I'm a millionaire in Laos!

We spent the past few days in Nong Khai, Thailand staying in a guest house that is on the banks of the MaeKong River. From my room I could see across the river into Laos. Our guest house was so pleasant with friendly employees and a beautiful garden with hammocks and tables and chairs. If we didn't have plans moving us onward I think we could have happily stayed there a few more days as it was so pleasant.

Rich in the garden of our guest house

Jenna in the garden of our Guest House.  You can see the MaeKong River and Laos in the background.

It was a short walk to the weekly night market which is right along the MaeKong River. At home I wasn't that much into shopping, but the night markets here are so fun. We tried lots of different foods, got a Thai foot massage, watched some Thai children dance and purchased a few items the kids couldn't live without which will soon require another post office adventure.

A Thai foot massage

Buying crepes at the market

Jenna with two of the Thai dancers at the market

Buying stuff at the night market

Sunday we attempted to attend church, but instead just rode around in the back of a tuk-tuk for an hour attempting to find the church. After an hour of searching we gave up and returned to our guesthouse.  We decided it is much easier to find a Buddhist temple in Thailand.

Wat Lam Deun with Buddha on the roof (a Buddhist temple)

A Chinese Temple

This morning we left our guesthouse with all 6 of us and all of our bags packed into one tuk-tuk for the ride to the Friendship bridge which connects Thailand to Laos. The tuk-tuk was so loaded that it didn't go very fast. Rich and Sam were half way in the back while the rest of us were completely crammed in. I had to hang onto one of the backpacks so it didn't fall out the front! We eventually made it to the border where we exited Thailand and then took a bus across the bridge to Laos. Once on the Laos side we had to fill out 18 forms and pay $210 to get our Laos visas. A little more than an hour later we were in a minivan headed to our hotel.

All of us and all of our luggage will fit in this tuk-tuk!

Rich held out the camera to take a photo of us.  Rich and Sam are only half inside the tuk tuk.  

I got some money out of the ATM, and there are a lot of zeros involved with the KIP (Lao money).  I got 1,000,000 KIP (about $125) so I guess here in Laos I am a millionaire today! When I paid for our lunch I gave what I thought was more than enough money to the cashier, but she looked at me strange and asked for more. Then I realized that I was looking at the wrong side of the 1000 bill. The back side has some numbers that look like 9000, so I really hadn't given her enough money. I'm sure the cashier was amused at the "dumb tourist" who couldn't even read numbers on the currency. I hope I get a handle on this money system soon, but at least now I know which side of the bills to look for the amount. I just am not used to dealing with quite that many zeros on my money!