Hey everyone. Im in Laos now. After a most excellent time in Koh Tao we headed back up to Bangkok on our way to North Laos. We stopped over at the Siam center for a relaxing night at the movies. We saw Cloverfield which is an awesome movie if you want to see great special effects and the most convincing monster invasion movie to date. Its a must-see.
After Bangkok we headed over to the border town of Nong Khai and stayed at a nice little guest house on the Mae Kong River. That day I picked up some cold weather gear because its chilly at night up north. I purchased a jacket for $6 and a warm hat for $1. That night we chilled on a floating bar on the river and played some chess and talked. After our stay we headed over the friendship bridge into Laos and realized we overstayed our Thailand visa by 4 days. 500 baht per day that your late which ended up being $50 USD fine. Blah.
Once into Laos we found the last available rooms in town at a nicer hotel that ended up costing us $15. (Im including prices of things so you can get a feel for what the cost of living is in these countries) Vientiene had some good Indian food at a restaurant called Nazims. Next we headed up north to Vang Vieng.
Vang Vieng was a nice little town in the middle of nowhere with mountains hugging the town. There were many backpackers here to enjoy the river tubing. The following day we hopped into the river with our tubes and took pit stops at the river side bars to have a drink and jump off the rope swings back into the river. After 3 days of chilling in Vang Vieng we headed back down to Vientiene to start our trip south. We stayed one more night at the guest house we had previously stayed in and then took a crammed local bus to Thaket. This bus was jam packed full of Laos people and there goods. They put stools in the aisle for people to sit on and people still were standing and sitting on arms of chairs. I was in the aisle pinned between 4 people and a chair. The bus ride was about 3 hours.
We stayed in Thaket one night at a pretty nice guest house that had a fire out front during the night. The next day we left our big bags in Thaket at the guest house and set out to Kong Lor which was about an hour away.
Kong Lor is one of the best places we have gone too. On the way we passed many tiny villages where the Tuk-Tuk was running errands on our way. The children in these villages were so happy to see us they would jump up from what they were doing yelling Sabaai Dii! Sabaai Dii! jumping in the air and chasing our Tuk-Tuk. (Sabaai Dii means Hello) In one village we saw a little girl I would say about age 3 with a machete in her hand. I wish I had a picture. Out of nowhere the little girl chucked the machete at Alex and it lodged into his collar bone! Just kidding. I think she was about to chop up a chicken or something. Anyways we found the perfect lodge on a river below a mountain next to a field in the middle of nowhere. It was beautiful. We woke up from our bungalows and walked about 3 km through the middle of the countryside to the village of Kong Lor. We walked down to the boat launch for riding through the Kong Lor cave. The cave entrance of like something out of Lord of the Rings. Green water, stalagtites\mites like teeth with stairs carved out of the earth to enter. We saw a total of 5 tourists once we left Thaket. This was real Laos experience. This cave went all the way through a mountain. The trip through took 1 and a half hours through and 1 and a half hours back. On the way through we had to get out several times and walk in the river to get past tricky rapids. The only light was by torch. We also explored deeper into the dry land areas of the cave and tried to take pictures with our flashlights. This cave was massive and there were sparkling rocks in the ceiling and black holes leading way up into the mountain. It was pretty creepy. After leaving the cave we headed to Veng Kham where the first buys dropped us off. We stayed the night there after eating with a family that served us noodles. We were looking for a restaurant but everything was closed. A nice lady sat us down and began making us a mystery bowl of noodle soup. It was delicious. We showed her little daughter a few magic tricks and she gave a surprised look after seeing me pull my thumb off. That night we went back to some lazer disco place at our guesthouse. It was empty because it was a Monday night but we sat and got a few beers. They were playing loud Laos music and a group of teenage boys came in and started dancing. They started breakdancing which of course motivated me to get up and breakdance as well. We went to bed shortly after. The next day we took a less crowded bus down to Pakse that took about 9 hours. We arrived about 12:30 in the morning and luckily found a place to stay. It was a nice place and cheap too.
After Pakse we headed over to The Four Thousand Islands on the border of Cambodia. These islands were awesome. Nothing but bungalows and restaraunts. On the beach in the main area of town there was the most chill water buffalo Ive ever seen. He would just sit on the beach all day and have the occasional photo opp. with the tourists. On the island of Don Det we rode our bikes across the island and across the bridge to Don Khon. The following day we went to see dolphins and then headed over to hang out at the largest Waterfall Cascades in Southeast Asia. The raw power of nature is amazing! I've never seen such powerful rapids. I couldn't resist jumping in. Just kidding. After the rapids we began to realize we may not have enough money to make it to Cambodia. So, we began rationing our food. Our money just barely held out until we got to the border where the customs scammed us out of $2. We were the last people in line to pay that fee because the british people behind us knew about this scam. They charged an extra $2 to pocket for themselves. After obtaining our visas and checking out of Laos we walked about 500 meters across the border and reboarded our bus.
