BANGKOK, THAILAND

Yesterday I took a bus from Vientiane across the Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge into Thailand and the large but rather unremarkable city of Udon Thani, where I stayed the night. (It's cheaper to fly to Bangkok from there rather than from Vientiane, see?)

This morning I ended up taking an earlier flight than originally scheduled in order to do some more trip planning and get my act together before heading to China tomorrow. (So many countries, so little time to plan an itinerary....)