Very early morning greetings from Bangkok! Alex and I have just stepped off our overnight bus from Laos to Thailand. We arrived over an hour early. Not one of those events where it is in anyway useful to arrive early...Thus, it is 5 in the morning and we have just booked another bus to Cambodia for 7:30. No better way to cope than with internet! (and everything else is closed...)
Highlights (and lowlights) of the last week:
1. We took a beautiful bus ride from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng. Very mountainous and allowed us to peer into mountain/rural living in Laos. The people were showering on the side of the road. Cows, chickens, goats were wandering. Land was being burned. Little kids were walking home from school. There were small children and pregnant women EVERYWHERE. Made me start to wonder what the life expectancy and infant mortality is in Laos. Every traveler I've asked just says there are lots of children because "there's nothing else to do." However, Alex just looked it up and life expectancy at birth is 56 (=young!) and infant mortality is 85 per 1000 births, also high. This makes sense...but still...We got to see a BEAUTIFUL sunset. Reminds me of all those environmental videos from school when they'd highlight how bad pollution was, and then say, "but it makes for BEAUTIFUL sunsets." Case en pointe.
2. Vang Vieng is a tourist destination. Weird town where you can tube down a river and go bar to bar. We opted to go to caves on our one day there and took quite a hike deep into a cave. It wouldn't be legal in other countries to go without a guide due to liability, but leave it to Laos! It was a good 8ish mile walk and great cave!
3. There were many power outages throughout our stay in Laos. Really only hindered my ability to have 50 cent fresh tropical fruit smoothies...mmmm.
4. Laos is a communist country.
5. Vientiene, the capital, was the most developed city we saw the whole time. It was an amazing contrast. I saw people on the street, clearly very poor, and then a Merceded M-class.
6. I went to the US embassy to get more passport pages and the man greeted me by saying "hi, how are you?" First time anyone has asked how I was. Made me happy to be coming home eventually.
7. What are Buddhist beliefs on death?
8. In reference to the title of this blog, I have parasites or some crazy stomach issue. Really been challenging the last few days. I'm on the upswing though. Thank the lord! I did, however, miss kayaking from Vang Vieng to Vientiene. Alex and a fellow traveler did it. It was fun:(
9. Alex found me gatorade in Laos. I was speechless (and thankful).
Off to Cambodia now! Hope all are safe and sound:)
Love,
Lauren
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Do you need to get the deworming pills Michael and Emily took? They took them while there and them again before leaving. Supposedly the doctors in the states have a harder time knowing what to give travelers from there who have stomach ailments.
ReplyDeleteI am glad you are somewhat better.
Love you!