The Roaming Robots

  Thailand is so completely different from Laos. I knew this going in, but man. As soon as you cross the Friendship Bridge you know for a fact you are not in Laos anymore. Everything is so shiny and new, the roads are good, there are billboards and advertisements everywhere, the people are wearing clothing with company logos, there are western chain restaurants, it is just like we were home almost. But still in Asia. I knew it would be different, but for some reason I thought that outside the main, large cities it would be more like Laos. I remember looking into the hill tribe trekking outside of Chiang Mai and so I figured the countryside would be the same, but no. It was very jarring for me to suddenly be in a much wealthier country. I immediately wanted to go back to my lovely Laos, but we had all the food to look forward to eating so on we went (note - there will be a lot of food pictures in this post!) So a van picked us up from the bus station and took us back to the h...

  After our bike adventures the day prior we woke up in Luang Namtha and man my butt was sore! That bike seat was not the best. We got up, went by the veggie place and got breakfast to go then headed down to the bus station to catch the bus to Houay Xai - where you can cross over into Thailand. Look how colorful our bus was! They still jammed as many people as the could in there and it was mostly locals. There was another lady from the US who ended up sitting next to us, but man she was not happy/friendly. She had a ton of stuff with her - this giant backpack, a giant purse bag thing, another purse, and another bag. I really wanted to know what was in all her bags. Like what in the world did she bring with her?  So she got on the bus and her giant backpack was in the aisle, which of course would not work since that is prime seat for other passengers! So they wanted her to put the bag on top of the bus, but she was just like I can't lift it myself...and was half heartedl...