Oh the places you’ll go…again. I am successfully back in Laos. I took a mini bus from Pai to Chiang Khong, the Thai border town. We got in literally as the boarder was closing and didn’t have time to make it across, so I grabbed a room, and went out to find some food with some of the people who were on the bus. I ended up hanging out with a guy who was born in South Korea, raised in Canada, and now lives and works in New York., and a girl from Ireland who is nuts. She has been traveling for a little over a year now, but has spent most of her time in Australia, working as a food picker to support her self.

This group of travelers went out last night – paid for by the Korean guy, who owns several restaurants and picked up the tab for us poor backpackers who have more time than money, and subsequently slept past the time we would have needed to wake up to catch an 11:00 am boat on the Laos side. There is always a time period when you enter a new place where you have no idea what is going on, and kind of “fake it till you make it.” We just started walking around trying to find a place to get money, food and lodging in Laos, and finally settled in. After turning down the travel store’s offers for slow boat tickets, we stumbled on a map that showed us where the slow boat dock was, and we headed that way, securing a ticket for much less than the offices were selling them for.

I am back in the land of Beer Lao, the best beer in all of South East Asia (so far), and I think I will go enjoy one to celebrate. Have a good one everybody. Matt, get ready to receive a package that will be so full of Beer Lao gear that you can decorate your entire fraternity house.