and to think there's snow on the ground in colorado

My view on the river

Laotian keyboard

Natural swimming hole. The water is really that color.

This is how many buildings are constructed around here. A little surprising to see at first, but it definitely works. 

Welcome to Laos. I almost didnt even want to share this picture. This place is too beautiful its indescribable.

The ice cream bastards.

All you can eat-- $1.33.

Bear sanctuary.

My dining partner. 

These are everywhere. Its funny how obvious we are treated sometimes.

UXO museum

Ive never been charged to use the bathroom before in my life. This is actually quite common; the most expensive one so far was $1. 

Our own private waterfall. It doesnt look that big but when we tried to swim underneath it we got pumbled. 

Just a bucket of puppies. 

The organic farm.

We literally came across a group of elephants. They were chained to a tree, used for jungle treks during the day. But now they were all ours. We approached carefully and stunned; I had never been this close to an elephant before. We let them watch us, warm up to our presence. You can feel their intelligence. You know instinctively they are recognizing and processing you. We feed them bananas and pet them for a good hour. I went back there the next day and the one that i was giving the most attention to walked over to me. I knew she remembered. 

The bungalow with the red roof was ours for the night. It was set beside a beautiful river with a waterfall just 100 meters away. We paid roughly $2 for the night.

Lao tobacco stand at the market.