Laos and the last leg

Considering the amount of mishaps we faced in Laos, it's a true testament to how awesome it is that we not only enjoyed it, it may have been our favorite destination of the trip. Our plane was delayed, so we had to be rushed from flight to flight to make sure we made our next flight. We made it, but our luggage did not.

We only had a day in Vientienne before we were to hea

d to Vang Vieng for the river adventures and nature. We rented bikes and rode around the city. Actually, even though it's the capital, you can't even call it a city. It was a cute little town. We saw the largest golden stupa (not sure on the name, That Dam, a couple temples, and a large arch inspired by the Arc d'Triomphe. It was a great way to see the area.

The next day we left for Vang Vieng where we had planned to spend one day touring the river and caves, and then another day with elephants or something else depending on what was available. Well, good thing we didn't have our heart set on something specific because we woke up one day and Kelly's eye had swelled up to the point where she couldn't open it anymore. Luckily this place is used to tourists and after a short walk and wait, she had some meds to try to bring her eyelid back to normal. We think it was a spider-bite, but can't even really be 100% sure on that. So we spent that day in town, watching Friends and hanging out at the local eateries. They all seem to play Friends or have the customers pick out movies from their vast collections of counterfeit DVDs.

Once Kelly's eye healed, we went on a cave exploring and kayaking tour. We went in these innertubes through a cave that is half filled with water in low tide. It was really cool and something I never thought I'd be doing before the semester started. I got my fortune told again, hoping for better luck. After getting it translated by our guide, it was pretty bad actually. My first fortune in Thailand was all about bad luck and possible legal cases, but this one he wouldn't even translate all the way. He pretty much said, "well...it says you'll graduate/do well in school...other than that, well...why bother?" And this is why you shouldn't get your fortune told when you're life is going well. It'll never be good. After this, we went kayaking down the river, making a pit stop at one of the waterfront bars. There's a strip of bars in the middle of the river and it was just so "spring break" with all the young aussies/americans drinking in their swimsuits and swinging off a rope into the river and going down massive water slides. It was a lot of fun, even though I was kind of nauseaous from who knows what at the time.

All too soon, it was time to start the long journey to Vientienne, to Bangkok, to Hong Kong, and then ultimately home. Luckily they found our luggage just in time for us to leave, so it was only a minor inconvenience. The bus ride to Bangkok was the most horrible transit ever, with a "sleeper bus" that was just seats and no beds and absolute no leg room. Spent a day in Bangkok just exploring Koh San Road and the seedier side of the city we missed with Kelly's family around. Then we caught a flight back to HK and I spent one final night in LKF with Kelly and her friend Paul.

The past 6 months were among the best of my life. Thrown from my comfort zone, having to do everything on my own (at least at first anyway, until I made some great friends that will last a lifetime, despite the distance). I feel like I grew up a lot in these 6 months. And while my bank account may take years to recover, it was worth every penny for these memories, friends, and photos.

Thanks for reading, and sticking around this long to read it since I was way delayed in updating. I hope you enjoyed it, because I LOVED living it. :)