Laos was another great stop. Hot, humid, very rainy, very green, really nice people. The city of Luang Prabang is a UNESCO World Heritage site and we enjoyed exploring it.  We visited old temples and their National Museum, ate great food, went to the night market and climbed up a huge hill (twice) for a really great view of Luang Prabang. We saw lots of monks here in their saffron-colored robes and we even got up at 5:30 one morning to participate in the alms giving ceremony (giving food to the monks as they walk through the streets). The town of Luang Prabang is on the Mekong river and that river is huge. There was so much rain and flooding while we were there that we weren’t able to take a boat trip as we had hoped because of dangerous conditions. We’re back in Bangkok now and have decided to go to Beijing for a few days. We figured we couldn’t come all this way and not see the Great Wall when it’s less than 5 hours away. Initially we weren’t going to go because visas can be difficult for China, but it turns out that if you stay for less than 72 hours, no visa is required. After that we’re making a quick stop in Hong Kong, back to Bangkok and then on to Bali, Indonesia.

We’ve met only a few Americans since leaving the Disney boat. In the Bangkok airport, we saw a guy getting on the same propeller plane with us to Luang Prabang with a UVa bag – turns out he’s from Forest, VA. Less than 10 miles from our house. Go figure.