Mutmee Guesthouse, Nong Khai

By far one of the nicest, most interesting places we've stayed in Thailand. A community of Thai and foreign yoga enthusiasts, cooks, musicians, and artists has occupied a cluster of two-story teak buildings and thatched huts overlooking the Mekong River. The whole utopian village is built around a scenic garden furnished with teak tables, chairs, and hammocks. Guests feel more like lucky members of a visionary collective than third world resort patrons.

Last night, while brushing my teeth, I heard mysterious music coming from a mysterious source. I opened the shuttered windows of our second floor room to look down upon a single guitar-picking man singing alone in a tiny garden. He sat beneath a bare lightbulb hung in a tree, bearded and dressed in intricately patterned fisherman pants, looking like some kinda neo-hippie messiah. Where the hell am I?