To Laos and Back Again!

A delicious chocolate pineapple pancake
The hotel 3 of us stayed in
Then we stopped and did a cool swing into the water from about 300 ft. in the air
Rafting...it was so peaceful
Hiking in mud/other unsanitary things. I sunk a few times.
It rained, so we bought fashionable raincoats
Our 10-year-old guides with us at the cave entrance
After hiking thorough the fields and climbing to the cave

Who knew rice paddies could be so beautiful
Me on the bridge
The view of the Song River
So you can see my beautiful pictures from Laos, backwards. I loaded them wrong in order. So start at the bottom and look up through the pictures if you want it to make a bit more sense. (But chances are you already looked at them the wrong way, sorry about that). Anyway, after getting out of the ridiculously crowded bus station in Bangkok and onto a very nice bus, we were supposed to ride second class but due to the confusion we ended up on an amazing bus. The bus ride was 8 or nine hours, but since it was overnight it didn't feel that long. About half-way through we stopped and I had my first squatty-potty experience, not too bad. And then we picked up more people then there were seats for on the bus, so they put plastic lawn furniture chairs in the aisle and those people end up taking your armrest to lay their head on. We finally got to the border though and with a bit of help and a few quick passport photos that we forgot to bring, we were on our way into Laos.
It's funny because the Laos people drop the "s" and call it Lao, (which said correctly should rhyme with cow), but everyone European or American calls it Laos with the "s" on the end, Asian's aren't good at it, so they drop it I guess. Anyway, we had a wonderful guide who drove us in his van up into the mountains, it was the bumpiest most nauseating ride of my life, but well worth it when we got to the top. We were fortunate to find hotels, and even though our group had to split up, we were happy for the cute little places we found to stay for so cheap. (3 nights ended up coasting me 10 dollars, or 250,000 kip, or 330 baht. (you can see how currency stuff got confusing)).
After settling in 4 of us girls decided to walk around and check it out. We ended up taking pictures of the rice paddies and then 2 ten-year-old girls convinced us to pay them for a tour into the paddies to find a cave. It was around 3 dollars, so we paid them and off we went for about a 1 hour hike each way. It was well worth it though to get so far into the fields, and almost fall ina few times. But the view from the cave was beautiful. The girls then wanted money for the use of their flashlights in the cave, which we were in for maybe ten minutes, but a few dollars and a little bit of kip settled that fairly quickly.
The next day it was still raining so we got rain coats and headed out to find the blue swimming pools in the caves. Instead we hiked through tons of mud, and sunk into animal droppings, and ended up finding a cool cave, but not going in it. But it was worth the adventure and hiking about 5 miles in mud and water is an irreplaceable memory.
Our last day in the mountains we decided to go rafting down the river, which was so calm and relaxing with only a few rapids. And we stopped at a bar along the river where there was a slide and a swing about 300 ft in the air. So we decided to give it a try, and it was so worht it. I did the swing three times and it was quite the rush, especially since it had rained so much and the river was moving really fast. As soon as you dropped in there were people throwing innertubes right to you and pulling you in, so it was quite safe.
One great thing about Laos is that since it was occupied by the French, there is a lot of French influence with cheese and foods that aren't so Asian. So I enjoyed a variety of food from pancakes and pizza to spaghetti, and of course some fried rice and egg rolls.
Our last day we went back down to the capitol and did a little shopping, went to a bakery and got some treats, and used the best bathroom I have been in since I left U.S. soil! Then we had to cross the border and ride overnight on the bus. We got back into Bangkok around 4:30, and I was in my room at school by 5 A.M. Definitely a worthwhile trip where I got to know people in the group better, and see a bit more of Asia.
Now it is back to work with no break until October. But I am really enjoying my students and I am amazed at how much English they are picking up. The Thai teacher and I are also getting along very well, anytime one of my students has an issue, she is there for them, but she also lets me have control of the class.
God has surrounded me with amazing people and I am learning so much each day!