You control your time and if something gets screwed up you but you alone will have to suffer the consequences.
The best thing about it is that you follow your own pace. If you want to spend this amount of time to this location, you're free to do as you please.
You meet a lot of people. You get to learn more things from them. People are more open to you because you're less intimidating than let's say when you're in a group.
I was roaming again the quiet streets of Louang Phabang this morning to witness again the young monks receiving their alms from the village people. I saw that a number of them were converging and were heading towards a temple up on the hill.
"Phou Si" or the sacred hill is the spiritual center of the city. It's a miniature Mount Olympus of Hindu-Buddhist cosmology.
It was by means no easy climb. Halfway through the 200 steps or so I was already having the difficulty of catching my breath. And when I reached the peak, I was rewarded to a stunning panorama of the charming old city.
Up in the hill is Wat Pa Houak, a little temple that contains fascinating murals of Lao inhabitants of Louang Phabang.
I must have stayed there for ages... hours just contemplating on the magnificent view provided by the sacred hill. The great river to my left and the majestic mountain to my right, and the hill was the great crown dividing the breattaking sights.
I approached a young Japanese guy who was also there contemplating and taking pictures. I wanted to srike up a conversation and he was friendly enough to indulge me. I'm just fascinated with travelers who are travelling alone. A month ago, I don't think I'd have the audaucity to embark on one.
Yoshi is in Laos for the second time around and he has also fallen in love with the place. It's his fourth country and he's been travelling since January. He first went to Fiji, then to New Zealand, then to Bangkok, then to Laos and he'll be going up north to cross the borders to China.
He's an engineer in Fukoka, he's unlike the metrosexual japs that was with me during the trek. He's very laid back, was wearing board shorts, faded sirt and he has this Maui-boy vibe going. When I saw him I thought he was around 21-22, to my surprise, he was already in early 30's.
He invited me for a beer (LAO BEER is definitely a highlight of my trip), and we shared our travel stories. He told me that he likes travelling alone because of the freedom that he feels whenever he's just by himself. Having said that, he's rooming in for the night with another Japanese guy to save room fee, but he says that during the day he's pretty much alone just wandering around.
It is very common in Japan, well for young Japanese guys to work for three years and save and travel a year round. This has been his third "around-the-world" travel so far and he said that he's learning alot from it. He's planning to speand six months in China to learn the Language.
I've met a number of young people who're taking their time off to travel and learn from different cultures of the different countries that they visit. This I think is one of the major advantages of first world countries because their youth is lucky enough to experience this. And the community of travellers is growing, it's a pity too that Philippines is being ignored in the travelling community. We're not even part of the travellers itinerary, I've talked to a number of them and they never even considered in putting it in their plans. That's a bummer.
One guy asked me where I was from and when I told him that I was from the Philippines the next question he asked me was "Isn't there a war going on right now there?".
In the end it all boils down to politics. And I can't blame them for the bad impression that they get from the news. We are all to blame. At first I wanted to be apolitical but really in the end, we really have to participate and really start to make a difference if we want this country to progress.
In the end, it's as easy as stopping to blame someone and start doing our part.
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