So long, Laos

I was afraid that my travels through Morocco had broken my travel spirit. It left me feeling jaded. Once I arrived in Thailand, I realized that Morocco had actually renewed my spirit. Everything seemed so much better after that. I felt a lot more tolerable, like I did when I first started traveling. This quality helped me tremendously while in Laos.

I got a general "fed up" attitude from other people traveling through Laos.  They were sick of all the shenanigans. Nothing was ever as it seemed. A 2 hour bus ride was actually 5. Not to mention it was the most bone-jarring ride of your life. It was bewildering to me why the locals would knowingly tell us it took 2 hours when it was downright impossible to drive that road in less than 5.

If you choose to hoof it to one of the sights, the dirt roads make it a miserable journey, unless you desire dust-coated lungs.

Laos is definitely for the hardy traveler. I was shocked to see a few travelers in their 70's, one on crutches. Omg, hardcore.

I prayed I didn't require any emergency treatment while in Laos, I could only imagine how prehistoric their facilities were. My best bet for mediocre care would be a hospital in Bangkok, but that would still be at least a half day of travel away.

 I'm going out on a limb and declaring Laos to be as dirty as India. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of spectacular scenery here. It's a shame it has to be a third world country. I wonder what Alaska would look like as a third world country. Ufff, that makes me shudder.
 

The predominantly Buddhist locals working in the tourism industry will do anything to make a penny from the tourists. They feel the need to make false claims to make things look more appealing. They will say things like, "There's a toilet and air conditioning on the bus."

We buy the ticket for the bus.

There's no toilet. There's no air conditioning.
 

Another example: I bought a bottle of shampoo, it was half full :(

Sometimes at a shop, when you pay they will say "Sorry, no change."

After I pleasantly say, "Ok, I just won't buy it then.", they magically have the correct change. It's frustrating. There's so many inconsistencies in Laos that we take for granted in the US. You have to take everything with a grain of salt.
 What do you expect? We've come to one of the poorest countries in the world. The camera hanging around my neck costs more than the average Laotian makes in 6 months. All this money is tempting to them. They think a few swindled dollars from tourists is no big deal to us.

I sympathize with the locals. This is a poor country and the living is hard.

 Even though it's a communist country, it feels like there are no rules here, and definitely no safety standards. Anything goes.

However, as hard as I try, I really can't empathize with the fact that Laotians eat dogs. I'm not even going to get into that on this blog, but it does happen. They also eat rats. Why? It's beyond me.
 

grubs to eat~ yum!

All in all, Laos was a great experience for me. I've had a lot of fun here and I'm grateful I met my temporary travel mate, Ember, she is such an awesome girl. We got along so well.

I'm also delighted with the amount of tolerance I've found myself to have while in Laos. You learn so much about yourself while traveling.

 I'm on my way to the bus station, where I'll be catching a "15 hour" bus ride to Siem Reap, Cambodia. But I know better. That really means 30 hours. I'm sure it will make an interesting blog post.....

Peace out, Laos!