Coming to America!

Kat and I went on US soil today! We visited the US embassy here in Vientiane, Laos so that we could vote. The other embassies are in nice french colonial houses but the US embassy is a compound behind 15 foot concrete walls with barbwire at the top. It even has it's own water tower complete with outposts just in case it's under siege. I have to say that I was more than a little proud! But the 'citizen services' folks were extremely helpful. Not only did they fax one form in for us, but they let Kat and I put our ballots in with the military mail so it didn't cost us a cent.

Vientiane is a nice sleepy town. It's the capital of Laos but Olympia feels more diplomatic that this town. But then again Laos is probably smaller than Washington! Beerlao is easy to come by and so is BBQ'd food. The riverfront is lined with 'restaurants' that are little more than umbrella clad decks with a bbq and a few tables serving as the kitchen. And they're perfect. Last night I ate an entire fish. It was salt encrusted with the belly filled with spices and it was grilled perfectly. Maybe when I get out of Laos I'll actually be able to upload some pictures of my feast!

One thing that suprised me about Vientiane is the number of ex-pats. It really seems like a lot of countries are putting their stakes into Laos. There's Chinese, Japanese, French, and other Europeans around everywhere. In fact it's kind of difficult to find authentic Laos food here!

Tomorrow we fly to Hanoi. I'm very excited for Vietnam but since Hanoi is flooded at the moment I'm a bit nervous. The weather doesn't look like it's going to improve any time soon either!

Well the midnight curfew is almost here so I better be shutting down. Maybe I didn't mention this before but the entire country of Laos shuts down at 11:30pm. The government has imposed a nationwide curfew. They seem to let westerners get away with it but I haven't been pushing it!