Lazy laid back Laos

The people here are so laid back it's unbelievable.
In Luang Prabang, the sellers at the street night market set their stalls out on the pavements and then sit and lay around eating and sleeping.
At times I had to wake up the sellers to ask how much something was, they open their eyes, mutter a price and promptly fall back asleep, it's really funny.
The lonely planet described it as 'probably the most laid back market in Asia'
The men drink beers all day and a lot of them gamble, from 9am they have beers in one hand and playing cards in the other.
A couple of British women I have spoken to say that's the norm, they live from one day to the next, not having any money to speak of and interestingly they don't think about the future.
I remember learning the same in Thailand, they don't worry or think about tomorrow, good idea  I guess, at least they are not stressed out.

Yesterday Frans and I kayaked down the river in a 2 man kayak, it was good fun, the only others with us were 2 guys from Austria  sharing a kayak, a single guy from Germany and the guide who was there to guide us safely over the rocky bits.

It was a lovely scenic trip

It was especially funny because the kayak that the other 2 guys shared had a hole in it and it kept filling up with water and capsizing them (no, I would not have been laughing if we had got that one) but as a spectator it was a great source of amusement.
I was in the front and Frans sat behind me, I am not sure of the etiquette but I kept yelling out orders to him, panicking every time I saw the water ahead getting a bit choppy, I kept telling him which way to steer as there were 'rapids' ahead.
Of course, as with everything, he has done it numerous times before and this time of year the water is calm, so I really had no need to worry.
He has so much time for me, always encouraging and helping me in those situations, he just laughs when I go into one of my rants.
The scenery was lovely all the way down, we even passed a group of water buffalo.

I love this pic

We also stopped off at one point and came across 5 lads having a picnic.
Oh my god! on further inspection we saw that they were boiling and eating massive ants, some with their wings on together with sticky rice

Well, it's protein I suppose

At the half way point we got to the areas where the people were tubing down the river

 They simply float with the current and stop off along the way as the mood takes them.

It really is crazy and looks great fun for those involved.
All along the river bank are bamboo platforms with people drinking and dancing to loud rave music.
There were also areas for mud volleyball, tug of war in wet mud and water slides and ropes from a great height to swing from and then jump into the water.
They have their cocktails served in buckets, (the sort a kid would have for sand castles) or beers and there were also 'mushroom' cocktails and joints for sale.
One of the bar staff was holding a big sign up that read 'stop here for a strong mushroom cocktail and a free joint with every 2 buckets'!
I was just sitting next to a guy in this internet place and he has been here for a month, he said that accidents are all part of the experience - oh, to be young...

Back for sunset beer

Sunday,
Despite what I just said about the crazy tubing, Frans has gone off to do just that today (minus the dodgy cocktails and joints)
He is some one who likes to try every thing and felt that it's what you do in Veng Vieng.
He will no doubt find a group to float down the river with and enjoy watching and taking photos of the drunken revelers.
I, have stayed in town and will book our ticket to move on to the next town in the morning.
It is the capital city Vientiane, so we will probably spend a few days there.
Then we will take another bus to the far south of Laos and spend a week or so on what is described as very chilled out Islands.
After that the plan is to go back into Thailand overland by train where we might go our separate ways after a couple of weeks.
He wants to go to Malaysia, Indonesia and the Phillipines as well as Thailand and depending on the weather, monsoons etc might need to go sooner rather than later.
He enjoys surfing, diving, rock climbing, mountain biking to name a few and I know has not been doing as much as he might have done with me around.
We have had a great time together and in his words we will always be friends, but that is as far as it will go.