How to become a millionaire after leaving BKK...

8th of Feb. Ok, we really have trouble in finding the right rhythm.... Kjell again woke up around Midnight. Playing Games and enjoying really good discussions. It really amazes me how much good stuff seems to be in his mind. I probably would never allow a talk about rescue dogs at 2 am in the morning back home in Germany. I got back to sleep around 4 am and awoke around 9am which looks like I am slowly getting adjusted. We were eaten alive by mosquitos... breakfast and heading off - by TukTuk - to Dusit Zoo. First I was not really sure but it really is such a lovely place to visit especially with kids. Lots of great stuff to do, exotic animals that you don"t really get to see in Tierpark Essehof. We saw our first lizards....


Dinner on Khao San but what a rip off with terrible food. Honestly, during day time it actually can be fun with kids but during the afternoon they just turn up Techno sounds that you can barely hear your own words... Mallorca atmosphere with slobby "World travellers". Not my piece of bread anymore.... I don"t think I would even enjoy it with people my age.
I am glad we are at Lamphu House and luckily enough we can stay in the same room until tomorrow as well.

9th of Feb and yeah, we slept non-stop and got up pretty early. I decided to leave my Eastpack daypack at the storage of Lamphu (10 baht per day) until we got back to BKK and left Kjell's sneakers as well as our long sweat pants and some other unuseful stuff. Again, I have to admitt: we took way too much clothes with us...

I was proud of avoiding some further rip off at the Water taxi on ChaoPraya and so I paid 14 baht only for a 15 min trip to Wat Phro instead of 150 baht EACH... the trip was great but too hot. Kjell and I did this lucky charm thing by donating 20 baht, getting a small bowl of coins and lining up to throw a coin in each one of these big massive bowls (around 50). I wasn"t sure whether I was supposed to make a wish at every single bowl... starting with health, love and happiness and ending up with "getting a nice tan at the end of my trip". Who can come up with 50 wishes in 2 minutes anyway??

Kjell was enjoying the trees and buildings to climb onto and best part was when one of the tangerine-robed monks looked at him for a while, walked by, touched his head and murmered something smiling - to be honest: I felt blessed somehow by this short but special moment.
At night we took the TukTuk -by now Kjell"s most favorite vehicle in Asia - to get to Hualamphong - BKKs  main station. I picked up some food, got Kjell some nuts and chips and off we went for nighttraining to Laos!



I downloaded some MuppetMovie for Kjell and so he relaxed while Thailand flew by in the dark of the night. The ticket man came to make our beds which was cool as well. So we both cuddled in our small cabin and fell asleep until next morning....

10th of Feb and getting to Laos ! So, here is the question: How do you become a Millionaire in two seconds? Just drive into Laos, go to an ATM and withdrawl 100 Euro ! You get 1.000.000 kip. This currency is just insane and I am incapable of handling it well.... Arriving at NongKhai and crossing the boarder to Laos was quickly done. SongThaew from the main station to the ThaiBoarder, 30 baht, public bus to the LaosBoarder, 14 baht, filling out the forms quite takes a while when you do it for 2 persons, paying 30 Dollars each (no pics needed), taking a MiniVan to our Hotel, Auberge Sala Inpeng for 150 baht.
Sala Inpeng !! What can I say? What a lovely place for 30 Dollars including breakfast. The hosts Mr. Sayaxit and his wife as well as the staff are incredibly nice and charming and always smiling. They have nine wonderfully arranged wooden bungalows located in a small garden right in the Centre of Vientiane. All is extremely clean and in perfect shape. Kjell was so excited to find a Mosquito net hanging over his bed  ;-) They have a cat and a kitten as well as a small dog and I felt really relieved when Kjell went on to play with them, constantly talking German to the staff.... It was a really hot day and we just decided to stay in our air-con cooled room until the late afternoon. A pretty night market opened on Mekong"s promenade and they had a playground where Kjell could run a few miles... you can tell that he had not really done this in the past days... he was totally out of control and after a while no fun at all. The pressure and excitement seemed to fall off. I suppose we really need to make arrangements on Mom time& kid time and learn from each other.... but so far, being with him for 24 hours a day still is far from being unbearable ;-) I hope Kjell feels the same....?!

11th of Feb and we finally made it into Lao timezone! We got to bed around 10 pm and woke up by 9 am. Breakfast just outside our room on the porch. So nice, so friendly, so good ! Nothing special but with baby bananas, good coffee, fresh juice and related to the French influence that one can sense everywhere in Vientiane - fresh warm Croissants. Kjell was in heaven !



As I already finished my German book I went up to a local book store to get some Laotian Novels. Hardly anything to find and if yes, well written in Laotian. ;-)
Tonight we will be back at the Nighmarket to grab some food and packing our backpacks for tomorrow's departure to VangVieng by public bus (no Minibus for sure( for 60.000 kip leaving around 9.30 am.

Next stop VANG VIENG.... ;-)