October 7 - October 16th
Our Thailand visa was expiring so we headed to Laos for 10 days before heading back to Thailand. We both wanted to experience the Mekong so we signed up for a 2 1/2 day trip on the Slow Boat through northern Laos.
Our route was to cross at Chaing Kong to Luang Prabang, Vang Ving and then to Veintiene. We were loaded like sardines in our Slow boat. The benches were tiny and painfully uncomfortable. But the scenery more than made up for the discomfort. Northern Laos is absolutely breathtaking. We passed tiny river villages. The first night we stayed at a small village that just received electricity a few months ago.
Our visit to Laos was brief. We were not able to get off the tourist path. However, we did meet an awesome group of people we traveled with during our time in Laos. It was very entertaining trying to pay for dinner. One USD is equal to about 8,000 Kip. Laos accepts Kip, Thai Bhat and the good ole' USD. Since we all just came from Thailand we were all paying with both Kip and Bhat and trying to convert that to Euros and USD. Meals were about 30,000 Kip. Parker and I went all out for our anniversary. We got a beautiful room with massages and room service. We paid a cool half a million Kip for our two nights which was all of $60.
Laos is the the most laid back country we have ever visited. It was a nice change from Thailand. In Thailand we were bombarded by vendors. We visited the quietest night market in Luang Prabang. Some of the merchants were napping and most did not speak to us until we asked for prices. With it's French influence, we sometimes felt like we were in Europe instead of Asia.
Travel through this little communist country was very slow and often frustrating. We had about two weeks left before flying to Kathmandu. We knew we wouldn't make it to Vietnam but we really wanted to visit Cambodia. So we thought it would be faster to take the train to Bangkok and go to Cambodia through Thailand. It was a solid plan. Until we found out we were caught in the middle of a huge flood in NE Thailand. We were eventually shuttled by bus to another train. Our 12 hour train ride turned into a 27 hour ordeal. No more Cambodia for us. We instead went to Ko Samet. A very busy, overpriced island close to Bangkok. We lost a little weight in our last month of traveling. We at least got to spend a week on the beach soaking up the rays and gaining back a little weight for Nepal.
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