lao

Last Wednesday Lance and I took a brief trip to visit Laos (we've become accustomed to calling it Lao since the French apparently added the "s" as a silent letter). To get to Laos from Bangkok, we took an overnight train to Nong Khai, Thailand, which is just across the border from Vientiane, the capital of Lao. We decided to try third class: 13 hours for a mere $6.50. The actual trip wasn't so bad, but the next day I was wishing for more than 45 minutes of sleep.
Lao was a nice break from the hectic atmosphere of Bangkok. No more horrible traffic, no more rushing everywhere, no more worrying about getting hit by a car. In Lao, they take life at a much slower pace. Maybe it's because they don't want to run into an UXO (unexploded object). Regardless, we passed a very slow day in Vientiane completing activities like eating at a vegetarian buffet, playing Scrabble at a bakery while eating delicious pastries, and becoming generally frustrated with the lack of working ATMs. That night we took a bus to Luang Prabang, about 9 hours to the north. Luang Prabang, located on a peninsula between the Mekong and another large, muddy river, was even more relaxed than Vientiane. We rented some bicycles for the day and rode around the town, checking out several temple complexes, eating delicious sandwiches (although I still suspect them of causing my current discomfort), and again playing Scrabble in a cafe. We even took a ride across the river to look at some caves (they were overrated).
On the way back to Vientiane the following day, our bus broke down. A strut on the rear axel snapped, and immediately caused a noise similar to grinding gears, only much louder. The driver and some of his helpers jacked it up a little, traipsed off into the woods, and returned with a log, which they proceeded to shove behind the wheel above the strut. I'm still not sure how we managed to limp the rest of the way, especially since the bumps only got much worse without the assorption of the strut.