This is the Lao word for "hello!" You hear it dozens of times a day and often by friendly locals who want to chat with you. If you add "lai lai" at the end it means "hello and how are you?"

After being in Vang Vieng, I was a bit down on travelling north in Laos- needlessly as it turned out. The minibus ride along the occasionally suspect Route 13 was without incident. Every once in a while, Hmong rebels who were trained by the CIA to overthrow the communists back in the 70s, stir up a bit of trouble but not much has been going on recently. That said, I did notice that the driver's friend had a gun under his shirt- "just in case" I'm sure.

We passed colorful people along the way, mostly Hmong villagers. One came up to our bus carrying a dead porcepine-type creature and tried to sell it to us for dinner. We turned her down only to be offered a dead marmot by a guy 100 feet down the road. After him, we saw a toddler dragging a dead chicken- it must have been butcher alley. After that the route got more mountainous and the ride got more chicken-bus like. I was very happy to be in a small more manueverable minivan than a huge bus.

On arriving in Luang Prabang, I headed off to find a guesthouse, of which there are loads. Many are located in little alleyways with new brick walkways. At night the alleyways are lit up by lights inside terracotta lanterns giving the area a romantic feel. People were out laughing and smiling. They seem to laugh and enjoy life a lot more here than in Vientiane and Vang Vieng. As I walked around soaking it all in, I passed by a group of old Lao men drinking around a table. As I passed they offered "whiskey lai lai! Drink!" Still being surprised how friendly the people were with "sabaidee!!!"'s around every corner, I politely declined.

When I rounded the last corner to my guesthouse, I saw another group of people drinking around a small table. This group were much closer to my age so when they offered the "lai lai" I sat down and met the crowd. The one who spoke the best English was also the most drunk. Neuw had been studying English for three years and I was impressed how fluent he was under the influence. We chatted about tattoos (he has a massive dragon on his back), his sister Meow (also studying English but not as fluent after lai lai), and various other topics over some seriously salty seaweed. As for the lai lai, I didn't find it to be that strong. The taste wasn't nearly as harsh as most of the SE Asian hooch I've sampled. A liter of the stuff was only 90 cents. How about that for a cheap night of partying? It even beats the infamous Thai Sangsom. After a few more shots I went back to my guesthouse.

The next morning I woke up without a headache which surprised me. I had met a young Israeli girl, Sirat, earlier the day before and we agreed to go to the Royal Palace Museum and the main wat together. We had breakfast and enjoyed the sights.

This morning I decided to go to the Tat Kheuw Si waterfalls. As I looked for a tuktuk (or jumbo as they are called here), I met a Polish guy named Cuba. Cuba also wanted to go to the falls and we decided to split the cost. The falls were beautiful- very tall and strong with teal blue pools at the bottom that looked artificial. Nearby, we saw a beautiful tiger that had been rescued from a local poacher in 1999. There were originally three cubs, but this one, Phet, was the only to survive in captivity. She has a large enclosed area and is treated decently, which is uncommon in Asia.

The real reason I enjoyed the morning was the company of another traveller who didn't have his head up his ass. Cuba and I spent the day talking about some of weird people you meet on the road. Often, people come to SE Asia to escape something at home, such as arrest. Other times you meet people who just can't survive life at home because their lives are so disturbed and wouldn't be looked upon kindly.

To emphasize the point Cuba told me about how he was stuck for a night at the Thai/ Cambodian border. It was 5pm and the Thai people shut the doors in his face. The only hotels in the area were $100/night and he knew he couldn't afford them. He walked into the nearest village and mimed he needed somewhere to sleep. As it turned out, he would stay in a village of whorehouses. This was where all the prostitutes who serviced the Thai businessmen in the $100/nt hotels lived. All night Cuba was hassled and teased by the girls, many who he said were very pretty.

"Only $2!" they would tell him. Cuba then said that although a few of the girls were tempting, he still knew who he was and that sleeping with a hooker wasn't something he was interested in doing, whether or not anyone would ever know.

Without a second in between, Cuba launched into a story of how he had a bad drug experience in Vang Vieng. He had heard about yaba, the Laos version of speed. So, when it was offered to him, he smoked it with a group of Lao. For the next three days he wandered around popping Valium pills so he could cope with his own brain which was completely hopped up. As he was telling me this, a group of girls walked by and said hello to him. These three girls met him as he was taking Valiums and were slightly weary about seeing him again.

"No Valiums today?" said one of them.

Cuba just smiled. "No, not anymore."

So, as a moral today, I learned not to try the yaba. I'll do my best to remember it. More dangerous to me though is avoiding the night market here with all the tapestries on sale. I'll have to face that temptation as I leave this internet cafe.... wish me luck.