ลาว - Laos

In order to renew our visas we had to go outside of Thailand and Laos was the closest and easiest boarding country. We left Sunday night, November 19th, around eleven at night and arrived in Laos after a seven hour drive through the night ending around at five in the morning. After waiting in lines and filling out forms we arrived at our hostel at 1:30 Monday afternoon. We checked into Vientiane Backpacker's Hostel and took a very long and much needed nap.

There were murals all over the hostel

After the nap, we walked around the capital and first we saw the Mixay Temple. The temple was right across the street from our hostel and it was beautiful! Then we walked around and saw some other interesting things and later we went to dinner at a GREAT Scandinavian restaurant. 

Mixay Temple

King Chao Anouvong statue

Offerings

Hmong Temple

Ancient ruin in the center of a bustling city

The Presidential Palace

Patuxia Arch in Vientiane- AKA the Victory Monument

The ceiling was beautiful!

And the view was as well

Dinner!!

Scandinavian Bakery in Laos, who knew?

All in all we were pleasantly surprised with Laos! We only stayed there for two days but we really enjoyed the country and learned a lot!

หมาข้างถนน - Street Dogs

There are over 120,000 street dogs in Bangkok alone but from what I have seen of Bangkok, street dogs are more common in the small towns of Thailand... towns like Phichit. One afternoon on a bike ride (a fifteen minute bike ride) at 35 I lost count of dogs that I saw. In the nineties they euthanized around 100 dogs a day but the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals campaigned against the euthanization of the street dogs because it goes against the teachings of Buddhism. Basically, this results in dogs being EVERYWHERE! They sleep in the middle of the road, under porches or outside bilingual schools, like our school! For the most part they are not aggressive but sometimes they bark and chase us but most of the times they are only aggressive with each other. It is against the law to feed them in public places but many families feed the dogs in front of their homes. We have a few here at the school that never leave.. It is just part of Thai culture and it has become normal... even to us.

There are SO many dogs at train stations

Natalie with the dogs that live at the school

เพื่อนใหม่ - New Friends

One day we were out in town and just sitting in outside food court area drinking smoothies when a young girl approached us and asked if we could teach her English. She was student at a bilingual school in Phitsanulok (where we have church) and had been studying for an English writing, reading and speaking exam that she had in a few weeks. She told us that she would pay us for meeting with her and just speaking English, we told her that we can't accept money but that we would love to spend time with her and help her with her English. So, as all Thai people are, her and her mother were VERY generous. They took us out three different times. Two times we went to a large mall in Phitsanulok. The first time we went to the mall they took four of us to a Japanese restaurant, but some girls didn't like it so we went and got pizza too! Nattida is the daughter's name and I actually can't remember her mom's name, she didn't speak much English at all but was just as kind and patient with us as her daughter.

Japanese food!

Nattida and I

I was the only one that ate anything other than appetizers! Sushi is my FAVORITE!!

Pizza

Ronald McDonald saying "Sawadee" (hello)

Me, Charlotte, Nattida, and Lindsay

We saw this on our way to the mall, on an interstate, and had to take a picture.

Nattida and her mom thought it was really funny that we were taking pictures.

 I wouldn't be surprised if it was completely normal in Thailand. 

The second trip to the mall we went to a buffet style restaurant. We began by ordering our soup, and we ending up cooking raw food that was on a conveyor belt in it. We then took our seats and were given our soup. Nattida taught us how to just grab raw vegtables, roots, meat, fish, octopus, and squid. I was lucky enough to sit by Nattida, which was great, I loved talking to her, but it also meant that she just put things into my soup so I tried many different foods, some I still don't know what they were!! But it was all great!! And it was a buffet that included unlimited sushi, so I ate WAY too much! It was probably one of my favorite meals that I have had here in Thailand!

Shabushi, our restaurant!

Sushi bar

Here you can see the large ladle on the left that we used to cook our food. 

That is also chocolate ice cream in front and you can see the raw food at the top.

Here are two pictures of Nattida's family. 

Nattida, her brother Fame and her sister who is studying in Finland.

Her parents. It's not a great photo but it shows how 

glamorous her mom is and that is why I love it. 

 There family owns a small library in Phichit. Most of the books are anime, it was fun to look around. 

Nattida spoke great English and it was fun to make some more friends! She is back at school now and hasn't got her score from her English test but said she will let me know! We plan her seeing her more before we leave. It was really neat for me to get to know a native through more than just smiles. I learned a lot about Thai culture and their perspectives on many things from Obama to foreigners. Nattida and her family were SO nice. I hope that I never just expect hospitality like we receive here in Thailand, we are so spoiled! Thank you for not only the great food but the conversation and kindness Nattida!

ยืนผลไม้ - Fruit Stands

One of my favorite things about Thailand is the fresh fruit everywhere! There are fruit stands lining almost every street but they are quite different from fruit that is common in America. Next to pineapple, cantaloupe  watermelon, mangoes, bananas and grapes there are these following fruits along side them:

Longan

Mangosteen

My favorite fruits are the longan, guava and pineapple. The pineapple here is divine!! It is much more sweet than at home in America and the longan are super yummy too! 

Our favorite fruit stand is in the middle of town and the fruit is never rotten or covered in ants like we have experienced at other stands. Here are a few quick shots of us in front of it. 

This was a different stand that we went to once and the lady was SO nice. She let us try everything and once she would have the piece of fruit on a stick she would look at us and say, "Happy Birthday!" It was so funny.

We just HAD to take a picture with her!

We love the fruit here and it is SO cheap! I can usually buy a kilo of fruit for less than two dollars, sometimes less than one dollar! A stop at the fruit stand has officially became a necessity when we go to the local Tesco (grocery store).