Hey everyone,
It has been a long time since my last post. There are a few reasons for this. One is that things are actually starting to feel routine. I guess it is a good thing but I have an everyday average life. Things aren't so new. I feel as though I am starting to absorb into the culture. Another reason is that I haven't had a lot of time between midterms and going on a few weekend trips. Perhaps the largest reason however is I have been pretty lazy and haven't felt like writing and uploading a video lol. But without further ado here is an update on my travels.
Here's a little post about R16 Laos.....
So after searching for a bboy jam out here for a long time I finally came across r16 laos. I was familiar with the finals which are held in Korea every year but was never acquainted with any of the qualifiers. I learned about the event about a week before it was held but I decided I really wanted to go. My friend rishab, a newcomer to bboying from nepal, was interested in going. The day we were suppose to leave our friend phon decided to join as well, claiming "it was meant to be", a common saying along the trip. We booked the second class train to nong khai. It was much nicer than any of the buses I've been on. After sleeping in my bunk during the 12 hour journey we finally made it to the border. After some paperwork I got my visa, and took a another short bus ride and there I was, standing in the capital city of laos, Vientiane. Well, it certainly didn't seem like a capital city lol. More like a half industrialized town. Haha, but seriously there are better places to go in laos if you don't have an event to go to. I was surprised to find out that things were not cheaper in laos. . Maybe just because it was the capital city but things were just as expensive if not more costly than Thailand.Also another note if you plan to visit Vientiane is that everything closes really early, I mean like 10 oclock. Even the hotel we stayed at said that the doors were closed and locked at midnight whether we were in our out. After finding a place to stay and getting a bite to eat we decided to scope out the venue. When we got there, to my surprise, we found a lot of preteens just standing around while the dj scratched some music. None of them spoke English except an older one named "super one". I would come to find out later that this guy definitely deserved the name. He was a bboy, an MC of the event, and a decent rapper. This guy could do everything. After a brief cypher we went back out to explore. I could not describe all the ongoing jokes we had for the weekend if I tried. All I can say is that I don't think I've ever laughed more over the course of a two day span period. Between getting lost, drinking sting, criticizing the colonizers, it was all "meant to be". The first day of the event was different from the other jams I had been to. It was the first time I had seen the OUR judging system used which was very interesting. I also noticed a much stronger emphasis on routines. Lastly, one of the things I was a little disappointed in was there were almost no cyphers. This was even more so the case the next day when the event was held on a stage. Luckily They called for volunteers for an impromptu battle. I was soooo pumped to meet one of my idols bboy dyzee after the event.
The last and final day we spent looking at museums and cultural places. Laos was so fun. It was great to see a different side of bboying in such a culturally different place.
Video of the Event
