Luong Prabang to Vientiane

Jen, Sam, Trevor, and I got on the 7:30am bus from Luong Prabang to Vientiane this morning. The bus ride was beautiful, but the winding, hilly roads had a handful of passengers heaving into plastic bags which made for a not so pleasant ride. We only covered about 150km today, but it took us 9 hours. In those 9 hours I was able to finish the Jodi Picoult book I picked up in Muong Ngoi and delve into Sex Slaves, by Louise Brown, a non-fiction account of the sex trade industry across Asia. The author is able to bring to light the social and cultural manifestations of the sex trade industry , while also bring forth coives of some of the worlds most silent and abused women. The book is fascinating.

Trevor decided to stop off in Vang Vieng, about 3 hours north of Vientiane. The rest of us continued on to the capital city. I have run out of pages in my passport, so my primary order of business in Vientiane is to pay a visit to the US embassy to have more pages added. There's an Indian Embassy here as well, so I may be able to take care of the Indian visa while I'm here as well. We'll probably only hang out here long enough to take care of the passport and visa stuff, and then head north for Vang Vieng, where the primary activity is tubing and hanging out by the river. I've been dying to rent a motorbike since arriving in Asia, and now that I've got travel buddies with the same interests, I think now's my chance. So, Jen, Sam, and I are going to bypass the direct bus to Vang Vieng and instead rent motorbikes and take our time enjoying the mountain roads and karst scenery leading to Vang Vieng.