A Happy Ending

Today marks the end of an era. The LG and I traveling together era, to be exact.
We finished off our time together fittingly with a massage. It was our first since a rather scarring experience in Cambodia, and much improved thank goodness (though without of course, a happy ending).

The sun started shining for the first time in over a week, but our goodbye was sad, and I nearly broke down once her tuktuk pulled away as the enormity of being left alone on this alien continent washed over me. I pulled myself together, thought about all the strong, independent female travelers we'd met, and focused on the task at hand: finding new housing.

The last few days in Luang Prabang have been relaxing, and the future seems to provide more of the same for me. I had originally intended to leave when Laura did and take a bus to Veng Vieng (6 hours), spend a day there, followed by a bus to Vientiane Wednesday morning (4 hours), pick up at 3:30 to go to the Thai border, and then a 12 hour train ride to Bangkok (from where I catch a plane of friday morning to Singapore, followed by one on Saturday to Yogyakarta). So much travel in such short time sounded vaguely unpleasant, even to a whirlwind traveler such as yours truly. Furthermore, the main attraction in Veng Vieng appears to be tubing down the river and drinking beer, which I think I can give a miss. Thus, with some maternal convincing from Laura, I shelled out the extra bucks for a plane ticket, and am now resting in peaceful LP until Thursday morning.

Unfortunately, a hazard of traveling alone in a place that is dominated by guesthouses means paying full price for a room. Thus suddenly, in order to afford to the $25 a night room we were in, I would have to pay $25, instead of $12.50. A shame that. I was hoping to find a backpackers of sorts, someplace cheap, clean and more social, but they don't appear to exist here. Instead, I undertook a temporary job as a Let's Go travel writer and spent two hours trolling the town asking the price of a room in every reasonable looking guesthouse I came across. The unfortunate truth of the mantra "you get what you pay for" became painfully clear to me in no time. Accustomed as I am to a certain level of niceness that is affordable when traveling in a pair, it was a bit of a nasty shock to view some of the rock bottom items. Of the dozen or so rooms that I looked at, all seemed to either smell strongly of must/mold, or strong industrial cleaning smell. Furthermore, they were universally dark and drab and generally depressing. I just couldn't do it. Finally, I found a place on the far side of town where for 70000 kip (around $8) I could get a nice little room (no smell, good light!) with a shared bathroom. Considering the fact that all the other rooms I had looked at were en-suite bathrooms, some with TVs, for 60000, this is a testament to the importance of smell on general well-being.