Into no-man's land

Laziness today. Pure laziness. Although I went to bed around 11pm last night, I still didn't get out of bed today til about 10am. I had coffee at my guesthouse, took a quick walk up the street for bottled water, and then went back to the guesthouse...where I proceeded to do absolutely nothing that didn't involve a book or a hammock.

After a few hours of that, I started to get hungry, realized the time, and then realized that I knew *exactly* what I was going to do. I walked to the market and got another one of those chicken sandwiches. What can I say? It was good, cheap, and portable! I took my sandwich up 138 steps to the first landing of Wat Tham Phu Si. There are more than 400 steps in total, but I wasn't feeling that energetic after my day of laziness. I ate my sandwich, read some more, and watched a lovely sunset. Since my pictures aren't up and running yet, check out some of these images instead.

Now I will head back to the guesthouse where I suspect I'll do more of what I'd been doing earlier. In addition to a new novel (a 900 page Stephen King/Peter Straub doozy), I've also spent time looking through a guidebook (oh! did I mention that Simon gifted me with one before he left?) to figure out next steps. I can't stay in LP, in a guesthouse out of my budget, for much longer, after all. Remember when I said I was pretty sure I was going to head to Luang Nam Tha? Well, change of plans, peeps. The only concrete reason I can think of for changing my mind is that Luang Nam Tha is west of LP, so I'd have to do some backtracking since Vietnam is the next country I'll visit and that's to the east. Backtracking wouldn't have been so horrible, but I think Vietnam is calling to me more than Laos these days.

The new plan is to take a bus to Nong Khiaw tomorrow where I will then transfer to a boat to Muang Ngoi Neua. Neither of these places have much in the way of infrastructure and I highly doubt they will have phone or internet connections. I'll be out of pocket for a few days, but I'll still try the SPOT to see if it works. Back in a few days!