Home sweet Vientiane

I have arrived safe and sound in Vientiane (Vieng Chan is Lao speak)! After a bit of an adventure where I almost missed my train from Bangkok to Nong Khai (where the bridge to Laos is). I passed out at the guest house (hotel) that I was staying at in Bangkok due to jet lag and woke up with 15 minutes to get to the central station. I flagged a cab in a hurry and between showing him my train ticket and sign language was able to get him to take me to the last stop out of Bangkok. Not knowing if the train had passed already, I was especially nervous when there was nobody at the part of the platform where I was supposed to board. 10 minutes later (I'm freaked out at this point because I thought I was stuck in bangkok), a monk came walking down to where I was and my fears where appeased somewhat when he said he was also going to Nong Khai. Two minutes after that, another Thai dude, who spoke english came down with a bag of beers and offered me one, then another one, and another. The train came an hour late and all was good. That is about par for the course here, things move a little (lot) slower, so I think I'll fit in just fine :)

Right now I am in language training and am really quite surprised at how quickly I'm picking it up. Locals are telling me that I speak it quite clearly. The food here is amazing (-ly spicy). There is food from everywhere in the world here as well which is indicative of how cosmopolitan the Vientiane is. Last night I went and watched a documentary at the French language cultural centre on globalization which was followed by a great debate in English, Lao, and French with a roundtable of people that work in culture organization, at the IMF, the world bank, and the WWF. Quite the cross section. So life is good... here are a few pics:

I bought my camera in Bangkok from this guy, when I turned it on his pic was on it.

Aiyee!!... jet-lagged and wired in a tuk-tuk in BKK

The ultimate international citizens?

Pool at KT guest house BKK.. very refreshing after a day in an airplane.

The 12 hour train ride... the lady in the bed at the bottom (blurry i know) had crazy sparkles in her bluish dyed hair.. Thai style wild!

Leaving Thailand

Crossing the Mekong

Entering Lao P.D.R.


Asian long-horn elephant beetle? Nobody could tell me what this cool critter was.


Mekong sunset

I have much better shots to share with you but the connection is acting weird and I have to find a better way of doing this. Internet is hit and miss here, which I don't really know how I am going to cope not being able to be plugged into the hive mind at will.