Happy Thanksgiving! and Hello from a much warmer and tropical Laos. Yesterday we arrived in the northern Laos town of Luang Nam Tha after two days of overnight buses from the northern reaches of China's Yunnan province. Ofcourse it was a great experience, but one we don't wish to have again anytime soon. We stopped in the city of Kunming again and saw that it was a pretty managable Chinese big city. We went to the city park that was loaded with people feeding thousands of seagulls and walked through some cool bird and flower markets. We also walked about 3 miles to a Laos Consulate that we found out had moved to another location 10 miles away. Then we boarded a bus at 5pm that was to take us to the Laos border. Once at the border, the Chinese immigration proceded to detain me (Michal) for an additional 40mins or so because they weren't sure about something (I still don't know what) Anyways, after searching my stuff and observing my vitamin tablet bottle for about 10 minutes, they let me pass. Can't trust us Polish people i guess! China was a great time and it was awesome to see the positive and negative effects of the economic changes we hear about. It was great to experience and learn about the Chinese culture and the diverse cultures of the many minority groups that still reside there. Last but not least, the landscape and scenery along the way was awesome. We have already noticed quite a bit of social differences here in Laos: People are a bit more laid back and friendly here and seem way more excited to see a westerner around than in China. We have joined an eco-travel company and will be trekking through the jungle, visiting local villages and also kayaking for the next 3 days. It should be a great experience. Today we are renting bikes to cruise the country side.
We hope that everybody had a great Thanksgiving. We will post more photos soon!
