Made It To Laos!

After 3 weeks or so of working on Neil's farm, Eric and I decided it was time to hit the road again. Before departing Thailand, we spent a wonderful weekend in Phimai in NE Thailand visiting Su's family. They own quite a bit of land in very rural parts of the country, so it was fun to see a farm from a different perspective. Su's parents have many gardens with vegetables and fruits, but the main thing they grow is rice. We noticed that almost every field we saw in NE Thailand was full of lush green rice grasses. We went up to Phimai with quite a crew. Neil had made contact with a bunch of English teachers in Bangkok who wanted to go along on the weekend trip, so we ended up going with about 15 people. We met up with all the English teachers in Bangkok before heading up north. Meeting all the English teachers was fun because they were all around our age. I learned quite a bit from them about what it is like to get the needed teaching qualifications and then move to Thailand to teach.

After a few days exploring Su's parents village, Eric and I were on our way. Leaving was bittersweet because we have made such great friends with Neil, Su and the rest of their family. But, of course we were excited to continue on our journey. We took a train from Phimai to Ubon Ratchathani, which took about 5 hours. After spending one night in Ubon Ratchathani we took a bus to Pakse in Laos, which is where we are now. We have spent the last few days wandering around the city, testing different Laotian foods and coffees, and becoming acquainted with the city. Today we rented bicycles from one of the guesthouses in town and went on a 60 kilometer ride into the countryside. The ride was beautiful and quiet, a major change from the constant bustle of Thailand. Yesterday we decided to take the plunge and get haircuts at one of the street side "salons." Eric went first and they buzzed off most of his hair. He says its shorter than it has ever been in his life, but it still looks good. After Eric, it was my turn. My hair was quite long and I decided that there was some room for error because of the length. Before the hairdresser even asked me what kind of haircut I wanted, she began chopping away. I ended up with about 6 inches off my hair, and I quite like it! The total cost for both of our haircuts was less than $2.00. Can't beat that.

Now, we are trying to figure out what is next on our agenda. There was one WWOOF farm in Laos when we checked the website in Thailand, but when we checked again last night to email the farm owner, we discovered that the farm has since been taken off the website. We both highly enjoyed the WWOOF experience in Thailand and are eager to work at another farm. There is an organic farm in Vang Vieng, Laos that we might go work at. If not, we will head back to Thailand in a few weeks and begin work again in Northern Thailand. We are going to make another stop at Neil and Su's farm on our way back down the country to check on the chickens and see how our tomato plants are growing.