek of the sun, a new day is born.

Went out to find ice cream, made it just in time to see the sunset.

Night markets come alive.

Last day in Cambodia, having a day off at the Hostel before my 12 crazy trip to 4000 Islands.