Laos

Since we last posted, we

*ran laps around the lake in the Old Quarter of Hanoi two days in a row. The first day, there was another foreigner in a Nike singlet and Asics running shoes doing the same thing, but giving us inquisitive looks as we passed by. Who's the foreign weirdo in the short shorts running around a lake in Vietnam? The streets of Hanoi are far to full of motorbikes to run anywhere other than around this lake.

*visited the prison in Hanoi where John McCain was kept during the Vietnam War

*saw Ho Chi Minh--his body is preserved in a mausoleum in Hanoi

*flew from Hanoi to Luang Prabang, Laos. It was only an hour-long flight on a prop jet, yet they still managed to serve us a full meal. Our first sticky rice! Also, the airport was tiny. If we ever post pictures, you'll see.

*almost lost Jacob's backpack. When we were coming through the customs line in the airport, I thought I saw it sitting on the baggage claim, but when we got there, it had disappeared. We were the last ones through, and there was Kelly's bag and one other. Kelly sprinted outside and luckily found the American tourist whose bag looked nothing like mine but for some reason had confused the two.

*learned the term "saibaidee," which Jacob first thought was Lao for "motorbike," because everyone kept saying it to him. Actually it's just a greeting. Laos is different than Vietnam.

*spent two nights in Luang Prabang. During our time there, we ate two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, some bagels, and a piece of chocolate cake, and drank several cappuccinos. Obviously, it was really fun. Oh, we also visited some wats (Buddhist temples). Kelly says it was "a lot," rather than "some."

*took a 10-hour bus ride through the mountains of northern Laos to arrive in Vientiane, the capital city, right on the Thai border. We paid for an "air-conditioned, express bus," but it was neither air-conditioned, nor express. We stopped by the side of the road for a bathroom break. Jacob was reminded how hard it is to carry a concealed weapon when your weapon is a machine gun. There were two guys on the bus with large machine guns in their warm-up jackets. But we're keeping our fingers crossed that they were the soldiers Lonely Planet said might be there to protect us.

*arrived in Vientiane and promptly collapsed at a guest house with a TV to watch some of the pre-inauguration coverage. Bruce Springsteen, really?

Back to our room to watch Barack Obama's inauguration! Hope you all are well and that we will follow through on posting pictures soon.