Laos

We survived!! 
Talk about the most amazing/insane adventure yet here in the continent of Asia. 

The run down: basically, every 90 days the governement of Thailand requires all 'farang' or tourists to go renew their visas if they're spending another 90 days in the country. So Andrew, Sandrina and me had to make a Visa run and leave the country to one of its many bordering nations in order to get a stamp in our passport that says something like "welcome back!" 

So we went to Laos for (what we thought) would be just an over-night stay. **You have to leave your passports for at least 24 hours at the Thai embassy in your destination country. So we get on this bus on Tuesday night, and drive 10 hours north to a city called Nong-Khai. Now the bus was first class, but here in Thailand when you pay for first class anything there's an a/c fee...apparently we were the FIRST of first classes because we were refrigerated by the end of the ride...it was sooo cold!! They give you a snack, and coffee in the morning and one pit stop on the ride there (probably smarter in the long run not to drink the coffee).

Once we arrived in Nong-Khai we had no clue how we were actually going to cross the border, but we asked around and found out there was a bus heading to the capital every couple hours or so. Upon arrival at the border or "friend-ship bridge" as its called in Thai, we realized I had a multiple entry visa and didn't have to go through all the paperwork the other SM's did anyway. Surprise! So I was just along for the ride after I got my stamp. When we got into Vientien (the capital 'village' of Laos) we were bombarded immediately by tuk-tuk drivers wanting to scam us off the bus, we managed to barter one down to a reasonable price and get a ride to the embassy after 10 mins though and didn't have to wait that long for Andrew and Sandrina's paperwork.

After the embassy we had to drop off a package at the Adventist Mission in the city so we found the school next. They were so nice to us and one SM named Rachel even took us out to dinner at an indian place near-by. We learned a lot about how Thai-Lao culture is similar and different. We could basically speak Thai everywhere and be understood, but the Lao people have a different accent and a few different key grammar elements...sometimes frustrating, English was almost easier for once. Most of the city was a mix between dirt roads and minimal pavement, poverty and tourism, super different from Bangkok. I immediately realized how modern Thailand was compared to Laos, I even saw my first domesticated elephants right in the city!!

We found out our second day we were supposed to leave Laos was actually a Lao holiday so we ended up having to stay another night. I was THRILLED because I felt there was so much more of Vientien I wanted to experience first! We had a crazy day of looking around, it felt like the city was a lot bigger, but actually its almost physically impossible to get lost. They have one mall, no 7-11's (unlike Thailand) and they have dozens of national landmarks, temples and tourist sight-seeing locations. It felt like we saw pretty much everything in one day though. That night all the shops started to close early (its a communist country and curfew is at 10:45) so we grabbed french bread loaves, peanut butter and jam and had a "picnic" in our room.

The next morning our fun vaycay took a slightly more sinister tern however when Andrew knocked on our door asking if we had been in his room the night before. O.O! He was robbed in his sleep! Someone had walked into his room, taken his wallet and iphone sometime during the night while he was sleeping! We were just happy he was alive but it kinda put a dark cloud over the rest of the day...we had to file a police report but of course the only police station we knew was the hut on the street corner with 4 motorbikes parked under it.

So after a long and tiring day, we managed to get some church members to translate to the police at a slightly more legit station, to get a report, to file a claim...ugh. While Andrew completed the depressing run-around, Sandrina and me had to go to the Visa office to claim their passports before three and grab food for our bus ride (which we hadn't bought tickets for yet O.O)

No worries! Everything worked out fine, we managed to get our Visa's just in time, picked up lunch from these super sweet Lao ladies that practiced some Thai with me, and Andrew walked up just as we were ready to buy bus tickets. We managed to get on the bus leaving the city in the next half hour and I was thrilled that my passport was all good and I managed to leave Laos without hassle (I was secretly still scared I might need another type of Visa).

So all's well ends well...we're back safe...I'd still ironically reccomend Laos as a great several day tourist destination (the city was fantastic) just watch your stuff...