From Baht to Kip

Budgeting has never been my forte. In fact, I would go as far to say that I am hopeless when it comes to sticking to a budget. Add in the fact that I keep converting currencies and it pretty much feels like I'm spending monopoly money. I was always really good at monopoly, not so much in real life.

I arrived in Laos on Thursday morning. I had been warned that the border is sketchy in that sometimes they make you pay more than you should and ended up paying $42 American when the guy in front of me paid $30. The immigration guy told me it was because I was Canadian as he slipped a fiver in his pocket. Well the last part of that didn't happen but it makes for a much more scandalous story.

I took the 2 day slow boat to Luang Prabang - over the course of the journey my foot ballooned to twice its size, not from some cool sort of injury but because I got a blister from my new trekking shoes, "an absolute must" the guy at the Columbia store told me when I bought my backpack, he combined this with the mention of leeches, so naturally I was sold.

My first night in Luang Prabang was spent at the hospital, having some witty banter with the nurses (when I say witter banter I really mean they laughed at me as I tried to say things in Lao, but they were really nice nonetheless) and begging the tuk tuk driver to actually take me to the hospital. The foot is fine now though, so I'll be back to fighting tigers in no time.

There are a lot of French influences here so the buildings are fabulous and I've spent the last couple of days wandering around, reading, eating crepes, reading, sipping cappuccinos and trying to eavesdrop on the French speaking tourists conversations.

I took a tuk tuk with these Australian guys I met on the boat to the Kuang Si waterfalls which were stunning. We hiked for awhile and it was totally worth the view. We swam in a secluded bit of waterfall and took the requisite "I'm playing in a waterfall" pictures. I also rented a bike yesterday afternoon and visited some of the temples and villages on the outskirts of town, which was a good way to see the more rural side of things.

Tonight I'm going to check out the Royal Theatre which has some traditional Lao music and dancing, then wander the night market and try not to buy things/work on my bartering skills.

Tomorrow I say good-bye to my German travel buddy and I'm heading off to Vang Vieng for a few days to hang with Michelle (yay!), then onto Vientianne to get my Vietnam visa.

Seeing all these places is making me really excited for Canada! Can't wait to see everyone xoxox