Laos

First, it is worth to note that we took a 25 hour bus ride that would have been impossible to get through without the help of sleeping pills. I either slept or was completely spaced out for 20 of those 25 hours on the bus. It was nice that it was a sleeping bus, but it was a bus made for tiny Asians. Luckily, I got put in the back right which was elevated up a little higher. This way I could stretch my legs all the way out and dangle my feet over the unlucky person in front of me. Let me make it clear that this was a horrible experience, but well worth it to visit Laos.

The first place we visited was the capitol Vientiene. This city was laid back and we just relaxed a few days to recover from the bus ride. There isn't too much to say about the city, we didn't really do anything touristy and there's not much to do there anyway. We caught the three hour bus to Vang Vieng, which is spring break on crack. The city is small and the only thing to do there is drink beer, which you do in an inter tube floating down the river or one of the bartenders will throw a bottle attached to a rope and pull you in. The best part of this place is all the rope swings, zip lines, and water slides. These are not the kind you see in America as they are pretty dangerous. The swings go up 35-45 feet, the zip lines give people horrible whiplash, and three weeks before we were there a person died on one of the slides (it is now known as the slide of death). Floating down the river. The
Most likely Australians or Europeans on their gap years being ridiculous.
Some guy going off the slide of death. It looks like fun, but it isn't. You go flying off too fast and land too hard.
The biggest swing on the river. Probably 40-50 feet up. This guy could possibly be about to do huge back flip. Me going off that same swing.Next we took a 6 hour bus ride to Luang Prubang (told you they would be a common theme), but this was by far the most scenic bus ride I've ever been. The bus zig-zagged up and down limestone mountains. Thankfully, it was dry season and there wasn't any road side vegetation to block our view (these are two pictures of the drive).
Luang Prubang is one of the most beautiful cities I've ever been to. It has 1700 European architecture and is on the upper Mekong river as it runs through the mountains. We spent 3 or 4 days there and wished we hadn't spent that extra day in Vientien. In the city, we rode bikes around and visited the temples there. The most unique thing to do is give alms to the Buddhist monks in the morning. At 6 am, all the monks go around the city streets and collect their food for the day from locals. This isn't supposed to be a tourist attraction, but it is turning into one. The Laotians (what are they called?) believe that everybody should be a monk for at least a week, although some are monks their entire lives. We also got to ride an elephant in the Mekong river, which was pretty cool. We saw how they made their local whiskey, which is bottled with some sort of animal (scorpion, cobra, bear, snake, anything disgusting you can think of). Overall, it was a very laid back and beautiful riverside city.The main street in Luang PrubangOn the way to the Mekong river. Our elephant must have not been fed breakfast b/c he stopped every few steps to grap some branches.The best part of our time in Luang Prubang (it is tied with the sights in Vang Vieng) was the waterfall outside the city. It was a multi-tiered waterfall that had rope swings and water falls that you could jump off of. The water was also an impressive blue (how does water get that color???). But after this it was another long bus ride to Thailand and Chang Mai to go jungle trekking before taking off for the Islands, yet we made one big flaw in this itinerary.