6/28/13 Mekong River-> Chiang Kong Another rough day on the river. We started our journey toward Thailand at 4:45 in the morning. I hardly slept on the floor of the chief's house in the village. It was really hot and there were loud creaking sounds. At 4:50 we were walking in the dark toward our boat. I was hoping to get a seat up front so I could lay down but they were already claimed. Luckily we figured out we could turn around the pair of seats and make...

6/27/13 Luang Prabang-> Mekong River Yesterday can be described with one word: Rough. We were up at 5:00 and out the door by 5:30 to witness the alms given to monks. Basically, every morning around 5:30-6:00, the monks from the local temples line up carrying bowls strapped around their shoulders. People from the community sit along the street and dish out food into their bowls. Women must sit and men can stand along the street. I bought a large bowl of stick...

6/26/13 Luang Prabang So yesterday was the coolest day so far! We got up at 7:30 and had breakfast. Big surprise- it was eggs and bread! We gathered our things and headed to our van at 8:30 to go to our elephant riding adventure. We traveled about 25 miles out of town toward the jungle. Everyone in the group came except for Charlotte because she had already spent a week working with elephants and rode them all the time. We pulled up to the jungle and made our...

6/25/13 Vang Vieng-> Luang Prabang Saibadee! That means hello. :) Yesterday can be summed up like this: 7 hours driving in twisted mountain roads in the rain. We got up to have breakfast at the hotel. I have now had eggs and bread every morning for a week. I really could go for some Cap'n Crunch or Coco Puffs, but I digress. We boarded our tour van and set out about 8:30. We headed up to the mountains. The roads were super wet and super curvy. We witnes...

After checking into the hotel, we got a couple hours to hang out before dinner. I got to room with Laura again, which I was happy about because she was a great roommate in Vientiane. There were 2 beds in the room- one king and one twin and Laura offered to sleep on the twin. Since we had a couple hours, I used the wifi and tried to take a nap in my huge bed. At 7:30 we walked to a restaurant nearby. It was outside (like everything is) and had 2 tv's and a pool ...