Ain't he cute?

This is Dan:

He's my sweetie. He's smart, funny, tall, strong, has a sexy British accent, and a cute butt ;) -- sorry, no photos of that one (yet). We met, as you know, at a waterfall in Laos. This waterfall, to be exact:

Actually, if you want to get REALLY specific, it was the swimming hole at the waterfall:

(Forgive the poor quality photos (hee hee I wrote "poo quality" - indeed.) -- but I think you get the idea. Un-freaking-real!)

He was with some peeps he met in Vietnam - an Australian brother and sister, and they all ended up in a taxi-van-thingy with two English guys, an American girl and guy, and an Aussie girl, or "Sheila". Actually, her name's Lucy. I went on my own with some boring-ass people from a van my guesthouse got for me... my guesthouse with the hot pink panda sheets and the mattress on the floor - it rocked. I started chatting with the American girl, she introduced me to everyone, and that was that! Love at first sight.

Well, not exactly. My first sight of him was standing knee-deep in the swimming hole water, shivering, glaring white chest and shoulders a stark contrast to the blazing red of his upper arms and face - and I hadn't even SEEN the sock lines yet! His first impression of me after that was me talking about how cute I am (I'm a Leo. Once you get to know me, you'll love me, I promise). I told him to suck it up and jump in.

I was really psyched to meet a group of people to hang out with, so I let myself be convinced (ordered, if you want to get technical) to join them in their taxi home. On the hour ride back to Luang Prabang, I noticed that the blonde British guy was a lot cuter with a shirt on and not shivering. And he really listened to me when I talked. And he had a cute butt (did I mention that already?). We all went to dinner, we all went bowling, we all got way-hay-haysss-ted.... and the rest, as they say, is history.

It was supposed to be a travel fling -- he was moving to Australia, I was moving to Europe. But as the hours and days passed, we both started to realize we wanted more. He started joking that I should come to Australia, and I started joking that I WOULD come to Australia.... and then we both got serious, and I DID go to Australia. And the story is only beginning...

Damn, I love that boy.