Merry Christmas from Vientiane, Laos

Hey everyone! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I'm in Vientiane, Laos on a Visa renewal right now. I got here Christmas morning, but remember I'm 14 hours ahead. Hope you're doing well. I'm going to try keep this post short. It will be out of order. I'm putting the Laos stuff (today) first and everything else that happened in the past couple weeks after.

Found an Xmas tree, a rare siting haha

With a tourist Visa, you need to leave Thailand every 2 months (or 3 if you pay for an optional extension). Kind of a hassle, but at least I get to see a new place and say I went to Laos haha.

I took a bus from Chiang Mai to Udon Thani. Then a shuttle from Udon Thani to Nong Khai. From there you exit Thailand, and take a bus 1km across the Mekong River over a bridge into Laos. Then you get a Visa on Arrival for Laos and take a shared taxi to the city of Vientiane. On Tuesday I'll get another Thai tourist Visa from the embassy here in Vientiane, Laos. Then I'll basically need to do all those steps in reverse to get back to Chiang Mai. That tourist Visa will last me 2 months before I fly back to California at the end of February.

Exiting Thailand at border

Vientiane, Laos Pictures:

 Cultural hall building

Just been working on my computer a bunch. Watching some movies before going to sleep. Trying a few new restaurants every week. Lifting weights at the park (they have makeshift dumbells made from cement, and free gym type equipment like shoulder presses, pull-up bars, ellipticals, etc.). Riding my bike through traffic. Kind of have a routine going now. Fragmented sentences are fine okay?

The main thing that is new since the last post is I found a meetup of people who play street hockey. I showed up and it was a bunch of Canadians and a few Eastern Europeans (Czech I think). When I asked one of them where he was from he said "Saskatchewa." I said, "What's that?" and he thought that was funny. It was so much fun, but it is such a workout. Even though I've been cycling a decent amount, the high impact of quick sprints and just using new muscles wrecked me. We play on the local futsal court. They have a bunch of sticks, and 2 hockey goals, and even some hockey "boards" made of small metal fencing to keep the ball in play. I've played a couple times since then and its gets more fun each time.

Got my first flat tire on my bike (found a little metal spike in it). Noticed it when I was back at the apartment. I was prepared and had a spare tube that I bought. So, I took the wheel apart, and started putting the tire back on. It was very hard to get the outer tire back on the rim, and I put a small hole in the new tube in the process. So, had to walk to a bike shop to get some patch kits and repair the small holes in the two tubes. Let them dry, and after a few youtube tutorials was able to muscle the tire and fixed tubes over the rim and get the tire back on.

Got a haircut from a Thai barber shop. I asked him if he had any pictures. He pulled up a facebook page, I pointed to one, and told him to go for it. Worked out fine :).

I know how to say hello - Sawasdee Krab, thank you - Kob Khun Krab, and I eat vegan - Pom Gin Jay. It isn't pronounced exactly how it is spelled, but it's something like that.

Random Pics:

Spider almost as big as my hand

 I thought this house was cool. Interesting Architecture. On top of Doi Suthep mountain

New PR on Rubic's Cube

I guess they have a soccer team?

scooter plus side carriage thing for cargo

locals fishing in the river

sunday night market artwork for sale

Food:

made my own rice and 7-eleven has some spicy tofu package stuff that i added to it

 smoothie bowl

vegan khao soi

 this smoothie place has lots of smoothies to choose from

 these watermelons were so heavy on my bike

 this potato curry on rice is so good

 noodle soup with some vegetable shoots and tofu stuff

 Pad thai

 Salad with passion fruit dressing

I didn't use the chopsticks, forks are better (I don't know how to use them)


Throwback video of Cayden on a road trip break on the side of the road (below)

1 month later

Time flies! I've been working hard and having a great time here. But, I do miss everyone back at home. Hope everyone is doing well.

I try to write down most of the things I do every day in a text document, so in this post I'm just going to review anything that stands out and was memorable.

I got a sweet road bike. Bought it used from a guy from a Buy/sell Facebook group who was moving away. It is so much fun to ride the bike around, and pass all the cars that are stacked up waiting for a light to turn green. I can go really fast with relative ease. Butt was pretty soar for the first few days but I've mostly gotten used to it. Now I can get anywhere I need to go and I can try all the restaurants I have bookmarked on my Google Maps.

It came with 2 pannier bags which have come in handy when I want to go buy some papayas. That is my favorite fruit right now and I've been eating a good amount of papayas. They are such a good deal here. Everything is measured in kilograms and I pay in the Baht currency, but I did the conversion and the fruit stall I buy from costs 20 cents a pound for papayas.

Most stuff is cheaper here, but I have noticed some things that are equal in price or more expensive. Canned goods like beans, soups, peas, pasta sauces seem to be twice as expensive compared to California grocery stores.

Oh, and I bought some Muesli and that took my morning oatmeal breakfasts to a whole new level. Muesli is like oatmeal with dried fruit and nuts added in. Seems to be a German or Swedish thing (I'm not sure)? I bet we have it at home, but I never noticed it.

Been going to a weekly meetup group where each week there is a speaker on a different topic (like public speaking, or their experience in XYZ type business). A few times a week I also have a group meeting with Johnny, my business partner, and the other guys in the group. We go over what we've done in the past few days and discuss our next tasks we need to complete and the best ways to do those tasks. What we're each doing is each building an ecommerce retail store. We work with manufacturer's and distributors (from America) and market their products through our own website. We generate traffic and sales for their brands. We handle the transaction and purchase the product from our supplier once a product is sold. Our manufacturer/distributor then ships that product directly to our customer. That's the business model in case you were wondering.


Got my main phone unlocked through a website that sell unlock codes, so now I can run a local SIM card through it. Most US cell phone companies lock your phone to their network while you are under contract with them. Much better than my old slow phone.

Been trying a new restaurant at least a few times a week. My favorite so far is this place called Happy Green. It is a few mile ride out of town, but it is an all you can eat vegan buffet for like $4. The first time I went there, it was a rainy day and I was the only one there haha. I guess no one wanted to make the drive out there on a rainy day. There was definitely more traffic that day, but on my bike I don't notice it too much. I've been there twice, so I have a day and night time photo of the view. They have a garden where they grow some of their food along the river.

View from Happy Green

Papaya Tree, and Random Cafe

Had Thanksgiving with some friends. Had fruit, variety of Thai cooked veggy dishes, rice, mashed potatoes, some type of spiced potato dish. They had some chicken; I don't think turkey's exist around here.


Been wanting to ride up the Doi Suthep mountain for awhile (the mountain with the popular tourist attraction at the top that I went to during my first week, with the golden temple). So, I just went for it.

View of the Doi Suthep mountain

I started at like 5am and I didn't expect to see anyone. But, there were actually a good amount of people riding up it and down it before and after me. Got to ride up it as the sun was coming up and see some nice views. Round trip it was a 14 mile ride, probable 6 miles of it was uphill the whole time. It was intense and I had to stop a few times to catch my breath that's for sure. Makes your legs feel weak. I think it took me 50 minutes. Saw a couple hikers walking up. Saw what looked like a few cross country runners going up. I think they run up and then catch a taxi down with the tourists who are visiting the temple at the top. The ride down lasted forever, and I was riding my breaks like the whole way. If I didn't use my breaks I could hit 40mph in a few seconds haha. The descent took an entire 20 minutes. If we had our drift trikes here, that would be insane (Sean and Joe and I used to ride down hills with our homemade drift trikes).

waterfall on the side of the mountain

Chiang Mai vs. California?

I like most of the prices of every day living, close proximity of everything, and easy to meet new people. The weather during this time of year (November) is good. It is warm like California with more humidity. So, like 75-90 degrees during the day. I like how people ride motorbikes here, makes for less traffic. But, I don't like air pollution that is caused by some of the cars. It seems like they don't run as clean as they do in California. I miss watching Ducks hockey. I can stream it on my computer, but the time difference isn't always favorable. Oh, and it gets dark here pretty early at like 7pm because of the mountain on the west side where the sun sets. Most of the cars are Japanese manufactured, and I've seen BMW and Mercedes; haven't noticed American made cars I don't think. That's all I can think of right now.



If you ever wanted to travel here, this place is really good for endless food, has some good nature, friendly locals, cheap massages, resorts and hotels in any price range from backpacker hostels to 5 star resorts, and plenty of tourist things like zip-lining, or quad riding, or elephant sanctuaries (where they don't ride elephants).

Random Things I've Noticed

You think texting and driving is bad? I've seen people texting and motorbiking. How they do that, I don't know. One hand on the phone and one on the throttle. They go slow of course, but that takes skill.

There are literally so many small food vendors, even on random streets outside of town where most tourists never end up. Most of the locals seem to live a pretty slow paced life. The food vendors and show owners work long hours but are often scrolling on their smartphones.

You can't walk 300 feet in any direction without finding a 7-Eleven. Very convenient. I think Thai people even pay some of their bills there.

The soda here is very sweet and tastes different. I think they use cane sugar and fructose syrup as opposed to high fructose corn syrup like home.

If you ever go inside someone's house or in a nice office, you are supposed to take off your shoes. You wouldn't need to do this for a restaurant or store, but here's a pic of a nearby apartment entrance. Hopefully no two people have the same brand of shoes :P.

Random Pics

Food Collage










Thanks for reading! Its cool that many of you like reading the blog and I've gotten good responses. I also like to be able to record the blog post here as a way to quickly remember the highlights in the future.