I traveled to Laos because Mindy said “lets go to Laos, Kauai is boring.” I understood Mindy. She wanted a little adventure and I wanted some too.

We arrived as the sun set over the Mekong River. These boats are the slow boats that you can take anywhere up or down the Mekong. For just $25 you can enjoy a two day boat ride from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang.

In Luang Prabang we rode a moped to a beautiful waterfall and along the way we found this place where you can feed elephants bananas and sugar cane. You can also ride them, but that didn’t look too comfortable for the elephants.

These elephants are decommissioned logging elephants. Logging is horrible for elephants.

They can eat an unlimited amount. I don’t think an elephant has ever said “I’m full now. No more food please.”

So I kept feeding it bananas. Bundles of them at a time. It started to get expensive.   

We then took a long bus ride up to Northern Laos, camped in the Laos jungle in Luang Namtha, then headed into Thailand to Chiang Rai. This is the famous White house of Chiang Rai. It’s better than our White house currently. 

Near the border of Myanmar and Thailand was a place called Monkey Cave. It was one of my favorite places. The monkeys came down from the mountains to eat peanuts, torment the tourists and hang around the temples grooming each other. They were actually very nice to me though. I was scared once when one grabbed my back pack and jumped on my umbrella to steal my peanuts.

The Monkey language is Monkey body language.

Smiles all around.

Temple monkey’s.

Pink Sculptures at Monkey cave. Once you pass these sculptures you can enter these caves that supposedly go very very deep. I was afraid of finding viscous monkeys in the cave aka: the movie Congo. Inside the caves are where monks used to meditate and pray. Buddhist sculptures and candles were scattered around the caves everywhere.

Ancient temple near Monkey Caves.     

Some of the Monkey’s had bright red faces, some of them had horrible open scars. They fought with each other  a lot. They are warriors.

After Thailand we headed back into Laos and ended our trip in Luang Prabang. I reccomend a Laos travel adventure to anyone and everyone.  Especially if you like riding motorcycles and bicycles everywhere.

SPECIES: Psilocybe Caerulescens: These mushrooms went from hanging with their family members to being consumed by a shaman’s family members. In Huautla De Jimenez Mexico, their healing powers are believed to be more beneficial than modern medicine.

Protector of the magic mushroom farm. Not the woman, the dog.

A Mazatec Mushroom cultivator.

They were set out to dry before heading into town to be sold.

This photo was heavily photoshopped and became the digital poster of the Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia TV show.

SIDE NOTE: This mushroom town was also known for spelunking. The Shaman works with the mushrooms that we gathered. His name is Filigonio, grandson of the famous shamaness, Maria Sabina.

The alter is where the mushrooms are hidden from bad spirits within giant green leaves and before they are consumed they are spiritually cleansed by copal.

The shaman’s wife used mushrooms to heal her vision, and her son used them to cure his obsession with local cane sugar moonshine. 

A wooden Jesus oversaw the ceremony along with my clamp light and Kevin Hayden’s LED. Spirituality and cinematography become one.

Watch the documentary online Here