Vientiane, Laos

Had a lovely day today, an Aussie girl and I rented bicycles and rode around aimlessly for the morning and afternoon, and it was great. We saw several temples and spoke with a monk, the temples here look very similar to Thai ones, but here they have a lot of paintings along the walls, more so than the few Thai temples I saw. We rode along a dirt rode that followed the river, the locals are very friendly and a few seemed surprised to see foreigners in that area, we only met a few others. I am in love with the dried chili they have here its so good, I put a lot in my soup today, and I bought a small package that I'm hoping I'll be able to get back in the states, mmm mmm! This seems like a good place for wandering around and having tea at little cafes, quite the lifestyle. Tomorrow I'm going a bit farther north to Luang Prabang, every ones always raves about how great it is so I'm looking forward to it. I want to try to go rafting there, theres some nearby trips you can go on, and some nice waterfalls. Not sure how long I'll stay, I have to be back here by the 14th to catch my crack of dawn flight to Cambodia the next morning. It would be nice to spend more time in Laos, but you can't do everything, maybe on another trip.

Don't know if I've mentioned that the harsh reality of life back home is really going to hit me in the face- I haven't cooked, cleaned, done laundry, or anything remotely like work in 2 months. And here the weather is lovely, I can do what I feel like and have a nice relaxed time. Back home it will be crap weather, and I have to find a job and possbly drive, yuck. So am gonna take full advantage of the time I have left- I feel so lucky to be traveling. sigh.
(P.S. to Meg hooper/alvarez- did you change your name? anyway, hit the reply button to those emails once in awhile yo!)