Kip on kippin' on...

Alex and I arrived in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, today! Sadly, Cooper had to leave to go back to this place called "the real world" - not that we aren't seeing quite a bit of the actual real world, but you know, the world we come from.

The flight here was fascinating. We arrived at the Siem Reap airport two hours early, in typical international fashion. This was absolutely not necessary. I love that airport. Once again, there was wifi, ahem, LAX. Our flight to Laos, which looked about the distance of LA to San Francisco was somehow alotted three hours. We didn't think much of it. However, the second we entered Lao airspace, the plane landed and we were ushered into the tiniest airport I've ever seen for visa and immigration processing.



The heavy traffic coming through the Pakse airport.

We then continued on to Vientiane. We are already so happy to be here. Probably because we've been to all these places so back to back we are able to pick up on their big differences. While in both Siem Reap and Bangkok we felt inundated with tuktuk drivers and street vendors, we were overwhelmed by the heavy tourism (especially in Siem Reap), and the fast pace of the vehicles, here everything is the opposite. The traffic is light and slow. The people are gentle and polite. And we really feel like we are in a city that goes about its daily business regardless of the tourist season. Walking down the streets we smelled one delightful smell after another. Ahhh!






One thing we can't quite figure out is the parking. The cars here seem to park on whatever side of the street and often in the sidewalk!




Alex and I were on the same page on arrival - wanted western food. Laotian cities are known for their eclectic cuisine, so we don't feel too guilty about it. We proceeded to go out for our main meal if the day (a dinner-lunch) and get burgers followed by chocolate ice cream. Just what the doctor ordered. Unlike in the previous two cities, our waitress did not stand at the table until we had made up our minds. She waited for us to summon her over, and she came with a big smile on her face, and then halfway through, with a big cowboy hat on (we think to show she was friendly to Americans).

On a lighter note, as a fond farewell to Cooper, we thought it fitting to share his self portraits from the trip. Neither Alex nor I saw him take these but they made us laugh as we looked through the camera he handed off to Alex for the rest of her stay in Asia.











Bye Coop! We'll miss ya!

P.S. For my worried fans- despite my surrendering to God, Buddha, or whoever else was listening, I woke up this morning feeling MUCH better. As my mom reminded me during my pitiful skype call- getting sick is part of the experience. I just hope I only have to experience it once while on the road.

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