My "Old" travel journal...

In order to keep things...well...in order....I need to post entries from my original travel journal before I can post my current adventure. So, although I am currently on a seven week honeymoon to several different places, I am going to make posts from my first international vacation.

Here are my first two entries....

1/15/2008

Being in Laos has been quite the adventure but simply getting here had it’s interesting moments as well. My boyfriend Jim had worked diligently for months on every detail of this trip and shortly before leaving we didn’t even know how much of our traveling fantasy would become a reality. Not only did I lose my voice and sprain my ankle 10 days before departure, but I also lost my passport. Luckily, I found my passport but then I got a stomach flu the day before we were supposed to leave. I was throwing up everything, even water! I had to try to stay hydrated so I kept trying to drink water only to have it come back up again. We still had hopes that I would recover in time so I threw all the clothes and shoes I had lying around my boyfriend’s house into a suitcase and went to bed. Four hours before our ride, to the airport, was to show up I finally stopped vomiting. January 11^th at 8:30am we loaded up and headed to Portland International Airport.

Check-in was a breeze and we hoped it was a sign of things to come but it wasn’t.

We boarded our plane to Seattle where we were going to catch a flight to Tokyo. We were so excited to start our big adventure, we snapped a picture in front of the small shuttle plane before getting on. About 15 minutes into the flight the captain announced that there was a mechanical malfunction on the plane and we were turning around and landing back in Portland. We were going to miss our flight to Tokyo. Portland had a direct flight to Tokyo but it was full. We waited at the airport for five hours before United Airlines informed us that they were sending us to San Francisco. They were providing us with a hotel for the night and then sending us to Tokyo from San Francisco the next day.

On the bright side we figured it would be fun since I had never been to San Francisco.

When we got there we went to the 52^nd floor of the Bank of America Tower to see the view and then we rode a cable car and walked around the boardwalk. Not bad for a crappy re-route.

The next morning we were off to Tokyo! This was not our destination but we did have a layover and connection there. Since we were in business class we got to use some very nice showering facilities in the lounge while we waited for our next flight. It was around this time that I decided my sister-in-law, Bobbie Worrell, be a Japanese woman disguised as a Mexican. Everything was clean and sparkling and PERFECT. Just like her!

Anyway, back on the plane…our next stop was Bangkok.

It seemed to me that airports outside the U.S. are even more strict with security. You have to pass security more than once before boarding your plane. At times, there’s an additional security check at the gate. And you can’t take your liquids even if you bought them in the airport after the first security check. And forget drinking your water and keeping the container to refill it….no containers!

We landed in Bangkok but that was still not our first destination. The Bangkok airport is HUGE! We had a seven hour layover so we stayed at a hotel located inside the airport.

Interesting side note: The Bangkok airport is equipped with a Muslim prayer room.

The next day we had to take two more pictures so we could pass through immigration when we got to Laos. We sat in a photo booth like you might see at the mall and once our photos printed we were able to head to our gate.

The flight was about an hour and still included a full meal. Nice! We were in coach for this leg of the journey and it was still the best meal I have ever had on a plane! There were noodles with vegetables and the vegetables were actually good! Not like the usual over-boiled type you usually see on planes. It seemed like they were actually fresh before they were cooked for the flight. Also, if you ever get the chance to try dragon fruit, you should do it!

We landed in Vientiane, Laos and had to stand in three different lines before finally getting our stamp and going to claim our bags. At this point I have already learned a little bit about Laos. First of all, it’s actually Lao. But we westerners have added an “s” on the end for some reason. But since this journal is for the sake of sharing with my westerner friends and family, I will continue to use the “s”. Laos is one of the last few socialist countries on earth. The average wage here is $4 a day. To say “thank you” in Laos you say “Khob Chi”. “Thank you very much” is “Khob chi li li”. “Hello” is “Saba dee”.

1/16/2008

Our first day in Laos, we decided to just walk around and look at stuff. We saved the tour for the next day. As soon as you arrive in Laos, it is obvious how poor they are. There are very few Laos people who make good wages but they do exist. As for the bulk of the people, they spend their time selling whatever they can, working in rice paddies, or driving a tuk tuk. There are other jobs much those cover the majority. In Laos (Vientiane), the people pile their garbage alongside the streets, making some areas of town very stinky.

There are malnourished dogs everywhere. I have been told by a local taxi driver that there are a few people who do eat dog.

We continued to walk through the busy, dirty streets toward the Mekong Riverbanks. It was there that we decided to stop for lunch at a local food cart. We looked over all the BBQ’d meat and picked something out. It was either a small bird or rodent. I’m still not sure which but it was tasty enough. As long as you can ignore all the flies and the less than sanitary conditions of what they use to cook and serve the food then I would recommend this cart to anyone. ;-)

In Laos, there are temples everywhere. The temples themselves remain locked until the monks go in to pay their respects to Buddha, but the grounds remain open for anyone to look around, meditate, or visit friends. The monks live on the property in buildings next to the temple. In Laos, there are monks everywhere. We decided to return to one of the temples close to our hotel to see what a typical temple session looked like. We were late and missed most of it but as soon as it was over and filed out of the temple, we met Woodlam. He spoke with us a while about Laos, the people and Buddhism. It was getting late so we told Woodlam we would return to visit the next day.

This is Woodlam.

There’s a lot to describe when it comes to Vientiane, Laos but I need to catch up on this journal. Just a couple highlights about yesterday and I will have to move on.

Our second day in Vientiane was set aside for a tour. Here, you pay a taxi driver to host you for the day. Our driver’s name was Meun (Moon) and he spoke pretty good English. Of all the places we went, the two that stand out are the “suburb” and Buddha Park.

A suburb in Laos is, of course, nothing like an American suburb. The streets are made of dirt and the locals get very excited about foreign visitors since they rarely (and I mean RARELY) see anyone of another skin tone or who speaks another language. We stopped at a local temple to speak with the people and the monk in charge of that temple. All were very friendly and happy to see us. The women said that they wished their skin was fair like mine. I told them how many women in the U.S. actually try to turn their skin tone dark like theirs. We took pictures, joked around, and then left after making our donation to the monk and giving the neighborhood 2,000 kip (which would be about 20¢ U.S.). This was enough to buy all of them a Pepsi. There were about 10 of them. Since Laos has its own bottling company, a traveler may want to be careful about drinking too many local sodas. The Laos people also leave trash along the riverbanks. Even the locals drink bottled water.

Buddha Park was simply a huge piece of land with a whole bunch of Buddha statues all over it. Some are pretty small and others are HUGE. They also had some sort of ancient stone building which holds….guess what!....a bunch of stone Buddha statues! To get inside this, half buried, stone structure you have to crawl into the mouth of a dragon. I’m serious…the entrance is carved stone. It’s a dragon and the hole you use to get inside is the mouth. It’s tiny…so you have to crawl. Once inside, you crawl up some tiny little stairs to the top of the structure. In this park, you are pretty much climbing all over ancient ruins. It’s pretty AMAZING!

Dragon Entrance (Buddha Park)

Giant statue at Buddha Park.

Once we got back to town we changed and headed to Woodlam’s temple. All the monks were working so the temple was closed. Woodlam saw us and he opened the temple so we could pay our respect to Buddha and meditate. After we meditated, Woodlam gave me his only book about Buddhism that was written in English.

Worship with Woodlam.

After a traditional Laos dinner, which included deep-fried crickets, we returned to the hotel to rest up so we could travel to Luang Probang the next day.

Please do not alter photos in any way. Please only borrow photos for PERSONAL use and please ALWAYS give Dana R. Atwood credit for the pictures you use. Thanks!