laos (yay!)

I spent afew hours trapped in a limbo of not being allowed into Laos and not being allowed back into Vietnam, just sitting on a bench playing backgammon, waiting. The border crossing was all going smoothl and the man had stamped me through and given me a visa, but then he tried to charge me $40USD for the visa when I knew it was meant to be $30USD. It wasn't the money, but the fact that people just blatantly lie to your face and try to rip you off, thinking that every tourist is just rolling in money. When I asked him why I was being charged that much he said it was a "service fee" because they office was closed (despite there being an 'open' sign up and him sitting in the window) so I said I'd just wait until the office was back open. Then he started bargaining with me, offering me $37USD for the visa. I refused to bargain over a fixed visa price so he got really angry and stamped CANCELLED on my visa and threw my passport at me. When he returned he was much calmer and continued the bargaining, offering me $35 for the visa. Eventually I gave in and paid him $31 just to get out of there.
I got on a truck to a little village called Seppon which was awesome. Everyone there was either terrified or curious about seeing two white faces in their town and even though noone spoke english and all I could say in Laos was hello, goodbye, and thank you, everyone was so friendly and helpful. I managed to order a vegan meal by pointing at pictures of onions and then got on a truck the next day to Savannakhet. It was the best ride I've had so far, I got to sit up in the cab with the driver who shared all his yummy snacks with me and spent a couple of hours reading out all the road signs to practise speaking Laos. Laos is awesome, everyone is just so nice and happy to come up and say hello without trying to sell you something.