International days

Hello Everybody,

for once, we'll write in English! Later on, we will explain why!

So, like we said we went to Laos and are writing this from Luang Prabang.
It was very easy to cross the border and we arrived without problems in Vientiane, the capital of Laos. First we shopped for a lonely planet (outdated but ok, he was cheap). Unfortunately we couldn't find a Trotter and we should say, we miss a Trotter in our lives. We stayed two nights in Vientiane, you wouldn't say it is a capital. The lonely planet says it is the calmest capital in the world. We biked around and swam because it is crazy hot these days. It was ok, but there wasn't much to see so we moved to Vang Vieng.

Vang Vieng is full of backpackers, so sometimes it feels a little bit fake. Nevertheless we enjoyed our time there very much because not far from the small town center, the more authentic Lao live was a fact. We also loved it so much because we stayed in the most wonderful guesthouse (Maylin) next to the river with a beautiful garden en chill out places. Eva never would have left again if Daan wouldn't have dragged her out of there since in our guesthouse were the most cutest puppies in the world (and now Eva wants a puppie when we get back). We went (motor)biking, swimming and kayaking in a breathtaking scenery. One of the moments we will never forget was the time we couldn't bare the heat anymore and just jumped in the river next to our guesthouse where local kids were swimming as well (without mummies to watch over them and with just an empty bottle they put in their pants to stay above the water, very creative, no?). They were crazy, jumping of a bridge in low water and stuff like that but it was so fun to play with them (Daan was very tired after because he had to throw the kids around all the time).

We stayed there 3 nights and the fourth day we took a nightbus to Luang Prabang. It was a bus with actually beds, very funny. You slept with two in one bed. It was ok but the ride was very bumpy and Eva didn't sleep at all. Yet, we are very happy and lucky that we took that bus because when we arrived at 5 am, we shared a tuktuk with two Italian girls, with whom we started talking. We drove to different guesthouses and said goodbye. After sleeping a bit, we explored the town, took a lunch at the riverside and just strolled around. We were just sitting, exhausted from the crazy heat, wondering what to do next, when Eva recognized the Italian girls from the tuk tuk. Because we initially wanted to move to an other guesthouse and liked the first encounter with the pair, we decided to follow them (creepy, we know). When we arrived we pretended just to be in the neighborhood (Arianna, Vale, when you read this, we hope you still want to meet us again haha). We decided to go with them to a waterfall the next day. It was a lovely day and the waterfall was beyond our wildest expectations (and so was our company ;-) Through them we also met other backpackers (a Danish and Dutch couple and a Flemish girl) and after a weird but very fun night in a bowling alley (we won!) we all went kayaking the next day.

The kayaking was very amusing but also at one point a little bit scary. We wanted white water (wild water) and we got it! We fell out of our kayak during a wild part and Eva was floating away. It was fun though also kinda fearful. During this process our kayak got a hole in it because it hit the rocks and the Lao guides fixed it by making a fire to fill the hole with melted plastic (what the hell haha, very creative and unimaginable in Europe) but it held and we survived. After the very fun and international days the Italian girls left to Vietnam. We said goodbye and planned to see each other again in Cambodia. That night we met the Danish couple and Belgian girl for dinner and also said goodbye after exchanging a lot of good tips.

We miss them all already and it was very nice to meet so many nice people. Laos is definitely a very good place to meet other backpackers! Obviously, that is why we wrote this in English.

A lot of love for you all. At this point we never want to come home again haha!

Daan and Eva