Lao PDR

We arrived in Lao yesterday and much to our surprise it is quiet. One does not hear the incessant honking of horns, or wake up to the early morning sounds of traffic, street vendors and roosters, and there are not millions of motorbikes on the street.

We did not initially know it but we are here during the high season. This means that it took us a good hour or so of wandering around the town with our 18 kgs backpacks looking for a hotel that was not booked. We ended up returning to the first that we found, as we initially thought it was way too expensive, but after visiting several other more expensive hotels, learned it was actually "reasonably" priced. Our treat this morning was real mochas and true bagels with cream cheese. Although we have eaten well during our trip it was nice to eat something that we have not had for the past eight months.

Vientiane is a very modern city and so clean. We spent today wondering around the city and visiting the many wats, or Buddhist temples. They are so beautiful and unlike any architecture that we have at home. As we were walking around town we passed the US Embassy and Kenny, who has been wanting to visit an embassy since we started the trip, could not resist the temptation to go inside, simply because we could. We did the registration procedure and then quickly left when Kenny finally realized it was more like visiting the DMV than being entertained by an ambassador. As we all know after a trip to the DMV it is a good idea to stop for drinks. We decided to have a few sips of Beer Lao along the Mekong River. Those few sips turned into more than a few pictures and now I am not so sure that we will be productive for the remaining hours of the day. Tomorrow we plan to head to Luang Prabang which we have heard is a great place to hang out and relax. We are trying to make the most of every remaining moment we have on or dwindling days of traveling.