I was told Laos is a place you love or hate... while I don't hate it, I've flown through a third of the country in a week. It's the gorgeous scenery that makes this country... & it's seriously gorgeous!

First spent 3 days in a tiny boarder town. It was nice... probably stayed 2 days too long...

Then got on the infamous "slow boat" down the Mekong River. The scenery was fantastic... again, gorgeous country... but the boat was overloaded with those that wanted to party rather than kick back. Not the peaceful ride I was dreaming of... but nice nonetheless. Best of all, neither I nor any of my stuff went swimming while crossing the tiny wooden plank to the boat.

The boat stopped in the old capital Luang Prabang. Small town... barely more than 25,000 people. The entire country is pretty deserted. Only 20% of the people live in a city. It was such a small city only spent 2 days there... really, I breezed in & out because I lost my slow-moving travel groove. Spent the entire time on the boat talking with other tourists & then every second in the city with some of the people I'd met. Already on this trip I've met many fantastic tourists but this was the first time I'd spent days straight with tourists. When I spent 2 & 3 weeks in different cities I was on my own most days then meet up with them at night. That was perfect... all day & night was just too much.

From Luang Prabang I moved on to Vang Vieng, still with someone from the boat ride. There are places in the world that are known for their backpacker scene... this was one of them. Originally planned to go there for a dose of Westerners but being overloaded from the past several days I stayed long enough to sip a "happy shake", watch a few episodes of "The Family Guy" & leave the next morning.

I'm now in Vientiane, the world's smallest capital city. While I've been here only a day, it seems pretty perfect. I am a city girl... I feel at home around a little commotion... there's a huge festival this Friday so I'll stick around at least that long. Which will give me enough time to figure out how to be happily bored again....