Everybody psycho dance

Laos kicks ass. They don't use coins, fuck yea, dream come true (although pretty much all the notes look the same). I took a boat down the mekong river to luang probang where I am now. the ride was sweet, although overcrowded. The boat stops periodically to be boarded by children who sell you beer and chips. the ride is beautiful. Before getting on the boat, the guy who was in charge of operations sat everybody down and gave a talk about how shitty the boat is, and how shitty pakbeng is (where you have to stay for one night), and how much better and faster the bus is. Lots of people then paid him extra to take the bus instead. Unfortunate for them really cause everything that dude said was total bullshit. At least I didn't pay more money to miss out on a sweet boat ride.

A more interesting story happened the night before I got on the boat. i was in a restaurant in huay xia eating dinner when the waiter invited me to come with him to his friends wedding. I was a little skeptical at first as I've found that most people who are overly nice are either trying to scam you or sell something to you (an unfortunate consequence of booming tourism in poor countries). But this guy was totally cool and I went with him to this wedding. Upon entrance the bride and groom pour you a shot of johnny walker red label, not too shabby. you sit and have to eat tons of food, which is great except that I had just eaten dinner. The beer and whiskey is endless.

The most interesting part of the whole thing was the traditional lao dance. I couldn't really understand what the guy was saying to me about it. As far as I can tell, its called the lao psycho dance. I assure you though, its very tame. Everyone stands in a circle and gently waves there arms and hands up and down, with forearm staying perpendicular to upper arm. eye contact is minimal. all in all, it was an awesome time and everyone was so happy that I was there. There was actually another wedding the next night that I was invited to but I had already purchased my boat ticket, drats.