We're in Vang Vieng which is some kind of bizarro travellor mecca. Maeve and I headed north (v. close to China) to Luang Nam Tha where there is supposed to be some great trekking. It was very nice but it is the rainy season so 1) the weather was pretty crap and 2) there were no other travellors and the treks are supposed to have a minimum of 4 people. We did go on a day hike through rice paddies and jungle. There was a really freaky (although I was more freaked out by the leaches sucking Maeve's blood) time when our guide **almost stepped on a poisenous snake in his flip flops**. Stay away from those green snakes with red tails!!

We've been talking with a lot of really diverse travellors. Some people are so crappy and some people are really wickid. Up North we met a couple people who were ending their months long China trips and they had interesting stories. An Australian couple got me really excited about the -stans in Central Asia.

We've had hours and hours on the buses. On the night bus up north a tire blew at 4:30am. This was after people started puking and sympathy puking. And at every muddy patch (this is the rainy season) a guy would get out with a flashlight and direct the bus through the shallowest path. I spent all of today on the bus afraid of landslides. I tried to plan what I would do if a landslide happened. There is evidence of them everywhere.