The Journey

The last 33 hours have been some of the longest of my life; 18 hours of flight time, a 12 hour layover in Vietnam, and nothing resembling decent sleep or a shower of any kind.....but for those of you considering coming to visit at some point....it was an absolute pleasure, you'll love it. :)

I feel like I've already discovered what undoubtedly will continue to be a recurring theme for this journey I'm on; Humility. There is nothing more humbling than being the idiot gringo who can't speak the language and knows next to nothing about the culture. Good practice at letting go of my ego.

My journey was going well until I arrived in Seoul, Korea and was asked for my visa for Vietnam. My stomach dropped as I realized I never even considered that I might need a visa for my layover in Vietnam. Luckily, I'm not the first (nor likely the last) ignorant American to make this mistake. Having an overnight layover in Vietnam wouldn't be such an issue, except the airport closes at 1 am, and I can't leave the airport without said visa. Luckily, the Korean flight attendant was very helpful, if not a little condescending as he tried to rectify my f-up. The compromise was that they would let me on the flight as long as I promised not to leave the airport and signed a form accepting full responsibility if Vietnam didn't take kindly to my lack of visa.

Long story short, I'm not in a Vietnamese jail.....but I did spend the longest night of my life sleeping on cold metal seats in a freezing, eerily empty, and dark Vietnamese airport. Luckily, I had stolen the blanket and pillow off my last flight knowing I would likely be crashing on the floor somewhere. However, the Vietnamese apparently don't believe in heat or insulation, and I spent much of my night putting on layer after layer of clothes trying to get warm enough to fall asleep. Apparently I did drift off at some point, as an airport security officer prodded me awake around 2 am to interrogate me about why I was sleeping in his airport after hours (closest I have ever felt to being a bum).

All in all, it's been an exhausting couple of days...but the little I've been able to see of Laos so far has me very thankful to be here and looking forward to my adventures ahead. Right now, it's time for some much needed sleep.