Over the Border: Laos

We boarded a bus to Laos around 7pm on Wednesday in Bangkok and arrived at the border in an extremely groggy state around 6am.  In buying our visas, we paid with Thai Baht, which meant that we ended up paying $50 each instead of $35 if we had had actual US dollars.  This put me in a terrible mood given our tight budget, the fact that $30 goes a long way in SE Asia, and my fitful night of sleep on the bus.  By the time we arrived in Vientiane, I was somewhat calmer.

We found a place to stay for about $7 on the outskirts of town, rented a bike and rushed off to the Vietnam Embassy where it was apparently cheaper to get a Vietnam visa than at the hotel.  We boarded our bikes, mine sounding like it was crunching bones and Nolan's sounding as if it was dragging tin cans, and raced dangerously back to the money exchange to get US dollars (no more tricks!).  Somewhere on this speedy ride, we discovered we had no brakes.  Tough luck equals tough fun.

Finding our way back the main street, we raced past a giant monument and various beautiful temples in frantic search of the embassy, which was closing in half and hour.  Finally, after hanging outside of the ambassador's residence for a long time, a sweet old man came to the gate and pointed us in the direction of the consulate.  We arrived at 11:37 only to see the sign saying they were closed from 11:30 - 1:30.  Feeling defeated, we decided to go in search of food, not having eaten a real meal since the previous day.  Nolan spotted a restaurant full of locals right around the corner from the Vietnam embassy, so we went with his gut.  Approaching the counter, the girls ladling soup gave us blank stares and begged the well-dressed men nearby to help them communicate with us.  

We managed to be seated, and were promptly served two plates of greens (raw string beans, lettuce, mint), a dipping bowl of chili-peanut sauce, and a gigantic bowl of soup full of noodle, beef, and mystery meat balls.  After adding some fish sauce, soy sauce, and chili, it was delicious!  The whole meal cost a whopping 3 dollars for the two of us. We biked around to some more temples until the embassy opened. The man who issued us our visas was the same one who helped us translate in the restaurant. Additionally, the hassle of going to the embassy ourselves was no cheaper than having the hotel do it for us!  BLURG! 

After a sweet nap, we walked around the city and ate street food till we couldn't walk and passed out. The next morning we did yoga and boarded a bumpy bus that tricked us into buying icecream!  BLURG!

Now we are in Vang Vieng, a sleepy town that has been transformed into a backpacker pit-stop where all the shops sell gear for westerners (i.e. souvenir t-shirts/clothing), and (much to my delight!) almost every restaurant sells the famed baguette sandwiches I fell in love with while in Vietnam.  Many of the restaurants we've walked by blast episodes of friends or family guy, and westerners strut down the streets half-naked to or from tubing excursions.  Despite the, perhaps, inauthenticity, of this town as a "Lao" town, we are sitting at a cafe on the river overlooking a view of stunning limestone cliffs silhouetted againts the dusky sky.  It's quite a spectacular sight!  The people are very friendly, and when we walk down the street, a chorus of "hello - sabaidi" greet you from the adorable children on the street.

Tomorrow we're heading across the river to these very cliffs to explore the newly developed climbing area.  We rented biked for $3 and when it gets too hot, we'll hop on a tube and cool off!