Travel Photos: Laos

Laos

Boyfriend and I became a couple in The Philippines...with a huge group of our friends.  Shortly after coming back to Korea I left with friends for a week in Tokyo.  During our time apart we talked constantly and, erm, shyly, admitted that we'd love it if we could go on our next holiday together.  Two months later we booked tickets to Thailand for 3 weeks.  Days after five months of being together we boarded a plane, had a crazy layover in Shaighai and landed in Bangkok.  Then ran to the Thai train station and bought overnight train tickets to Laos. 

We spent 5 days in Laos, 3 night/4days in Cambodia and 1 week in Thailand (+2 travel days)

 (I will forever remember this holiday as our honeymoon because that exactly what it was)

Laos was incredible.

The top two rows are from out time in Vientiane, the capitol.  We took a city bus to the Buddha Park and were blown away for the intricacy of the small little park in rural Laos. (I believe it should rival Angkor Wat).  It was beyond any exception we had set.  We took the bus back and explored the MASSIVE outdoor market place that had everything from deodorant (something hard to get in Korea) to pig carcasses.  The capitol had golden Buddhist temples and statues scattered all over.  There were late night markets, lots of food, a lot of hookers, loads of engaging police (its a communist country and very, very safe) and a general pleasant atmosphere.  We had a lovely two days in Vientiane. 

Sadly, we didn't have enough time to discover Laos properly.  This country is connected primarily by dirt roads and buses take forever!  So we did the touristy thing and took a bus on a paved road to Vang Vieng.  Admittedly, we were disappointed to 'cop out' and 'do as the tourist do' but really is was a wonderful decision.  We lounged around in huge open air restaurants ordering whatever we wanted because food was so cheap.  We splurged on our room and paid a whole 10$ a night.  We spent our time tubing down the Mekong river, gorging on Western food, coffees and beer, and wandering around town discovering markets, playing with dogs, walking along the river and making friends until far too late into the night.  It really became paradise for us.  

 I can't encourage people to visit Laos enough (wait, maybe I shouldn't?).  We both want to go back and really explore the country.