Last Days in Laos

Vientiane, Laos

Outside it feels like 100 degrees yet somehow my body must till know that back home its fall and that means time for my first cold of the season. Not feeling too hot at the moment, with my usual stuffy nose, scratchy throat. being sick sucks. At the moment I'm just trying to overdose on oranges and pho.

so the last few days in Laos have been great. There were a slight change in plans as I made a huge blunder and completely forgot that i needed to get my cambodian visa the first few days i was in vientiane in order to cross over the southern border crossing. I'm not sure how i could forget something so important but i think it has to do with the fact that when you're traveling by yourself you are constantly turned on, in tune with what you have to do. With Penne with me I've had the luxury of slacking off a bit, being a bit lazy and to be honest not focusing so much on what comes next. This meant of course that in order to get out of Laos in time with when our visa expires we were going to have to fly. Not a big deal except that i was going to have to break one of my cardinal rules of traveling - never fly by air when you can travel safely (if not a bit uncomfortably) by land or sea.

On our way to Vientiane from Phonsovan Penne and I both realized that since we were going to have a few more days in Northern Laos that we might as well stop at Vang Vieng. Vang Vieng is sort of like Bangkok's Koh San Road but at a Laos pace. The most strenuous activity consisted of lazily tubing down the Mekong River stopping at the little make-shift bars along the way. Every restaurant offered 'special' menus consisting of happy pizzas, happy teas, happy shakes etc.

We've met some really cool people along the way. Tim from Manchester, and Andi, Chris and Valerie from Atlanta Georgia - You guys were such a laugh, it was so great to meet you!

Tomorrow we catch a flight at 6:30am direct to Siem Reap. I'm going to miss Laos but I'm so excited to finally get the opportunity to see the Great Temples of Angkor Wat!