Aaahhhhh!

I arrived in Laos this morning and am already in love with place. There are some places that just you just fall in love with stepping off the bus (or in my case the back of a pick-up truck) and Laos is one of them. The people are just so friendly. Everyone is so laid-back. There seem to be no rules, at least with traffic anyway. The Lonely Planet SE Asia on a Shoestring book said that traveller's let out a long sigh when arriving in Laos, like falling into a comfortable chair. I think that describes how I feel perfectly. Aaahhhh.

The adventure here was a different story. After spending the weekend at a teacher's house by the Mekong River in Ubon Ratchathani, I was so exhausted and I was kinda looking forward to a long bus ride so that I can get some rest (being the only farang in town over the past few weeks, everybody has wanted a piece of me and it is extremely tiring trying to please everybody!). Unfortunately the 9 hour bus ride to Udon Thani was excrutiating; the CD that the driver insisted on playing was scratched to buggery and he didn't think to change it, the man infront of me was coughing for the entire trip and the woman next to me was very, very large and so I was very, very squashed. Arriving in Udon Thani, I rocked up at the first guesthouse I could find. It was dirty and sleazy but for $3 I didn't care, I just wanted sleep. Of course my room had to be next to the room of a drunken European man and his Thai mistress who were making loud grunting noises all night!! Despite wrapping my sarong around my head in an attempt to block out the noise (I'm sure it looked as ridiculous as it sounds) I think I managed a mere 2 or 3 hours sleep before setting off for Laos this morning. An hour long bus ride to Nong Khai, a trip to Friendship Bridge in a tuk tuk, a shuttle bus to the border, half an hour processing my visa and a 20 minute ride on the back of a pick-up truck with about 10 curious Lao people and several boxes of rambutan later, I am now in Vientiane, relaxed and ready to do absolutely nothing for the next couple of weeks!

Although I am indesribably happy to be here, my last day at Nonpoon school was very sad. A couple of the teachers who I had grown close to shed a few tears and so did several students. My favourite student, a girl called Malai, was hugging me so tightly and wouldn't let go. She is such a beautiful girl and I would love to one day shout her a ticket to Australia. I bought her a top-of-the-market Thai-English dictionary before I left and you should have seen how happy she was. She presented a little gift for me too - a photo frame made from shells with a picture of herself above the words Malai Loves Lis (that's what she called me) as well as a bracelet with mine and her names written on it. They are things I will keep forever. I also bought a few gifts for some of the teachers to thank them for their kindness. In addition to a Ned Kelly DVD, I gave a handmade elephant ornament to Mr. Udom as a tribute to our 'amazing' journey to the elephant village. He pissed himself laughing and repeated 'cow is son of elephant' hahaha. It's those little things that you remember most about people long after you leave them.