It Was Good.

Today was one of those perfect kind of days, the kind of day that makes you happy to be traveling, happy to be alive, and eager to have a day just like it again sometime..

For me, these days all tend toward some kind of mean: they pretty much always involve friends, food, fantastic scenery ... and more often than not, bikes. I can't explain this last element - I'm not even good at riding bikes and it makes my weak little legs sore. But, they're usually just thrown into the mix. At any rate, this is pretty much all I need to make me one happy camper.

Today's perfect day involved us renting those bikes and riding out of Spring Break Central 2010, a.k.a., Vang Vien, a town that seems to have been invented for foreigners. Here, the average age is about 21, most clothing consists of a bikini and little else, Friends episodes play on a loop at every guest house, and hash brownies are readily available. I feel a little bit like I'm on location for Girls Gone Wild: Laos. This isn't quite my cup of tea (really? shocking!), so riding out of town was like a breath of fresh air: we were finally in the countryside, we were being active, we were surrounded by beauty, no one was shouting "WHOOOO!" These are all good things. We biked and biked, explored some scary caves (me not liking the dark or small spaces, I was pretty proud of myself for even venturing in), and enjoyed the perfect weather.

The afternoon came and we grew quite hungry, and we spotted an organic farm! Yay! I was so excited as we approached; it was set in the most idyllic place, in a plot of land overlooking the river and spotted with hanging trees, bungalows, goats, and even piggies. And then I heard the dance music. Kanye, MGMT, and the Black Eyed Peas echoed throughout the surrounding valley, pretty much destroying the ambiance. However, nothing could have destroyed the taste of the mulberry shakes, the right-out-of-the-oven baguettes, the spicy eggplant dip, the freshest mango I have ever put to my lips, the coconut curry ... and the goat cheese. My god. The goat cheese. It was a truly remarkable gastronomic experience. We sat there the rest of the afternoon, too full and lazy to do anything else but order more mulberry shakes. Keep 'em coming.