Violets everywhere!

The stately front door

I got real close to a butterfly.

A displaced gravestone in the small family cemetery on Ann’s property.

Dylan learns to chainsaw! What a guy.

I’m hauling away sticks on the tractor, in a funny hat.

What could be more charming than a basket of flowers?

I’m making little bouquets to put around the house. Bunches of these lilacs came home with us, on a 5 hour car ride, a train ride, and two subways.

Dusk and a little mountain.

Dusk engulfs the barn and outhouse.

Here is a poster I designed for Obscura Day – sadly, we didn’t get the printing order in on time, so for now it exists merely in the realm of the digital, but I’ll probably have my own printed at some point, as I’m pretty proud of this one.

This area is home to the endangered Black Crested Gibbon – 10 or so years ago, they were heavily poached, but an enterprising French guy came in, convinced the poachers to become guides, and the Gibbon Experience was born. Today the gibbon population is stable, and the poachers make more money as guides than they did poaching.

Just getting to Bokeo took many hours of bus travel along windy mountain passes. On the way there, we stayed the night in the tiny village Baan Donchai. This was the view from our rustic wooden stilt-house.

Free-ranging water buffalo, just hanging out.

The view from the back porch of our stilt house was of this river. Much activity in the water – by both humans and a variety of animals – kept us entertained for hours.

Zip-lining! The zip-lining feels alarmingly haphazard. No safety gear, and you are expected to zip around yourself, without a guide. You can bet I double checked my knots, knees shaking, before every zip. It was amazing. And terrifying.

Each morning at 6am, our guide would zip into our tree house, wake us up, and lead us through the forest, trying to catch a gibbon sighting. On our last day, we had amazing luck. A group of about 10 gibbons passed right over our heads in the canopy. A young gibbon (you can tell the young from the old by the color of their coats – the adults are all black, and the young are a light brown) even stopped for a moment and looked right at me!

A gibbon from afar (we saw them much closer than this but didn’t get any photos). The most amazing part of the entire experience was listening to the gibbons sing to each other. Each morning was filled with their calls, which sound like eerie sirens.

Sunset from our tree house

Every meal was brought to us by our guide, who zipped in (the only way in and out of the tree houses are via zip-lines). Four delicious fire-cooked courses awaited us in this neat metal cannister. And wine as well! It was pretty decadent.

Our tree house

The misty valley in the morning from our tree house.

Laos is one of the most wonderful places I’ve been in my life, and was a welcome change to teeming Hanoi.

Wat Long Khun, full of beautiful half-faded murals.

Farmers we passed during a trek to the Kuang Si waterfall.

We rode elephants!

Descending to the pools of the Kuang Si waterfall.

A bamboo bridge over the Nam Khan river – these bridges wash away in the rainy season, during which time people cross via rafts. These long, shaky bamboo bridges are rebuilt every year for the dry season.

Kuang Si waterfall

Long colorful motorboats we took to get to the Tad Sae waterfall (later we kayaked back to Luang Prabang – no one told us that it would take 5 hours (!) of intense kayaking in the hot sun to get there. We kayaked through rapids, a first for me, and capsized during the most dangerous, fastest, rock-filled rapids. Water got into my contacts, and I’m embarrassed to admit that I was shouting, “I can’t see! I’m scared! I can’t see!” as the water swept us along like ragdolls. We made it out just fine, of course.)

Buddha showing his wooden skeleton

Luang Prabang at dusk

Sunset over the Mekong River

Buddha cobwebs

We actually quite loved our tour. It was fun sleeping in our own wooden room on the junk, and kayaking among the towering formations was a highlight of our entire trip so far. On the second day we biked and hiked through Cat Ba National Park, a jungle-y tangle of plants and vines, and stopped at Monkey Island, where Dylan nearly lost his face to a monkey attack. So if you’re planning a trip to Vietnam, go to Halong Bay: It’s really touristy, and totally worth it.

Pulling out of the harbor with a mess of other junk boats.

We didn’t have the best weather, but the thick grey skies certainly added to the eeriness as formations emerged out of the fog.

A floating village, of which there were many dotted throughout the bay.

This woman seemed to be scooping water into her boat, maybe keeping the day’s catch wet?

The dock to the beach where we had lunch.

Dylan takes in the view as we chug along.

A spider in Cat Ba National Park – just about the size of a grown man’s hand.

Dylan loves the hiking!

This photo was taken seconds before this outraged little monkey tried to attack Dylan. It leapt at his head, and as Dylan spun around to protect his precious face, the monkey sprung from his backpack into a nearby tree, and moments later, repeated the action. Dylan was so scared, he shrieked like a girl and pushed me into the monkey’s path, so I think it’s safe to assume that if this was a dominant male attack, Dylan’s response promptly ended it.

We never wanted to leave.