Siri Grand Hotel Udon Thani

... and although im was very worried about the ghosts (tsunami) she still managed to have a good time despite the spiritual harrasment. i taught her how to jump through big waves and not get washed across the beach and after that she enjoyed it much more. im glad to be getting out of thailand for awhile (other then missing im) because these constant protests are just really starting to annoy me. the police refuse to show any ...

Je suis arrivée à Ventiane vers 17 heures et j'ai trouvé un truc pas trop cher avec une super salle de bain (je paie le même prix qu avec Sara : environ 4 €). Bon ça sent un peu le renfermé mais on va pas faire la difficile ! Je suis sans force et sans envie depuis quelques jours maintenant. Si mamie était là elle me dirait « il faut s'occuper de toi mon petit birjouik » alors c'est ce que j'ai fais. Après une bonne douche à l'hôtel dans ma super salle de ...

... biscuits and pidgeon English with the locals and went through the joy that is Laos border control. We, like many other backpackers, had opted for the "visa on arrival" option at the border which meant queuing at a tiny window with a million others and waiting in the incredible heat for our passports to get stamped. Finally we squeezed through to Laos and hopped in a taxi for the centre of Vientiane. We're both very excited about the next few weeks in this little country.

... where fantastic. Later we met Miles and his wife for dinner at a fantastic restaurant by a lake and the girls ordered for us and we ate a feast! So much food it was amazing. I'm in love with sticky rice and could eat it at any time of day. We ate fresh red snapper and huge prawns with such hot chilli sauces it made my eyes water! And I like my hot food! After a tower of Singa beer we were really ready for bed. Our next day started at 6am (well it was meant too ...

... but there were quite a few shots and even a game of beach volleyball before we thought we better push on down the river in our tubes to get home before dark. Matt as always provided the entertainment downstream chasing after his pluggers that were floating away, and picking some rotten fruit floating by and deciding to have a taste which resulted in him throwing up off the side of the tube.....quite hilarious - and damn I wish I had the camera... Floating ...

Thursday morning Mike and I awoke early, very eager to cross into Laos and begin the next step in our journey. After an OK breakfast at Mut Mee we gathered our bags, checked out, and caught a tuk-tuk to the border. The plan was to cross into Laos and immediately head to the Thai Embassy so that we could apply for another 60-day visa. We had to get to the Embassy by eleven (or twelve?), and so the long line at the ...

... Set in a gorgeous garden, set back from the road a fair bit and right next to the Mekong river, with Laos in full view across it. It was the furthest you could imagine from bangkok but absolutely lovely. I fell in love with it right away and just wished we hadn't have found it on our last day. The rooms were all set around the garden courtyard, which was scattered with breadfruit trees, lovely flowers, mangroves, hammocks, a big swing! It was peace and ...

... a group of people, pointing to a word in the book and left trying to interpret their gestures. With a 52% illiteracy rate, I was just praying these people could read and figure out what I was asking for, hence my slight reservation about following their directions. But since I couldn't read the Laos script and increasingly fewer signs were posted in Latin script, I was quickly running out of options. Two hours later, we arrived at Buddha park, or Xieng Khuan, translated to ...

... setting off didn't disrupt their flight, and they made it to Hanoi on schedule. Unfortunately, once there, Lina discovered that the new Vietnamese visa she had acquired shortly before the trip was single-entry only. The customs official was terribly distraught about the situation: it was already after 9:00 PM, there were no more flights back to Laos (where he intended to send her) that day, and, while Vietnam actually does do some visas-on-arrival at airports ...

... these flights were also booked up for a month straight -- from February 17th to mid-March. But February 16th was available, so I'm took that. I'll only get to be in Vietnam for a few days, which is too bad because it was one of the countries I was most looking forward to seeing. And I won't get to ride the Reunification Express, or see the north at all. But on the plus side, I'll get to see Hong Kong and Guangzhou, and I'll be in China much ...