Another big travel day. However very excited to see the rice fields in Northern Thailand. The drive from Chiang Rai to Laos was beautiful. While most of the bus was seeping off a late night, I enjoyed seeing what the far corners of Thailand were like. It something to check off the bucket list.

Reaching the Thai boarder and checking into Laos was an interesting experience. We checked out of the Thai boarder, boarded a boat, and crossed the Mekong River to Loas. It took about 6 minutes, and was free.

 Once we got to the Laos side of the boarder, we sat and waited for about an hour to clear customs. The amazing thing is that Kip, (which we all bought at the boarder, ) was amazing – I took out 8 million Kip! I was a millionaire! As we were waiting to pass customs, we had to laugh, monks would pass us, with cell phones and some would take pictures of us. It was neat to know we were as interesting to the monks as they were to us.

Once we got our Tourist VISAs we were off to our own private river boat (pictured above). We brought out our card and played in the sun while drinking beer and eating mandarin oranges. we had a 4 hour boat ride to our guest house. The hillside of Laos were gorgeous. It was hard to think of the Laos way of life. Which we learned about from our guide, Mr. Mee. In Laos, most of the people live in small villages in the jungles. They hunt for food and farm where they can.

They were the happiest people for being one of the poorest countries in the world. It was amazing to visit with the Laos people, and see their villages along the river. Eventually we got to our guest house for the night. At the guest house we learned a few things. 1. Laos was once occupied by the French who taught them to make croissants and chocolate cakes. 2. They have a curfew at 11 pm each night when the town shuts down and you get locked out of hotels. Our hotel was amazing by the way. It was right on the river (photo below).