I’ve only been in Vientiane, Laos for a little over 24 hours now. Reuniting with childhood friends has been epic. We’re here visiting our best friend Hannah while celebrating the Lao New Year. The festivities and culture here are vastly different from Indonesia’s, it’s a different world where I keep having to ask myself “is this real life?” This post sums up yesterday. Taking a break from Indonesia has led me to experience another layer of culture shock that I wasn’t ready for starting in the Bangkok airport. More to come on that later. Happy Pi Mai Lao! Enjoy.
Even with my backpack briefly lost in transit and only a few hours of sleep, you can’t argue with a mega hometown reunion and giant street party.
The way this works, I discovered as we walked to a house party in Vientiane , is that you walk about half a block and suddenly some five year old is dumping ice water down your back. Meanwhile, a man with neon yellow hair, large back tattoos, water balloon boobs in a brown dress is handing out generous pours of some suspicious neon green alcohol. His friend is feeding you soggy french fries by hand and someone else is shampooing the hair of a girl on a passing moterbike.
Welcome to Laos, baby!
From Charlottesville to Indonesia 