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Published: December 22nd 2005
SURPRISE!! we made it over to Laos at the very last minute. we cut our time in the islands short due to poor weather, and we are SO glad we decided to spend some time in this developing country.
throughout our travels we kept on hearing how crazy we were for not going to Laos... and it was everyone's FAVORITE country in south east asia by a long shot. so, we decided that we could not leave for india without seeing it for ourselves...
from our last island (Koh Lanta), we took a boat for a few hours and made a pit stop off at Phuket; we were not impressed with the main city. it had a very touristy feel, which we have been trying to avoid. we spent a few hours looking around, and of course squeezed in our last cheap Thai oil massage.
we jumped onto an all-nighter bus back to Bangkok, and we arrived early in the morning... just enough time to run around and figure out how we were going to make it to Laos - seeing that we had no visa or guide book to give us a heads up. so later on
that afternoon we boarded yet another all-nighter bus, which took us across the boarder to Vientiane, Laos.
note to readers: we are so bad ass. or stupid. whatever. so within 3 days and two nights, 40 hours later we found ourselves in the small hill town of Vang Vieng, Laos!
we had six days... we spent a lovely three of them in Vang Vieng. here we enjoyed the beautiful mountain surroundings and food. we can not skip the fact that this random small town is a fanatic "friends" cult... at first we were like, cool, this restaurant is rad that they play the "friends" dvds all day and night. but then we were like, whoa, they ALL have "friends" on repeat 24/7! and it kinda freaked us out, but at least they had different seasons playing! only a few years ago this town didn't even have electricity... and now the fake recorded laughter echoes through the streets.
the highlight of this town was our all day innertubing excursion down the river. after we got in, 2 minutes later we found ourselves getting dragged up onto the shore by a long bamboo pole held by a lady yelling
"beer laos" at us. this was the first of many river-side bar stops a.k.a. bamboo deck with a cooler filled with beer laos for sale. p.s. this country has the most pride for their beer... and we don't blame them bc it's fucking good... not to mention it was a steep 60 cents for a 32 oz.
getting from one city to the next made us really realize we were in a third world country. we spent hours on what seemed like the ONLY road through Laos that had small villages and huts scattered here and there. we cannot count how many pantless brown babies we saw along the road as we enjoyed a scenic tour of the grass plains, steep cliffs, and tropical rain forest that grows uncontrollably throughout Laos.
the rest of our short visit was spent in Luang Prabang. this city is far more developed, but it too does not have a single atm in town... no way man! we enjoyed caves and waterfalls, a fabulous night market, and visited some local villages that made paper, whisky, scarfs, etc.
jess was a real hard core back-packer slash cheap ass and travelled a SOLID 27
feelin' rich, suga mamma?
anyone care to guess how much $$ jess is actually holding?hours STRAIGHT back through Laos to Bangkok bc we wanted to make it back for the giant, infamous weekend market (one of the largest in the world) and jessie's 23rd b-day. stacy was a brat slash pussy after she saw the bus wreck and opted for the 1 1/2 hr flight!
xoxo S & J
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sue
non-member comment
I want happy and funny too
That menu is hysterical! Your pics are the best. I didn't think it was possible but they get better and better. Glad those cameras are working, keep 'em clicking. Please tell me that you handed your camera to someone else who had stepped over the fence to take a pic of the falls b/c certainly 2 smart graduates from UCD would not. I'll keep praying. love you both billions. xoxo