Where In The World Is Evan?

After an uncomfortable bus ride through the mountains of northern Laos I finally arrived in Luang Prabang. The city itself is one of the most beautiful in South East Asia, with an intriguing mix of French and Buddhist architecture.

Having spent the whole day on the bus I managed to find a hostel before it got dark, dropped off my bag, and went for a walk to find dinner.

Due to the disaster of my last Indian meal I still had a craving for curry, so I decided to give it another go. At the Indian restaurant I ran into a few other travellers, including a Kiwi guy called Jessie.

After dinner we all met up at a bar across town for a few drinks. As our numbers continued to swell with new people we decided to ditch the bar and check out one of the two nightclubs in town. This, however, proved to be a very bad idea—the music was just horrendous and the whole atmosphere was tacky and uncomfortable. The only saving grace was that the place had to shut at midnight so the experience didn’t last too long.

After grabbing another couple of drinks at the only place in town that’s open after midnight, I walked back in the direction of my hostel with Jessie.

As we walked past a group of Laos youths they started to pester us to buy drugs. After about 15 mins of bartering we had gotten them down to a reasonable price, so we bought some pot and a couple of pills of yaba—a dirty amphetamine cocktail that’s hugely popular in SE Asia.

Returning to my hostel we smoked the yaba and then some more opium before Jessie left and I crashed into bed.

The following day, after almost no sleep, I met up with the group of travellers from the night before and hired a tuk-tuk to take us 20 km out of town to a picturesque waterfall.

We swam and frolicked in the water for the whole day, before getting a flat tyre while returning to town.

When I got back into town and checked my email I was confronted with a difficult dilemma. I’d promised my sister that I’d be back home in Australia within a week so I could attend her engagement party. However, I’d just gotten an email from Lianca saying that she missed me so much that she would help me financially to return to China and live with her.

Despite the rather flippant way I’ve spoken of her previously we did have more than just a physical connection, and I was sorely tempted by her offer. The thought of once again skipping out on coming home was quite appealing, however, I knew how important it was to my sister that I be at her engagement party. So I had to decline Lianca’s generous offer.

Check out the photos here.