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From Bangkok we traveled by bus to Vienetiene, the capital of Laos. The 16 hour bus ride was quite enjoyable. It was our first of several bus rides on this trip and after experiencing the others this one seemed like we were traveling first class on a private jet. Once we reached Laos we were amazed at the beauty of the country. Laos is much more rural and less developed than Thailand, more of what we had expected Thailand to be like.

We spent a few days exploring Vienetiene by foot and by scooter. We enjoyed the food until we both started feeling ill, a feeling that would stay with us for the remainder of the trip.

From Vienetiene we traveled North to Vang Vieng. Vang Vieng is the backpackers paradise of Laos. The tiny town was full of visitors from all over the world and was very accommodating to the backpacking lifestyle. Open air bars and hostels line the streets. The bars in Vang Vieng are different from ordinary bars though. Every bar/restaurant in this town is full of wooden lounge seats covered in cushions, allowing patrons to lie down while they eat (not so great for digestion I'm guessing). The fun doesn't stop there. Not only do you lounge while you eat, but you also enjoy watching endless episodes of great American shows. Each bar is full of TVs on which they play one American TV series around the clock, the most common being Friends. I have never seen so many Friends episodes in my entire life and I was a Friends fan in its prime. As we walked the streets Phoebe’s voice rang out in all directions. When we tired of Friends we were able to find two bars that had daringly strayed away from Friends and played non-stop Family Guy. Don't worry we didn't spend all of our time in Laos watching TV (although we did spend a lot of time). One day we rented bikes and rode back into the mountains, hoping to find a waterfall and cave. After riding for quite sometime and being thoroughly bitten up by mosquitos we had almost reached the waterfall. However, we were suddenly stopped by a small boy with a knife who told us we had to give him money to continue on down the path. I was sick of being ripped off and refused. We decided to turn back (I was indeed afraid of a 10 year old with a knife).

We had planned to go tubing down the Vang Vieng river before leaving Laos but both Jay and I became very sick. Jay visited the local hospital when he came down with a fever and we had previously opted out of getting Malaria vaccinations. We both left sad that we had not experienced the tubing, but maybe we will go back someday.

Vang Vieng was a wonderful place to visit. We headed back to Vienetiene to catch a bus to Hanoi. This would turn out to be the infamous bus ride from hell. Tune in next time for that delightful story. In the mean time, check out some new pics!

We had a great time blasting around Southeast Asia when we left South Korea. We toured through four countries in about three weeks. In the video, we start out in South Korea at The Welton School, then quickly leave. Next, we tear through Thailand, hang out in the mountains of Laos, tour Halong Bay and take a motorcycle tour in Vietnam, and finally end up in Cambodia. Angkor Wat was really amazing and where we took most of the pictures.

If you haven’t pressed play yet, or even if you have, I recommend going to the high-quality version on YouTube.com, hitting the full-screen button and cranking up the speakers! Also, because of the nature of the video, I recommend watching it twice to really enjoy all the shots.

This video was made from piling every single one of our 1,250 photos into iMovie. The inspiration for the video came during a long bus ride while I was looking through pictures on our digital camera. I held down the next button and watched all the pictures fly by, and thought it would make a pretty good video. Don’t worry, we will still post more galleries and blog entries to keep you entertained for a while longer. Thanks for stopping by!

We’ve returned from our backpacking adventure and whirlwind tour of Southeast Asia. We went to Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, then back to Bangkok. Right now we are staying with Megan’s parents in Arizona. I’d like to get a few posts explaining our absence up in about a weeks time so keep checking back. Give us a little bit of time to go through about 1,250 photos and whittle them down to a much more manageable 625 for your viewing pleasure.

And if you do actually make it to this page, and you do actually read this far without just skimming, then leave us a note in the comments saying how badly you want to see new content on the blog and in the photo galleries!