We've been living here for three months now and I actually really like it. It's not that I expected to dislike living in Laos, but as someone who struggles with change, I thought I would naturally push back against this move a little more. Fortunately, Vientiane has a ton of great restaurants, a relaxed feel and some super friendly residents. The restaurants in particular have helped to make me feel at home I think. Going out to eat has always been one of my favorite money-wastes, but here it makes way more sense. We can generally eat out for less money than cooking at home and the cleanup is way easier. I think we've all picked out several favorite restaurants, but even on streets we use all the time, we find hidden new places to try. Seth found a tex-mex restaurant this weekend which is awesome because Mexican food was the one area where Vientiane was really lacking.
Eating out twice daily isn't without costs though and so physical activity is a must. Seth has kept the Spikeball Sundays going strong which has been awesome. Today was especially good. After some really good games to begin with, two Lao guys jumped in with us and after just watching for a little bit they had already picked up the entire game. It was amazing, so hopefully they'll show up again in the future. Besides Spikeball, there is a group that plays ultimate frisbee every Monday night. I hadn't tried ultimate before, but it's not bad. My game could use some work, but the running is great. While I had originally planned to get into table tennis out here, I haven't found a single place to play yet. I'm also still looking for some basketball games to jump in on.
As for the downsides to our Lao adventure, my only real complaint so far is the remoteness. While the small town feel and the farming community kind of remind me of home, even Gilby can get Amazon packages. We can get mail sent to a post office here, but it sounds like even a simple letter can take about a month from the States. The two hour drive to the nearest movie theater isn't a quick trip either.
The following pictures are just a few I've picked out to cover the last couple months and they go in order from most recent to oldest. Unfortunately, I seem to have misplaced my actual most recent photos. I'm hoping they're on my flash drive at the office, so I'll get those posted later if I can find them.
As we were sitting at the Bangkok airport waiting to head back to Vientiane, Zach figured that since his phone was already broken he would try out the "Send Me to Heaven" app. You just throw your phone into the air and the app calculates the height and keeps track of leaderboards. As you can see he probably should have put a little more thought into his first throw.
This picture looks pretty normal... Until you realize that they drive on the left side of road in Thailand. As you can see there wasn't even any traffic on that side, so I'm not sure why the tuk tuk driver felt the need to go the wrong way.
A few weeks ago, almost our entire Fast team took a trip to Bangkok for the weekend. We were super excited to get back to a big city for a bit and were all looking forward to a little partying and shopping. I don't think any of us expected was to feel quite so under dressed at the mall and then run into a Roll-Royce store on the second floor though.
It took a little longer than I had hoped, but I finally got a scooter! It's the best way to get around this city. I rode in a car to go to lunch today and couldn't believe that half of our Fast group still travels that way. On the bike, you can cut to the front of lines at stoplights, take sidewalks, go the wrong way on streets, and park pretty much anywhere you want. Also, it's obviously really cool and manly.
Oh what's that? Your dress is already on, but you need it ironed. No big deal...
Zach, Wesley and I took a kayaking trip with on of the Lao guys on our project and had an awesome time. The guides cooked us some amazing kebabs along the way.
Cows in the road? Where else would they be?
The first day we moved stuff into our apartment, I found this huge spider sitting on my bathroom sink. After an epic 20 minute battle, I emerged victorious. The broom didn't fare as well.
