''Freakin Kip!"

Last week, we were summoned to Laos to renew our Visas so that we would not be kicked out of Thailand by the hairs of our chinny-chin-chins. While grateful for the lovely mini-cation and visa renewal....one thing is for sure, we could have done without the 'freakin kip.'

I feel like....we should give Laos credit for creating thee most complex and confusing money system literally, in the ENTIRE WORLD. Let me tell you why: 

1. Kip does not come in anything smaller than a $1000 dollar bill. Really? $1000 is your lowest bill Laos? I find this a bit unneccisary. 
2. When in Laos, sure they will take your Baht...but this requires conversions quickly in your head. 30 baht=1 USD....250 kip = 1 baht...1 baht= point something USD....7,000 kip=1 USD. See, i'm telling you, all sorts of confusing. 
3. When asking somebody in Laos how much something is they simply reply "40" or "20" or "60" so you're thinking "Aww yeah so cheap!" Until you get up to pay and realize that they were saying 60,000 kip but were just to lazy to say the rest of the number. Fools. 

So there you have it ladies and gentleman. Laos kip is the literal worst and you should avoid it at all costs if at all possible. Or at least have a calculator handy.. 

However, 

Other than our Kip difficulties, we had a glorious time in Laos.
Such a relaxing little mini-cation and much different from our fast paced Chiang Mai trips. 

The vacation started off like this.
After 6 hours of thee most terrifying van ride of our lives. And little to no sleep..
we passed out for a good couple hours before beginning our day. 

Angee, Marci and myself decided to skip the massage Shayla and Dianna were participating in, and headed off to a Laos water park for the day! Despite our dissappointment upon arrival, and trying out the lazy river...which we quickly discovered was not working after the bottom was slimy and some Laos man shouted at us to "GET. OOUTT." we had a great time playing on the slides, playing some sort of ball game with 12 year old Laos boys and basking in the sunshine. 

Okay, so this picture doesn't look that appetizing.
Annnddd this picture may in fact be nothing I ate, but what Shayla ate.
The point here, is that we at a lot of "normal" food. No rice for these girls this weekend! 

Hooray! 

Eventually we ended up here at the River Market thing-a-ma-jig.
Yeah, I teach English. 
Anyways, it was fun! Lots of cool vendors and souvineers bought.
And I may or may not have bough the sweetest Shirley Temple shirt evvver here. 

We could not document this part of our trip..
BUT it's important to know that we spent 23894327 hours at the embassy renewing our visas. 

Okay, so it was maybe 2 hours. But man, it felt like forever.
Only to come back the next day for some more sunny lines, disgusting men, and obnoxious Russians. Sorry Russians, but seriously...a girls go to let it out every now and then. 

We spent some time after the embassy (after a lonnng and heavenly nap of course) 

exploring Laos by foot! We saw this pretty sweet Arch thing by the Capitol?
And then enjoyed some more souvineer shopping, eating and walking.
Twas a good day. 

Of course we once again took advantage of the American food at our finger tips.
Or, the "Western Menu" if you whill...
Again, we devoured the most delicious milk shakes ever invented.
And experienced thee single best veggie burger known to man. 

You may think I am exaggerating here.. There is no exageration here people! Food was delish. 

We explored Laos some more that night by finding this nifty little fountain/monument thing.
Took some adorable pictures of ourselves...clearly.
And once again ended up at the River Market.
Laos treated us well and we loved our time spent there.
Country #2...check!
....now if only we could figure out a way to get around the freakin Kip...