We slowly made our way from the south of Thailand up to the north in preparation for a border crossing. We entered Laos (truly pronounced ‘Lao’ as there is no ‘s’ sound in SE Asian languages) on the northeast border of Thailand via a crammed bus. The crossing was standard; get to immigration and fill out the cards, wait for them to use up an entire page of your passport with a massive visa card and exchange your money, which was the fun part. As I understand, Laos is still rated as one of the poorest countries in the world so their currency is all in the thousands. So when I handed the man at the counter all of my Thai baht I received about 4.4 million (cue the pinky finger to edge of lip) kip. Bucketlist: become a millionaire. Check! I had the sudden feeling everyone was staring at me as I stuffed 4 million kip of bills in my bag, trying to make sense of this currency. We got our visas and walked into Laos flush as millionaires.
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| Stuck in the luggage hole |
It took me about two, maybe three months to fall in love with Thailand. It took me all of three hours to fall in love with Laos. The capital, Vientiane, sits on the border of Thailand so that was our first stop. Walking around the city I instantly felt peace and wonder. No traffic jams, no one trying to sell you anything, no one getting in your face when you refuse their services, no skyscrapers, not as much trash and people driving like they actually care about their lives. There is something in the air in Laos that permeates into you. You feel calm and relaxed almost immediately even though you have no idea where you are and you can't understand anyone. The people are sensational. Considerate and lively, they don’t try and swindle you or lecherously ogle you. Instead they want you to come play a game of football with them or want to show you around an art exhibit for free that hasn’t opened to the public yet.
We spent four days enjoying Vientiane, doing our best to keep warm and dry but failing miserably; the rain would follow us for another 3 days. There isn’t much to do around the capital but that is sort of it’s charm. You can walk around the whole city by foot, visiting temples and a mock of the Arc de Triomphe boasting some Asian flare. You can stop for a delicious Beerlao at any restaurant or food stall. You can lounge in a café where they serve actual coffee. You can get an actual sandwich on a fantastic baguette with anything you want, a gift from the long French occupation.
The sun came out for a few hours on our last day in the capital so we hired a tuk tuk to take us to Buddha park. This park is a mish-mash of Buddhist and Hindu statues some nut case collected from all over SE Asia and planted in a park along the Mekong river (there is one similar by the same guy in Thailand.) The closer we got to the park the more we started to really feel that we had left the comfort of Thailand. The road went from paved to mud and we weaved and bounced along the road, waving at the locals and children who would run after us. The tuk tuk driver had to break for multiple herds of cattle that sniffed us out then went along their business. Chickens and goats and a random swan also stared at us from their roadside seats though they were kind enough to get out of our way when they heard us coming (which shouldn't have been hard; the tuk tuk's engine sounded like we were about to take off into flight at any minute.) We arrived at the park just in time for the sun to grace us with soft light, perfect for photos.
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| Beautiful art gallery we were allowed to tour before the show opened |
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| Downtown Vientiane |
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| Roof of the "Triomphe" |
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| This temple is rumored to house a bone of Buddha himself |
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| Buddha Park |
We slowly made our way from the south of Thailand up to the north in preparation for a border crossing. We entered Laos (truly pronounced ‘Lao’ as there is no ‘s’ sound in SE Asian languages) on the northeast border of Thailand via a crammed bus. The crossing was standard; get to immigration and fill out the cards, wait for them to use up an entire page of your passport with a massive visa card and exchange your money, which was the fun part. As I understand, Laos is still rated as one of the poorest countries in the world so their currency is all in the thousands. So when I handed the man at the counter all of my Thai baht I received about 4.4 million (cue the pinky finger to edge of lip) kip. Bucketlist: become a millionaire. Check! I had the sudden feeling everyone was staring at me as I stuffed 4 million kip of bills in my bag, trying to make sense of this currency. We got our visas and walked into Laos flush as millionaires. 
We spent four days enjoying Vientiane, doing our best to keep warm and dry but failing miserably; the rain would follow us for another 3 days. There isn’t much to do around the capital but that is sort of it’s charm. You can walk around the whole city by foot, visiting temples and a mock of the Arc de Triomphe boasting some Asian flare. You can stop for a delicious Beerlao at any restaurant or food stall. You can lounge in a café where they serve actual coffee. You can get an actual sandwich on a fantastic baguette with anything you want, a gift from the long French occupation. 
The sun came out for a few hours on our last day in the capital so we hired a tuk tuk to take us to Buddha park. This park is a mish-mash of Buddhist and Hindu statues some nut case collected from all over SE Asia and planted in a park along the Mekong river (there is one similar by the same guy in Thailand.) The closer we got to the park the more we started to really feel that we had left the comfort of Thailand. The road went from paved to mud and we weaved and bounced along the road, waving at the locals and children who would run after us. The tuk tuk driver had to break for multiple herds of cattle that sniffed us out then went along their business. Chickens and goats and a random swan also stared at us from their roadside seats though they were kind enough to get out of our way when they heard us coming (which shouldn't have been hard; the tuk tuk's engine sounded like we were about to take off into flight at any minute.) We arrived at the park just in time for the sun to grace us with soft light, perfect for photos. 
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