Love, the world
Suddenly turns, turns color.

we crossed into laos without incident. after weighing our options (a slow boat that takes two days to luang prabang or a fast boat that only takes six hours but has a fatal accident several times a month) we decided to skip both and take a flight. no planes flying from huay xai to luang prabang today, but we bought seats leaving tomorrow morning. lao aviation has a brilliant safety record, but i'm not sure if that's because they are actually safe or because they have so few flights. anyway, the guidebook says not to be alarmed if there are missing seat belts and broken seats on the plane. oh, i'm sure we won't be... kip will be taking valium and i'll just be laughing.

we can see chiang khong, thailand across the river but already things are different. laos' currency is the kip. their highest note is a 5000 note which amounts to less than $US.50. things are inexpensive here, but they could do with a 10000 or 20000 note. i changed the equivalant to $US50 and have a serious stack of bills (over 500,000 kip). bling bling.

the children constantly smile here and are all anxious to shout "sabadee" (hello) and play waving games. gorgeous people and we are only at the border. i have a feeling this country will be easily adored.