Laos; Jewel of the Mekong

For the two months of being overseas I could not believe that I was here and doing these things. I kept wondering how I got here and why I was here. It's a very strange feeling, but what is even stranger is when you get to the point where you are walking down the street after your morning walk along Beach Road and then stopping at a fruit cart to buy some guava and you think "what else could I possibly be doing right now?" and it becomes normal.

Last week I got to go to Laos with a group of people from Languagecorps and I fell back into the "wow, I can't believe I'm here" stage, which I'm really glad for. It's a fun stage to be in. haha Who would have ever thought that I would go to Laos?? hahaha

About 12-13 (I can't remember, and don't feel like counting, haha) of us took a night train to to the Laos- Thailand border. The night train was an experience in itself. The beds were just lined up along the hallway of the carts and everyone was kinda just together. haha I had the bed on top, which I had a hard time getting in and out of. haha At one point during the middle of the night I fell off my ladder and prayed that nobody saw, but of course Kate just happened to be looking my way at the time. hahaha We spent as much time as possible hanging out in the bar cart until we had to go to sleep and when we woke up we only had a couple more hours until we got to get off. Once we got off, we went through immigration and applied for visas and stuff. Then we took a bus to our first destination- Vientiane.

That first day in Vientiane, a few of wandered around a little bit to explore as soon as we got there. We visited at a really good time because it was the Boat Festival, so there was a lot of festivities and market activity going on. Some of us decided to ride a ferris wheel, and the ride ended up being 30 minutes long because they wouldn't let us off! haha Afterwards everybody went to a nice lunch on the Mekong River. That night we went out to a bar to hang out.

The next morning I got up early to explore on my own. Laos is absolutely and undescribably beautiful. It may be the only landlocked country in southeast Asia but it def has enough waterin it with the Mekong and Namsong. There is a lot of French influence, because it used to be colonized by France, so it feels really quaint and sweet. For breakfast we actually went to a French bakery. Unfortunately, that day we had more traveling to do, which involved a four hour van ride in a 12 seater van. It was extremely cramped and I got stuck in the very back with 3 other girls on a very windy road. Halfway through the ride I was moved because I was carsick. haha Anyways, we reached our destination- Vang Viene and that night we went out to check out the "night life". I'm not much of a night life girl, but the bars here were so fun, because they were all outside and it basically consisted of us hanging out in a bungalow swinging on hammocks next to the river all night while I sipped my mango shake. haha It was extremely fun and I felt like I was in a movie.

The next day was our big excursion of kayaking and caving down the Namsong. We all got in these two person kayaks and just kayaked all day. Along the way there were all these stops and sights to see. We stopped at the Elephant Cave, were a Buddha was and the rocks looked like elephant tusks. We stopped at an organic mulberry farm where I tried a mulberry mojito. We stopped at a place where you climbed a ladder about 40 feet in the air and took a zipline and let go to drop into the river. (I actually did it! I was so proud of myself! haha) And we stopped to swim through this really dark cave in the water. I honestly didn't enjoy that cave too much. haha The water was freezing and it was pitch black and it was really scary and I ran into a lot of rocks in the water leaving a lot of purple spots on me. haha It was cool at the end of that though, because when we got out there were a bunch of pomelo trees and a guy shimmied up the tree to shake the branches and we all grabbed a pomelo and ate them right off the tree. haha

That night we got to experience a festival where people buy boats made of banana leaves, bamboo, and flowers and they light candles on them and float them down the river. The farther the boats float, the more good fortune they bring you. Several of us bought them and took them to the river to float them. It was such an amazing thing to experience and an awesome sight to see when literally everybody in the city is floating their boats down the river.

The next day we woke up really early to drive back to Vientiene. When we got back to Vientiene, the city was crazy. The big Boat Races were that day and the streets were packed. We all kindof did our own thing that day and I went shopping. haha I bought an awesome handicraft Laos bag, which I absolutely love. Then that night we all met up for dinner and to go out again.

Before we had to catch our train on the last day, we finally got a tour of Vientiene. We went to Victory Monument and Buddha Park which was lots of fun and cool. Buddha's everywhere. Then we went to Rick's house where Da made us lunch. Then we had to catch the train back.

Their was absolutely nothing bad about the week and now I keep thinking "wow, I can't believe I did that." hahaha