TravelStream™ news feed for member intrepidfred on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/intrepidfred en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sat, 30 May 2009 04:40:40 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/intrepidfred/1/1242154680/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/intrepidfred/1/1242154680/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/intrepidfred/1/1242154680/tpod.html Sat, 30 May 2009 04:40:40 -0400 Backpack Confidential

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Dublin, Ireland

Reading: <i>McCarthy's Bar by Pete McCarthy
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Mussoorie, Uttarakhand, India

Reading: <i>Guns, Germs, And Steel by Jared Diamond
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Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India

Reading: <i>Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig
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Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, India

Reading: <i>The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
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Mumbai (Bombay), Maharashtra, India

Reading: Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found by Suketu Mehta
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Vang Vieng, Lao Peoples Dem Rep

Carnival in Rio, Oktoberfest in Munich, Mardi Gras in New Orleans, San Fermin in Pamplona, the Full Moon Party on Koh Phangan, and the daddy of them all, Burning Man Festival in Nevada. These are some of the world's wildest annual parties. I've had the fortune of going to all but the first two on the list.&nbsp;And they&nbsp;are all held on a special occasion, for a specific period of time each year. I will confidently argue that Vang Vieng in Laos is hands down--without a doubt--the single wildest party that happens on a daily basis anywhere in the world. Moreso than Ibiza, moreso than Las Vegas. If you are a young gentleman and you are reading this, do whatever it takes to get to this town before it's ruined or before you're too old to appreciate it.Things happen in Vang Vieng that you don't write about in a blog that your parents read, but here are a few memories that will give you an idea: --Tubing down a river with giant Beerlaos in hand. Along the way Laotian guys will throw out a line and pull you ashore to various raging bars full of swimsuit-clad Europeans, covered in mud and/or body paint, dancing around a bonfire as if their lives depended on it.--Giant trapeze and rope swings from dangerously high perches. You swing out, launch yourelf into the air, and pray for a painless landing in the river. Down below, groups of people at the bar sit and watch the action, jeering frequently when someone does an accidental bellyflop. I'll never forget being at the apex of the trapeze's trajectory, looking across a sea of people that looked like they belonged in the rave scene at Zion in <i>Matrix: Reloaded, locking eyes with Matt, yelling "Lando!" at the top of my lungs, before letting go and plummeting five meters into the water below. --And&nbsp;mud wrestling pits!T-shirts all over town say "Vang Vieng - In The Tubing". Can anyone explain what this means? Is it some inside joke or just one of those funny mistranslations you come to expect in Asia?Anyhow, when it starts getting dark, everybody heads back into town, and lays down to dinner on a mattress and pillows at one of the many restaurants showing movies or FRIENDS/SIMPSONS/FAMILY GUY. After dinner, there's an area with three rickety wooden bridges, each of which brings you to a different island full of outdoor hammock bars ("Bucket Bar" is the best one in case anybody is headed here). After two days of outright debauchery, I think we'd met 80% of the people in town. And our livers were begging us to move on. We listened.
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Kochi, Kerala, India

Reading: <i>The White Tiger by Aravind Adaga
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Varkala, Kerala, India

Reading: <i>The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
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Luang Prabang, Lao Peoples Dem Rep

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Reading: <i>The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
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Vientiane, Lao Peoples Dem Rep

Getting to Vientiane from Hanoi took a&nbsp;25-hour bus ride that can only be described as "hell on wheels". The aisle was packed full of Vietnamese men, one of whom insisted on sleeping with his head and shoulders between my legs. I was powerless to prevent it. As a bonus, Matt and&nbsp;I had intended to go to Luang Prabang (nine hours north of Vientiane), and our travel agent in Hanoi sold us our bus tickets knowing full well the bus wasn't going any further. After an&nbsp;additional hour walking around Vientiane trying to find&nbsp;a guest house that wasn't full, Matt and I quickly made our way to the riverside bars to sample the local lagers. It was on this evening that Matt chose to reveal the wonderful--might I even say magical--fact that he and a friend had invented a drink called the "Lando Calrissian" and that he does an uncanny Billy Dee Williams impression that never, ever gets old. I decided on the spot that his nickname had to be "Lando" and we would spend the next six days amusing ourselves with silly <i>Star Wars lines said in that ridiculous voice. Lines that in hindsight are so patently ridiculous that Leigh Brackett and/or Lawrence Kasdan should be thanking their lucky stars that Billy Dee Williams was available to speak them, because there may not be anybody else on the planet who could have pulled it off."Why, you slimy, double-crossing, no-good swindler.""My my my, what have we here?""You look absolutely beautiful. You truly belong here with us among the clouds."Reading: <i>Dance, Dance, Dance by Haruki Murakami
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