Tomorrow, Lara and I will be leaving for a few days to handle some visa business along with a mix of pleasure at a few touristy destinations in Laos (Viene Tienne, Luang Prabang and Vang Vienne). We're especially excited because this is seriously the first time we're actually leaving to unknown territory without guidance from any outside sources [i.e. Ming & Kirk]. I usually get neurotic and weary about exploring without appropriately preparing myself about remote destinations through extensive research, but Lara grounds me by reminding me that, "thousands of travelers do it everyday, we can too!" and she often reminds me that our friend Josh has managed to survive SE Asia by himself-- we can too! Additionally... and thankfully, both Kirk and Ming prefaced us with information dealing with logistics at the Thai Embassy, efficient Laotian words that will aid in getting us around and potential scams that might come our way. It was kind of funny too because Kirk drew us this drawing. If you see long arrows, that's our queue to run away from tuk-tuk drivers and scammers. Thanks, Kirk and Ming! We'll be back soon. So yanno... meet us at the Thai border! Also, during this crash course we saw a huge moth outside our door. We also saw a monstrous butterfly earlier in the day, but I didn't get a chance to take a picture of it.
Kirk's diagram on how to get a Thai visa when in Laos. Haha.
Massive!
Since the duration of our stay in Laos will be short, we're packing extra light. I'm bringing the following:
- Bottoms: 2 pairs of shorts (1 for outdoors & 1 for bed)
- Tops: 1 long tank top, 1 V-neck tee, Daily Breads shirt and 1 undershirt
- Bandana to wipe off the profuse sweat from my body...gah
- 1 bathing suit I've recently purchased for $6 (one that I wouldn't mind getting dirty from the mud wrestling in Vang Vienne)
- 1 Tek towel
- 1 Sleep sack, since I've heard that some guesthouses do not provide sheets
- Toiletries and such
- Medication: Dramamine for the long hour tour guide drive back from Luang Prabang, T(hai)lenol (in red) for potential hang overs from Vang Vienne and Airborne
- Sunnies from H & M
- Passport, credit card, passport photos for the visa we are applying for
- Wallet from Nihon =)
- Red leather bound journal
- Small notebooks
- Halloway stickers to stick up in Laos
And there you have it!
We'll be back soon and legally to stay in this country for a few more months! Haha. See yah.
No comments:
Post a Comment