Headache in Laos

Our passport pages are starting to be real works of art and a major source of pride to us travellers as we have entered our third country in south-east asia. the thais are extremely giving with their stamps and flourished signatures and free visas, while the cambodians and lao authorities have been suitably giving for the amount of visa fees we have paid them. alp is creating quite a sensation and not a little bit of disbelief in immigration officials with his burly mustache, who cannot quite comprehend that the starkly handsome young turk's photo in his passport is actually the same fellow with the mustache, the grin, and the straw hat they see before them. after scooting out of phnom phen into the land of fast cars and highways, 7-11s and tom yum that is bangkok, we took a classy sleeper train all the way to the north of thailand. we spent three days in nong khai, dozing and attempting to do a puzzle while recieving the news that we picked up a case of dengue fever as a souvenier from cambodia. it is not severe, just a bit like the flu. and yesterday we passed the friendship bridge over the mekong river into laos and its capitol vientiane. it is pleasantly more of a large town than a city and the weather has been drizzly and delightful. we enjoyed the tastiest pain au chocolat, almond crossiant, and coffee in our experience in southeast asia yet and are preparing ourselves for more baguettes and pate. next stop this afternoon is the backpacker/countryside village of vang vieng where we plan to spend more than a few days doing little and eating mulberries.
ingrino

ps for the kin who might worry, we got blood tests done in nong khai and the dengue fever is not the hemorraging kind.

pps click the title for our cambodia pictures

ppps it is the year 2548 in thailand!