Oh La-LAO Part 1

Let me start this blog off with: I am not spelling "Lao" incorrectly, I know we Americans throw an "S" on the end of it but since they don't do that in Lao I am going to trust the country to know how to spell itself.

I am going to break this blog into four sections/separate posts so i can maximize the amount of photos I can share!

SLEEPER BUS:
Our adventure to Lao began on the 23 hour sleeper bus (which actually turned out to be only 18 hours.) When first presented with the idea of 1. taking a bus to Lao and 2. only bringing a backpack I didn't believe I was capable of it. I can safely say now, that I proved myself wrong ten times over. AND I actually liked the bus. It was a GREAT way to meet people (that we ran into all over our trek of the country) AND a group of eight of us decided to soften the long trip by having a full on party in the back of the bus, complete with cards, Bombay sapphire, gin, boxed wine and an Irishman vomiting. We had to walk across the border and the board the bus again, which was exhilarating at 6am.
side note: the sleeping pods were not big enough for my 5'10 frame. and for some reason they tried to give us assigned seats. our bus rebelled.

Stop 1-VIENTIANE:
When we arrived in Vientiane, I thought, "This must be a joke. This must be a rest stop. no way this is the capital of a country." Don't get me wrong, i had been warned about the charms of Vientiane (or lack there of) but truly couldn't appreciate them until I saw them firsthand. Luckily, the hotel was beautiful and right on the Mekong. I would've left the next morning, but my travel buddy (Chip) needed to get a Vietnam visa so we were forced to stay another day. The only really notable thing that I can report happened in Vientiane was that my camera went missing for twelve hours and I was hysterical and really bitchy and psycho until we got it back. Long story short, these great girls we met the night before had it. Chip thought I had it, and vice versa but the girls had it, I got it back. End of story.