onto laos

Back to full time vacationing! This time I’m off to Laos with John, Neha and Kimberly from Kellogg as well as Connie who was also on exchange at Sasin from Cornell. Our trip started at the Bangkok train station where we caught an overnight train to the Laos border. Since the A/C units were all sold out, we settled for fan only 2nd class beds, which turned out not to be as bad as we imagined they might be. It wasn’t that hot at night, but keeping the windows open all night was loud and dusty – and so sleeping was a bit challenging. We arrived in Vientiane, the sleepy Laos capital at 11am, and after securing a hotel room for the night, we followed the Lonely Planet walking tour of the city... err town. With a population barely over 200,000, Vientiane is certainly one of the smaller capitals I’ve ever been to. We walked around rather lethargically, trying to get a quick feel for this new (to us) country. Unfortunately we were exhausted from our train trip, and so our walk, turned into a very lazy stroll through the blistering heat (it was probably 95 degrees and rather sunny). He hit some of the main sites, which were generally rather unimpressive, and so after an early meal, I passed out early for evening on my hotel bed. Somewhat unimpressed with the capital, we decided to move northward towards Vang Vieng, our next destination, four hours north of Vientiane. Overall though, it’s nice to visit a new country, with some new foods to try – including many baguette sandwiches :) There's certainly a strong French influence around town - both in terms of food and architecture. Alright onto Vang Vieng.