a-wandering wednesday: the road to vang vieng
after leaving luang prabang, we were once again in for a long day on the road - part of what we loved about laos was how undeveloped it is, but the flip side of that is that there are few methods of getting quickly from place to place if you're not traveling between the couple major cities. so we settled in for a stunning 7 hour bus ride through the mountains and roadside villages of northern laos on the first portion of our two day trek to vientiane.
ok, so i know it's a little weird to have photos of a toilet on a photography blog, but, seriously when was the last time you saw a restroom on the edge of a cliff with a view like that!!!
after our long day on the road, we arrived at a local village where we would be staying the night in a homestay. our hostess gave a us a tour of her home and the village and we were trailed by a group of village children, who were all so curious about the visitors and more than happy to ham for the camera! our hostess treated us to some beer lao, which we shared family style (all from the same cup, shot by shot) with the entire household of 6 adults, and some fresh chicken soup. since we don't speak lao and they didn't speak much english, we communicated mostly by hand signals and i got the feeling we were being pranked - judging by our hosts' hilarity (which could have been attributed to the beer) - but it was all in good fun!
it was fascinating to see how the locals live on an individual basis - from the chickens and cows roaming freely through the village (at least one of whom we know ended up in our fresh chicken soup), to making sticky rice over the fire in front of the house, and drying tobacco on mats in the front yard.
next week, we're exploring the karst landscape of vang vieng and the bumpiest bike ride ever!
catch up on the previous stops in our trip here: batangas, palawan, boracay, bangkok, chiang mai, the white temple, our first couple days in laos, and luang prabang.