Laos

Getting into Laos was awesome...flights are fantastic!! we loved it so much we booked another one getting out of Laos into Vietnam :) We flew into Pakse, in southern Laos, and then had to bus it down to four thousand islands. There IS no such thing as a VIP bus down there so for 3 dollars we got on the back of a..what we might call a large tuk tuk (see numerous photos)...with one other girl from poland and a whole bunch of locals. This also meant with bags of clothes, food, cement (dry of course), and boxes of random stuff. We were actually totally fine with being in there for 3 hours...we had the back seats so were close to fresh air and could stretch our legs out the back. it started pouring, so we had to load ALL the cement bags in front of us so our legs were up at our chins..and we decided for fun to pick up a broken down motor bike and its 2 riders, and just throw it on the back. No prob!! Anyway..we made it in one piece, still smiling. I think we're getting better at this?? We took a quick longboat across the river to Don Det, one of the many small islands in the south...it was a quiet, laid back islands with too many guesthouses for the amount of people that were there. One dirt street was pretty much it, and electricity turned off at 10pm. We found a cute little guesthouse for $3 a night...which was on a FARM, per se. Cow directly out the window, roosters all OVER, dog fights...you name it. I think we got less sleep the first night than on a night bus. Best part was renting bikes and biking down to the next island on dirt roads in between rice fields (see photo) to see a waterfall...or a really wide part of the river that flowed really fast over some big rocks...not necessarily niagara falls :) We left on a bus back to Pakse, and actually got a minibus this time!! We took a night bus to Vientiane..on which we should mention blaring Thai or Asian karaoke on the tvs until about 12am. BLARING!! And there is no in between for air conditioning or not...it's either freezing or dripping hot. Vientiane was really cute...and the best capital city, and least intimidating so far. Lots of cute little french cafes and restaurants, and even a Laos Arc de Triomphe! LH was a little under the weather...so we got most of our sight seeing done going from pharmacy to pharmacy trying to communicate what we actually wanted...it's hard enough ordering food. Acidopholus Bifidus? Come on.....We took a VIP bus according to laos standards on probably the prettiest bus ride we've had since we've been over here to Vang Vieng, north of Vientiane. It's beautiful here! I would say the Banff of Laos. yesterday we did a kayaking tour, which involved some caving..or floating on tubes with headlamps in caves that came about 1 foot above your head. Then kayaking down the Mekong stopping at riverside "bars" on the way to do some zip lining into the river :) Check out the scenery in the background...Other than watching rerun after rerun of friends....there isn't much going on here at night...tours during the day, or watching tv, internetting and that's about it! It's nice to relax for awhile before we head to Luang Prabang and then...Vietnam!!
Thanks to everyone for all the messages!! We love hearing from you!
L and L