Christmas Time Part II: Chillax Town

As I said before, Josh and I could not wait to get out of China for a break. We took off from school directly after the 2nd graders' "Gangnam Style" performance and went to the airport to fly to Bangkok. Our plan was to directly go to the train station where we would catch an overnight train to Vientiane, Laos. We've traveled enough to know that things don't always go according to plan. So, our contingency plan was to find a cool place in Thailand to spend our long weekend eating as much pad thai as our bodies could take.

Vientiane, Laos

We seamlessly caught the metro from the airport to train station, and had zero problems getting two tickets for the sleeper train to the Thai/Lao border town of Nong Khai. God was smiling on us, because this was the perfect trip. Josh and I had a top and bottom bunk, and across from us were our instant friends: Darlene and Chris. They're around the same age and have been married as long as us. We were similar enough to get along great and different enough to keep things interesting. Most westerners that we meet in Asia actually live nearby and are just visiting their neighboring countries. This was not the case for Chris and Darlene. They were taking their extra long Christmas/New Year holiday to travel from Pittsburgh to not-so-traveled countries. This time it was Laos and Burma.

I knew something was up when we were talking about living in Korea for a year and Darlene said with great enthusiasm, "I would love to go to North Korea!" Seriously? Turns out they have a goal of seeing these less traveled/semi-dangerous countries before they have kids. They've already been to many places in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, as well as South America. Now they've come to Asia.

At the Lao border, you get a visa on arrival. It's amazing how powerful the American dollar is. Josh and I didn't have any USD (for obvious reasons) so we ended up paying the equivalent of $30 more because we paid in Thai Baht. Lesson learned: Always have US cash on you, especially in Southeast Asia.

We took a shuttle bus across the border. I couldn't stop giggling because as soon as our little commute began, Boney M's "River of Babylon" was blaring. Second time to Thailand, and second time I've heard Boney M booming in public. I loved it.

Chris and Darlene weren't staying in Vientiane. They were going to take a flight to Luang Prabang, so we shared a tuk-tuk to the city center to drop them off at a travel agency before taking us to Francois Ngin Rd. to find a hotel.

Turns out that they couldn't get a flight until the following afternoon, so we all checked into the same hotel and then spent the next hours exploring, eating, and ultimately relaxing.

Most young travelers aren't impressed by Vientiane because it's small, there's not much to see, and I suppose it doesn't have a good party scene. Josh and I couldn't care less because our motive for traveling is food. I hadn't realized it until Darlene pointed it out. We aren't big on seeing the sights (unless they're a big deal like Angkor Wat or the Great Wall) We mostly love eating the local cuisines and watching people. Did I mention that we love food?

We really enjoyed our time with Chris and Darlene, and of course we swapped info before they left to keep in touch. Thank God for Facebook, right?

The rest of the second afternoon and evening, Josh and I shopped til we dropped. One of the best things about Laos (or at least Vientiane) is that the people aren't trying to rip off dumb white people. In Thailand, tourism and souvenirs are big business. White faces pay a higher price. We didn't really run into that here. And another great thing, there was little to no haggling. Here's their price. It's a fair price. Transation completed.

Our final day in Vientiane, Josh had a very specific mission: to find his favorite book, "The Little Prince" in Lao. It's a fun tradition we have- collecting the book in all different languages. We had no idea how difficult this mission would be. We started at a nearby bookshop. Then to the big day market. Then we wandered around asking/miming that we were looking for a bookstore. One man pointed us to go back to the street we were on and then make a left. We ended up at a library.  Then a tuk-tuk driver drove us really far away to a book store that turned out to be a stationary shop/ printing company. Eventually, I gave up and Josh continued his search alone. I tried one more bookstore on the way back to the hotel, and again came out empty-handed.  When Josh returned a few hours later, he too was unsuccessful. What he found out was heartbreaking for our tradition. The Little Prince was out of print in the Lao language! Talk about disappointment. A man at one of the used book stores informed him but took down Josh's email so he could contact us if he ever came across an old copy.

To avoid the possibility of missing a train back to Bangkok, we left Vientiane right after lunch (Turkish food) to cross the border back into Nong Khai.

Bangkok, Thailand

The train arrived around 8am in Bangkok, so of course the day's goal was to eat as much Thai food as possible before our flight at 6pm. Talk about a glorious day.

There you have it. The most unconventional and maybe the most awesome Christmas we've ever had. If only we didn't have to come back to the bitterly cold Shanghai. Dang.