Back to Where We Came From

Vang Vieng & Vientiane, Laos

It’s strange to go back to a city where you’ve already been. After traveling for almost a year, familiarity is a strange and exhilarating feeling. Being able to walk around town without a map is like being let off the leash. “Where do you want to go for dinner?” engenders no research, no planning. So while leaving Luang Prabang and going back for a few nights in Vang Vieng and Vientiane was nothing new in location. It did provide all new feelings. Unconsciously we started to see things that we never noticed before. When you go out into a new city a try to find things, you are always looking for something and because of that, you never look at anything. For instance, Laos is a very religious country. Buddhism is in everything they do. Because of this, saffron wrapped men are everywhere.

Culture Shock :: Romania

For a while now I couldn’t figure out a meaningful way to contribute to this blog. Jen’s posts are hard to beat and we don’t need two people writing about the same silly adventures (since we’re always together). The cool thing is that the perfect subject was under our noses the entire time. In fact, our senses are constantly being overloaded with the stuff. Culture Shock. A common term for the obvious differences between the culture your ‘visiting’ and the one your ‘used to’, which can sometimes drive you to ripping all your hair out by the roots during an episode. Luckily, I haven’t been successful in scalping myself yet but, nevertheless, we still have come across some strange cultural differences that we’ll share with you in this new category of post.