Escape from Vientiane

So Vientiane is nice enough...a sleepy capital town worth maybe a day but right now, having been here less than 16 hours, I'm feeling like there's no good way to leave.

I'm at a fork in the road at this point in my trip. From here, I can either take a grueling ride to Hanoi (20 hours!), work my way south through Vietnam, then cross overland into Cambodia and then to Bangkok where I'll catch a flight to the islands in the south. Or the other option is to head south now to Cambodia, go overland to Ho Chi Minh City, work my way north to Hanoi and then take a cheap flight to get to Bangkok. Either way it looks like it will take at least two days to get to my next destination and as it's Sunday here, all the booking agencies are closed, making it incredibly hard to try and arrange the multi-legged journey. I'd even be tempted to spend the money on a flight on Lao airlines to Hanoi (despite their dubious safety record), but the website says I have to book 3 days in advance.

Argh, I thought I was settling into the pace of things here, but now all of a sudden 3.5 more weeks in Asia does not seem like adequate time to cover Cambodia and Vietnam with some time for R&R on the islands in the south of Thailand, particularly when it's going to take days to get to my next destination. I guess another decision I have to make is whether it's worthwhile to extend my trip a bit and fly back maybe a week or two later. The fee itself is not inconsequential, however I'm more concerned about having enough time to find a nice place in Berkeley before school starts and also having a bit of time for summer in California. I still need to wrap up some things in the lab, would love to go camping for a spell and of course spend lots of time with friends who may sadly become seen less often once I start grad school in a different town.

Time to sign off...got some serious thinking to do.