Laos

To find your cow, don't dream about rope.

Laotian proverb

Laos was an adventure.

Our time there got off to a rocky start when I made a series of bad decisions in Vientiane. As we headed on to float down the Nam Song River in Vang Vieng and then explore Luang Prabang, however, things dramatically improved. We spent time with elephants and went swimming in spectacular waterfalls (which are always at the top of my list). As we headed back south we caught the riverboat and drifted all the way to Chiang Mai in Thailand.

There's so much to see and do in Laos, and the country is undeniably beautiful. It's a little trickier to navigate than many of the other Southeast Asian countries, but therein lies part of its unique charm.

Read the stories

In trouble in Laos-- and My Own Dangerous Stupidity

In Vientiane I demonstrated my previously untapped potential for complete and utter stupidity.

After taking an over night sleeper train to the Thai-Laos border, we stood in line at immigration. The young man in front of me had a problem...

Drifting in Vang Vieng

After the misadventure in Vientiane, my brain just needed a few days to check out. Luckily we were headed to Vang Vieng, a chilled out river town where every restaurant seems to be a TV cafe where they lounge on big couch cushions all day and watch Friends while they drink coffee after coffee

Riverboats in Laos

To get back to Thailand we decided to take the slow riverboat. This was an excellent decision, as our decisions so often are. (Just kidding. We make wrong decisions 87% of the time. This is a rough estimation.)