A funny thing happens on the way to Laos…..

Mrs. Columbus and I have spent over 4 months in Thailand over the last few years – over that time we have met all sorts of people, locals, expats, travelers, etc.  We have bumped into Russians, Europeans, South Africans, and Australians, but very few Americans, and never another Canadian.  So we walk into the Chiang Mai airport to check in for our flight to Laos and notice someone with a Toronto Blue Jays ball cap, it turns out he and his girlfriend are from Toronto and taking a few weeks to travel before starting in on their post university jobs.  As we are there waiting for the plane, which is a small maybe 60 seat jet, the waiting area fills with about 30 people or so who are all catching the same flight, people start to banter a bit as travelers do, and it turns out that close to half the flight is Canadians all traveling to Laos!!  It seems like some sort of odd irony that we would travel half way around the world to northern Thailand, book flights on a relatively obscure flight to an even smaller place in Laos, and run into that many people from Canada – I guess the world really can be a small place!!!

The flight to Luang Prabang is only an hour and it seems like I have just barely finished my tuna (I hope) sandwich and the plane is starting to land.  As we are the first in the family to have really traveled to Laos, almost as soon as we hop off the plane Mrs. Columbus plants her flag in the ground to claim it for her own!

(we don’t count the small side trip we took here when we went to the Golden Triangle because while we were technically in Laos we did not have to get a visa or produce a passport and so the small island market we stepped on in the Mekong River could really have been anywhere.)

We have only been here for a few hours but the scenery and the feel of the town is something that must be experienced.  We have not really even seen much and already Mrs. Columbus is wondering if perhaps we should not skip Vang Vieng and Vientiane and just stay here until it is time to go home….

I may however have a retirement plan as I hold here im my hands $1,000,000 so who really needs to work anymore!!

Sadly, once you leave here the currency is basically worthless as no other country will exchange it, and even if they did it only amounts to about about $125 US 🙁

Well sadly our time in our beloved Chiang Mai has come to an end 🙁

We packed up our belongings and are getting ready for the trip to Laos.  We will be excited to see something new, but after getting so settled in here it is difficult to think about moving on.

On a positive note we did get the massage issue sorted out!  After trying some different things it still felt to me like something was missing.  I guess after going to the same place for 3 summers in a row, it is hard to reshape old habits.  Well it turns out that all was not as it originally seemed with Sopa.  We were doing some walking around that part of the city and decided we would just go by and have a massage for old time sake – we walked in and were immediately greeted by Wan (Sopa’s right hand person when we were there before)!  It turns out that Sopa did sell the place, but has really worked out some sort of partnership with Wan as she was getting a little older and her hands were starting to bother her.  She now spends most of her time at her home in Lampang but still comes into the shop from time to time – unfortunately we did not see her, but it is good to know things have only changed a little.  Confusion resolved, we went back the next three days in a row to get back into our zen massage place.

We slip in a quick stop at Ginny Cafe to say goodbye to Ian and Tee.  They have been great help to us in discovering new things to do in Chiang Mai, helping us plan for Laos, and just great to visit.  Now hopefully their lives can get back to normal as I am sure that they are all topped up on Roberts time 😉